♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦
Topic #435
How do you determine where to end a chapter?
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I can hear my fifth-grade grammar lesson replaying in my head as soon as this question came up. I’m zapped back to my seat sitting on the right side of the room toward the front (thanks to assigned seating). The room was bright with overhead office lighting. It’s a wonder I ever became an author after the terrible grammar lessons endured in my US (New York) school. Dry as dust and confusing.
The thing about teachers up through this point is that they specialize in topics, but are expected to be able to teach in every subject. Yeah, we moved around a bit, to get us used to how things would go in high school and then college/university settings. The moving was great. That really helped my ability to pay attention for longer periods. A change of scenery and moving my feet is always helpful!
Anyway, back on track! The lesson talked about how we knew to break a paragraph. Paragraphs, they insisted, should be at least four sentences long. For the most part, I try to keep to that. If the thought is less, I often can make it part of a previous or next paragraph. Sometimes, you just have a couple things to say that stand alone. A paragraph, basically, is a grouping of sentences that pertain to the same idea. When you move to the next part of the overall idea (the chapter), you can make a paragraph break.
All of that said, the breaks aren’t always clear. Thankfully, beta readers and editors can help you out when you’re stuck. That’s one of the reasons they’re so important to us. They help us look our best on the page. From time to time, I still have a sentence ending a paragraph that should be starting the next, and vice versa. It happens. It’s ok.
At this point in my career, paragraph breaks have become rather intuitive. Eventually, you just feel it. I know. I know. We writers are always saying things like that, and it’s not helpful! You know what is helpful? The provost at my graduate alma mater back in the day said to me: just get yourself a copy of an eighth-grade grammar textbook. You don’t need anything else. I am not sure what the equivalency is for other countries, but you would be about 13 years of age when going through that curriculum.
Does such a grammar text help you understand Chicago? It should. That is the accepted style, but it may veer toward MLA (see below). If you want some additional help, there are student handbooks for grammar and citations that they make you buy when studying English and Writing at University. Those are handy! Keep in mind, there are multiple styles for specific types of writing, AP (Associate Press) and MLA (Academic Style) coming to mind. You don’t want to use either for fiction. However, they do overlap in many places.
Does this matter? Yes, especially if you have designs on publishing with a big 5 publisher. My professors used to remark about how once you’re established, then you have the leeway to do as you will and push those boundaries. Until then, the writing world just regards it as novice mistakes. I know how unfair that can be for someone being creative with language, who knows what they’re doing, but we are not in control of those entrenched ideas. It is ours to play ball with, or go home.
Paragraphing, after many years of writing, becomes and intuitive matter. Until then, refer to the online style guides and seek assistance from others when in doubt. Nothing is wrong with reaching out. The more you learn and absorb, the easier it becomes.
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I missed out on so much school as a teenager, it’s a long story. Grammar was one of the things I never really got taught properly. I don’t understand it and left it to my editor, at least to begin with. Now, in my non-edited work, I just do what she does, without really understanding it. If I break the rules, never mind.
You’ve made up for a lot! If you break the rules and it works, keep at it.
Funny. We were taught paragraphs should be at least three sentences. Different teachers, different philosophies, I guess.
That’s interesting!