Today's question comes from M.J. in Mr. Hughes' class.
How do you determine when to make chapters?
The answer is: This is a very subjective thing. Each writer decides where to make one chapter end and another begin.
WritersDigest.com suggests three tips for determining where to place chapters.
1. Focus on your writing first. Don't worry about chapter breaks immediately but if while writing your story you feel you need a break, place a # (this is obviously for typed mss) to make note of a possible break. After you have finished writing the story, do a search for all the # and decide if that really is a chapter break or just a break within the chapter. If it is a chapter break, page break it there and move on to the next one. If it is a short break, put three or four #'s centered on the page so that you know it's still part of the chapter.
In my short story, "Butterfly Halves", I use #'s instead of chapters but I'm also showing you that there are two persons in parallel lives that need to be incorporated. Every time I put one of the #'s, I knew I was switching which girl's life I was talking about.
2. Break when your story requires a shift. When you change place, time, and points of view (we were discussing POV in class when this question came up), it's a good rule of thumb to make a new chapter.
In my story Finally Home, my first chapter is only 2 pages long; it starts in the car with Kelly and her parents traveling to their new place. The second chapter begins with them at the new place and unpacking the car. Since I did a scene change, I started a new chapter.
3. Break chapters in the heart of the action. These are the cliffhangers, make you keep turning the page chapter endings. You can't stop reading because you have to find out what happens.
I'm not sure I have any cliffhanger chapters in any of my stories, but I have a feeling when I get further on Imogene's story, that there will be some chapters like this because I've already had a few thoughts about something happening and leaving it there and moving to the next scene, place or whatever. I've read quite a few stories that use this technique and it's really effective. I've had to read straight through to find out what happens.
Good question, M.J., and thanks for giving me something to blog about. Check back every Wednesday except the fourth Wednesday of the month for another student's question for the WWYWWQ. See you all in the postings - Mrs. E :)
Showing posts with label writing questions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing questions. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
WWYWWQ #1
This question is from R., a student in Ms. Jurkowski's writing club: We need to know what a writer does when you are writing a story and your train of thought just stops.
MY ANSWER: Usually walk away for a few minutes - go for a walk, or write another scene or something unrelated - give him a random word and have him incorporate into what he's writing now or have him just write something totally unrelated to what he is working on - for like 5 minutes - maybe that will spark his thinking back to what he's working on now.
Teacher's reply: Thank you so much for answering R. right away! He was near tears and ready to quit Writer's Club because he was stuck in that story. He had written a page and a half already and I hated the thought of him quitting. Your advice was great and he tried it. He was just wandering around the room but at least he didn't quit. He was so excited that you responded right away and I left him with the phone so that as soon as you answered he would be the one to read it. He thought that was wonderful!
My reply to teacher about quitting: Cool. Glad he is sticking with it. Sometimes we do start stories that we just have to put away for a long time and just move on to something else. Please tell him not to quit (although every author has been there), but to keep plugging away. The stories will come as they need to come, like the story I'm working on right now - it is really speaking to me and causing me not to work on my state stories.
I'm sure every writer at some point in time has come upon that proverbial brick wall and felt like quitting, but if you quit, you leave so many what ifs out there, that you may feel lost for a while. Quitting isn't the answer, but sometimes a story may fizzle and will have served its purpose of only getting you started on something major. Thanks for the great question, R., and I hope you keep up the writing. Mrs. E :)
MY ANSWER: Usually walk away for a few minutes - go for a walk, or write another scene or something unrelated - give him a random word and have him incorporate into what he's writing now or have him just write something totally unrelated to what he is working on - for like 5 minutes - maybe that will spark his thinking back to what he's working on now.
Teacher's reply: Thank you so much for answering R. right away! He was near tears and ready to quit Writer's Club because he was stuck in that story. He had written a page and a half already and I hated the thought of him quitting. Your advice was great and he tried it. He was just wandering around the room but at least he didn't quit. He was so excited that you responded right away and I left him with the phone so that as soon as you answered he would be the one to read it. He thought that was wonderful!
