Titles by Brian R. Smith
Special Column
Finding your beat. Volume 2-1205
Many authors want to know how long a chapter or paragraph should be. Some ask when they should start a new paragraph.
Writers need to find a beat, much like music. Your writing should flow like music.
Of course a new chapter should start if the POV (point of view) is going to change, although this is not 100% of the time true, it is a good standard rule to follow for most writers. But there is no general rule on chapter length. A book may have chapters that are long and short. I've had chapters go on for over thirty pages with a four page chapter following it. A chapter should be as long as it takes for you to get that part of the story told. Some times a chapter will hold many scenes grouped together and at other times a chapter may only be one single scene. My novels change POV from chapter to chapter, which makes it easy for me to know when to start the next chapter. Like a beat in music I can feel when it is time to end the chapter and move on to the next one.
Long paragraphs are frowned upon, readers don't want to struggle through a page length paragraph. If you find this type of paragraph in your writing then you need to look closely at the suspect paragraph and see if there is a way you can break it up by adding dialogue or character thoughts. Keep the reader interested, that's the name of the game. When using dialogue always start a new paragraph when the dialogue changes from person to person. Don't have two people speaking within the same paragraph, this will confuse the reader and is not proper style.
The key to writing is finding your own beat, a beat your readers will also feel causing them to want to turn the page and keep reading, making it difficult for them to put your book down.
Previous Columns
