Authors, do you wanna lessen your book revisions and rewrites? Of course you do, who doesn’t? It’s really simple, just focus on learning how to write the perfect chapter and the need for rewrites and revisions are minimized.
The easiest way to write a good book that your readers will love, tell their other reader friends about, and impatiently wait for your next book to hit the bookshelves is to NOT try and write a good book.
If I could see your face right now, it would probably have confusion written all over it. No need to be at a loss. I just need you to shift your mindset a bit when it comes to writing your books and understand that before you can write a good book, you must first learn how to write the perfect chapter.
In learning how to write the perfect chapter, they are 9 needed elements you must incorporate to reach your perfect chapter objective…
- Identify Your Chapter Goal: What is the purpose of this chapter? Whatever you deem it to be, make sure that your reader has clarity as well.
- Be Specific In Your Writing: Vague and ambiguous writing will make a reader regret buying your book and definitely will not think about purchasing any of your future projects. Even when writing mystery, a chapter needs specifics.
- Make Sure Your Chapter Continues Your Story: You would think this is a no brainer, but it’s not. Authors need to understand when writing, chapters are the journey that the reader is on. If a chapter makes a reader deviate from that journey it’s not guaranteed that the reader will fully understand your story.
- When possible, Write To The Emotion Of Your Reader: Without shame, a readers heartstrings, feelings, and emotions should be the amusement park of the writer. Ride each for greater effect.
- Always Inject Excitement Into Every Chapter: If your bored writing it, your readers will be bored reading it.
- Keep Your Chapters Under 4 Pages: You heard of run on sentences? Well run on chapters is definitely a thing. Maybe I’m biased because I’m a huge James Patterson fan and most of his chapters are 4 pages or less and he tells these incredible stories within the chapter. You can agree to disagree with this element of the perfect chapter (like Jennifer Carr and I did), but less is definitely more when it comes to tension and pacing of a story.
- Don’t Be Afraid To Make Your Readers Uncomfortable… As Long As It’s Entertaining: No matter the genre, a little darkness can muddy up the prettiest of stories and have your readers feeling a certain type of way. Of course niceties and HEA’s (happily ever after) have their place in writing, but readers crave a shock every once in a while. Don’t be afraid to give it to them.
- Do Not Write Past Your Chapter Goal: Whatever goal you have deemed for a chapter you are writing in, hit your target and bring it to a close. At this point, the chapter’s job is done. Going beyond your chapter goal will unravel all of the good work you wrote about getting there.
- When Applicable, End Your Chapter With A Mini Cliffhanger: You’re at the end of your chapter and what can you do to ENSURE that the next page gets turned by the reader? You end that chapter with a mini cliffhanger, what else would you do. And here’s why… It boils down to the sheer nosiness of the reader to find out what happens next. Look at it this way, have you ever wasted an entire day just binge-watching your favorite show on Netflix? Was it because every show could be rated 5 stars? No. Every good show that people love watching on Netflix have one thing and one thing only in common… END EVERY EPISODE WITH A CLIFFHANGER!!!
If you want to hear a differing of opinion on the length what a chapter should be (element #6), make sure you click the video below and join Jennifer Carr and myself as we had a good healthy back and forth about the matter.
Catch the full podcast below…
I hope you enjoyed the show as much I loved bringing it to you. But before you go, please do me a huge favor and subscribe to my YouTube channel, leave a comment on what part of the podcast you received the most value from, and share the episode on any of your social media platforms. I would greatly appreciate the love and support.
See you next week!!!
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Unsure of where to find your ideal readers? Do you feel like your marketing efforts are falling flat, leaving you frustrated and overwhelmed?
It’s time to put an end to the guesswork, take control of your author journey, and start to consistently sell books with our comprehensive guide, The Self Publishing Target Marketing Cheat Sheet: Your Shortcut To Book Marketing Mastery.
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DK WALKER
DK Walker has been self-publishing for close to 20 years. These days, he helps other self-published authors become more productive, going from book idea to completed manuscript in 30 days or less with The Unfair Writing Advantage System. Design especially for authors who wants to STOP STRUGGLING as they write and increase their productivity dramatically.