The Word Cloud

I've never plotted each chapter, as ideas suddenly come to me that turn everything upside down. However, I did create a very strict timeline for my last novel, so I knew exactly what was happening at any given point for each of the characters, and I found that very helpful. I could immediately see if there were clashes or if something didn't work because it wasn't logical. I'll do it in the future because it saved me so much time and rewriting. It also made writing the synopsis surprisingly easy!

EmmaD, as much as I think Shakespear and the Bible are insightful, they are also predictable. Thanks for
the info though.

Spangles at least I don't feel quite so alone in my writing method, so thanks.

Green Polka, I wasn't serious about Shakespeare and the Bible! Just making the point.

Though they're only predictable if you stick to a Dictionary of Quotations and use the bits everyone knows. Get hold of a good Concordance to either or both - so easy now they're online - and you can make the reader's hair stand on end.

"However, I did create a very strict timeline for my last novel, so I knew exactly what was happening at any given point for each of the characters, and I found that very helpful."

Yes, it makes it much easier to keep track - you don't have to keep re-inventing the wheel. Same for a spreadsheet of everyone's ages. If anyone's interested in this stuff, they might like my blog post about how I use a planning grid. I find it really helpful to brood over things like timelines and ages and maps and grids - you see the spaces where you don't yet know what/where/when things happen .

This is interesting. In my as yet unpublished (gnashes teeth) novel I have approx 94,000 in 23 chapters...which runs at approx 4000 words per chapter. This seems to about the average, though not intentionally. It is a matter of story flow, as Emma says. Some of mine are short while others are considerably longer. I too have named my chapters Korinne, with dates too. If it doesn't help the reader that much at least it helps me to know where the hell I am!

In my unpublished (gnashes teeth) novel I have 94,000 words in 23 chapters, which is approx 4000 words per chapter. This wasn't planned, as some chapters are considerably longer than others. It just seemed to be a natural flow.
Like Korrine I have named and dated the chapters too. It may not help the reader much but it certainly reminds me where I am!

How odd....that first post wasn't there!..and now it is!...do I get double points for that!

I, quite frankly, cannot be bothered to keep to a strict setup of word counts. I made a flowchart and have a timeline stuck to my wall, but they never get used.

I keep a vague eye on how long a chapter is coming out, so I have a sense of the proportions of the whole. But I'd never break a chapter just to make it fit an arbitrary count.

Meant to say, I know writers who name their chapters purely for their own purposes, either just for the same reason that farmers name their cows - because it's easier to remember names than numbers - or more seriously to focus their ideas on what that chapter is really, fundamentally about. Which is when it gets interesting, because it means the chapters are really being used as a unit of architecture.

I find that my chapter names help me to remember what each chapter is about. I've since re-named some of them though so as not to 'give the game away' in that particular chapter. My target reader is young adult/ older teen. It's also interesting how 4,000 words keeps cropping up as the average chapter count. It's been a steep learning curve this writing business! (Fun too.)

Going back to your copyright comment Emma. I find that most books I read have a phrase at the beginning, whether it be from musicians, authors, comedians etc. Do all of these authors pay a fee to get these quotes published?

"Do all of these authors pay a fee to get these quotes published?"

Well they have to get permission, if it's in copyright - it's entirely up to the copyright holder whether and how much they make you pay or not. I remember wanting to quote a line from a Noel Streatfeild novel, and it would have been about £120, and again for the US rights - they charged by the word, I think. It wasn't crucial to the book, and I was short of money, so I paraphrased it instead. On the other hand I needed a direct quote from Robert Capa's memoir - a paraphrase wouldn't have done - and his estate happily let me have it for free. I guess they're not that bothered about a few dollars - their income from the pictures must be huge.

But I got caught with a quotation where the original French was out of copyright, but the translation almost certainly wasn't, but I couldn't find out who had translated it: the book I found it in was based on a TV series in 1976, and the book as a whole wasn't credited to anyone. Trying to dig that info out of the BBC would have been impossible, so I just dug out a dictionary and re-translated it - actually being able to make it more suitable to the theme in the process, which was nice! But wouldn't have been so easy from a language I don't know.

And your publisher does interrogate you about whether you've done all the work, so you really do have to...

Your comment about chapter names aiding the author's memory is my original reason for using them, Emma. Names featured in the big drawings I played around with three years ago, showing the story progressing through four (and a half!) seasons of the year. The names have evolved and changed (and only relate tangentially to the plot) and now seem to be a part of the whole. If I must leave them out for public consumption, I will do, but one image keeps coming back to me.

Emma that planning grid is excellent, thank you for sharing. I have been flapping around trying to develope something similar, and your template has just saved me so much time. Deffinately something I will adapt to my own needs.

I'm approaching this novel from a plotting rough chapters. My last attempt was very much a seat of my pants get it down on the page - which didn't work - approach.