| Longer Chapters | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 31 2013, 02:54 PM (20 Views) | |
| theangelwiththeblackestwings | May 31 2013, 02:54 PM Post #1 |
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There are many ways to make chapters longer. I'm going to go through a couple of ways to do this. Plan: This is what I do with a few other things. This will help you see what exactly needs to happen in every chapter. A plan is very versatile, you can do whatever you want on a plan. I will do my plan on a word document and type everything that happens in the chapter there and then do the next one and the next one...I will include the time of day, the location, the characters there, their actions and any speech that may be spoken. This is everything that I know I need to put into the chapter so suddenly dialogue is surrounded by everything that you're trying to tell the reader. Description: Most young or inexperienced writers will tend to write dialogue to the max, and that's fine! (We were all at that stage..) To level out the playing field you need to include description. Show the reader the room, the slight blush of the cheeks etc. I think that some writers forget that the readers can't see what they see, so the writer doesn't put in that 'obvious' detail and that confuses the reader. So description is your best friend! If you think of your story as a glass box, completely see through, now imagine dialogue as sand and description as larger stones. If you fill the story with dialogue, you'll find the description won't fit but, if you put the description in the dialogue just slides in between it naturally. Replace dialogue with description: Sounds strange right? Not really, once you get used to it it comes naturally. Look at your dialogue. Does any of it not need to be said? (“I'm sad” “I feel sick” etc) Now replace those unneeded words with description. Describe how the character is sad, how they feel sick etc. Never be satisfied with dialogue on it's own, be completely critical of it until you know it fits alright. Also don't forget to show how the dialogue is spoken. (With a slight lisp, in a trembling voice, booming) I have a few challenges that may help you! 1) Write a chapter without any dialogue, at all. This sounds hard but after writing for a while it will get easier. (Sometimes I don't let my characters speak for chapters at a time!) Make the chapter as interesting as you can, use all five senses to describe it and make your characters interact, just don't let them speak! 2) This one isn't necessarily a challenge but a personal goal thing. If your normal chapter length is 250 words, make your next chapter 300, then 350 and so on! (I now will not stop a chapter until it is 2000 words at the very least.) 3) Go back to an old chapter and try to make it longer, don't just add things onto the end. Add some description here, some body language there etc. But just remember, at the end of the day, It's all about quality, not quantity. (Unless you can do both! Four for you writer, you go writer!) |
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6:59 PM Jul 11