My reply to teacher about quitting: Cool. Glad he is sticking with it. Sometimes we do start stories that we just have to put away for a long time and just move on to something else. Please tell him not to quit (although every author has been there), but to keep plugging away. The stories will come as they need to come, like the story I'm working on right now - it is really speaking to me and causing me not to work on my state stories.
I'm sure every writer at some point in time has come upon that proverbial brick wall and felt like quitting, but if you quit, you leave so many what ifs out there, that you may feel lost for a while. Quitting isn't the answer, but sometimes a story may fizzle and will have served its purpose of only getting you started on something major. Thanks for the great question, R., and I hope you keep up the writing. Mrs. E :)
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
WEDNESDAY WEEKLY YOUNG WRITERS WRITING QUESTION (WWYWWQ)
From a student in Mr. Hughes' sixth grade class - How do you write onomatopoeia?
While working with Mr. Hughes' sixth grade class during writing time today, one of the students asked how she would write onomatopoeia - like the sound of a doorbell or things like that. Being the resident author for the class, Mr. Hughes threw the question my way. I've seen it written several ways, ALL CAPS or italicized usually with an exclamation mark following. I answered the young lady by saying that italics were frowned upon or using them extensively, so told her to put them in all caps. While they were working on their writing projects, I decided to do a little research. This is what I found, specifically the section about italics, number 5.
I did share this with Mr. Hughes and while I was reading it, I tried to think of an example of when I had used onomatopoeia in my writing. It came to me - in my short story "The Proposal". I start out with frogs ribbitting. Italicized and an exclamation point following. Ribbit! Ribbit!
Now you know the answer to the question. If it is at the beginning of the sentence, it would be capitalized or if it stands alone like I did and italicized. If it is within a sentence structure, you would italicize the "sound". An example they gave was like machine gun firing - you would write it as rat-a-tat-tat.
So how do you write onomatopoeia in your stories? Mrs. E :)
If you teach a writing class or have a writing club and would like your students' questions answered, please forward them to me at eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com. It's okay to send several questions at a time as I will be doing a "Wednesday Weekly Young Writers Writing Question" posting every week. I will not use students' names, but if you give me their initials, I can do that as well as the teacher's name (example E.E. in Mr. Hughes' class ask: ...) that is how my postings will go.
Keep checking my blog weekly for a new question and response. E :)
While working with Mr. Hughes' sixth grade class during writing time today, one of the students asked how she would write onomatopoeia - like the sound of a doorbell or things like that. Being the resident author for the class, Mr. Hughes threw the question my way. I've seen it written several ways, ALL CAPS or italicized usually with an exclamation mark following. I answered the young lady by saying that italics were frowned upon or using them extensively, so told her to put them in all caps. While they were working on their writing projects, I decided to do a little research. This is what I found, specifically the section about italics, number 5.
I did share this with Mr. Hughes and while I was reading it, I tried to think of an example of when I had used onomatopoeia in my writing. It came to me - in my short story "The Proposal". I start out with frogs ribbitting. Italicized and an exclamation point following. Ribbit! Ribbit!
Now you know the answer to the question. If it is at the beginning of the sentence, it would be capitalized or if it stands alone like I did and italicized. If it is within a sentence structure, you would italicize the "sound". An example they gave was like machine gun firing - you would write it as rat-a-tat-tat.
So how do you write onomatopoeia in your stories? Mrs. E :)
If you teach a writing class or have a writing club and would like your students' questions answered, please forward them to me at eeldering (at) gmail (dot) com. It's okay to send several questions at a time as I will be doing a "Wednesday Weekly Young Writers Writing Question" posting every week. I will not use students' names, but if you give me their initials, I can do that as well as the teacher's name (example E.E. in Mr. Hughes' class ask: ...) that is how my postings will go.
Keep checking my blog weekly for a new question and response. E :)
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