Dear O'Abby: What's a hook and do I need them?

 Dear O'Abby,

My crit group keeps saying the same thing about my chapters: there's no hook.  

I'm not sure what they mean by this or why they seem to think I need one in every single chapter.

Is this something you know anything about?  I'd be grateful for any clarification.

Kind regards,

Hookless

Dear Hookless,

A hook is a device in a book that makes the reader want to keep reading.  The first line should act as a hook, drawing the reader in and making them want to read more.

But in the context you've given, around each chapter needing a hook, I'm thinking your crit group is talking about having a good hook at the end of each chapter to make the reader want to keep going.  Think about it like a cliff hanger.  You want to end each chapter with a tantalising reveal about something, a piece of action that leaves your character(s) in peril or a piece of information that changes things for the characters.

Obviously your book isn't going to be pitched at a consistent level of tension throughout, so the hooks at the end of each chapter don't need to be huge every time. It would be too exhausting if every chapter ended on the same kind of note!  There just needs to be a reason for the reader to want to turn the page and keep reading rather than putting the book down.

Hopefully that helps?

XXX O'Abby

Dear O'Abby: How long should my chapters be?

 Dear O'Abby,

I tend to write my books straight through without any chapter breaks, and now I'm at the end of the writing process, I'm curious as to whether there is an optimum length for chapters?  I feel like there are some pretty natural breaks in my story where I could put chapter breaks, but they are not always a consistent length apart.  

Does that matter?  Is there an industry standard?  A genre standard?  I'm really not sure...

Any advice would be gratefully accepted.

Sincerely,

Lengthy

Dear Lengthy,

Like most writing question, the answer to this is "it depends".  There are a lot of very popular books out there with very short chapters, but they are usually thrillers or stories with a lot of suspense.  Having short, snappy chapters in a book like that keeps things moving at a rapid pace. On the other hand, if you're writing something deeper and more rooted in character and place, you probably want longer chapters for your readers to fully immerse themselves in.

And if you're writing something that's both of these things, you may want to switch from long to short and back again depending on how you want the reader to feel.

If you're writing in dual POV, you'll probably want to have a chapter break where the POV changes because changing POV midway through a chapter can be dis-orientating for the reader.  But that's not a hard and fast rule.  I've read multi-POV books where you get a range of voices in each chapter, usually separated by **** to indicate change, but not always.  Sometimes a writer is so good at differentiating the voices, they don't need a signal to indicate the switch in POV.  Sometimes...  It's not something I've seen often.

My personal approach to chapter length is to always find a spot to finish a chapter where something is happening or just about to happen.  You don't want the reader to feel that they have permission to put the book down at any point.  Your job as a writer is to keep progressing the story and to make it un-put-downable.  So I always try to end each chapter on a cliffhanger of sorts so the reader might say "just one more chapter. Then I'll go to sleep..."  But over and over until they've stayed up until 3am to finish reading.

There are no real rules and I very much doubt that any publisher is out there counting how many words there are in each of your chapters.  They're more interested in whether the story is compelling enough to keep reading all the way through and that the pace of the book holds up.  

Hope that's helpful!

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby: Do I really need to end every chapter with a cliffhanger?

 Dear O'Abby,

I've heard that to keep readers turning the page, you have to end every chapter with a cliffhanger.  Is this true?  My book isn't super action packed and I feel like I'm creating artificial drama for the sake of it just so I can leave each chapter on a cliffhanger.  And as a result, I'm beginning to like my book less and less.  Are cliffhangers really necessary at the end of EVERY chapter?

Best wishes, 

Hanger

Dear Hanger,

In short, no.  You don't need to leave every chapter with a cliffhanger.  At least, not what we would typically call a cliffhanger.  Every chapter doesn't need to leave the heroine tied to the railway tracks with the train barrelling toward her, or the hero in a truck with the brakes disabled heading for the steepest hill in town. 

What every chapter needs to end with is something that will intrigue the reader and drive them to read on.  Or, if they do have to stop (we do all need to sleep sometimes) that what they've been left with with keep them thinking about your story until they can come back and pick it up again.

So you can end the chapter with a question your MC is asking of themselves, or another character.  Or with them moving into something unknown that may or may not hold some kind of threat.  Or with someone showing up with some news that is going to drastically alter the MC's life, or trajectory through the next few chapters.

Basically anything that will pique your readers' interest will keep them reading.  A new character turning up can be a good place to end a chapter as we don't know until we read on if this new arrival is a friend or foe.  Every chapter doesn't need to end at the same pitch either.  I like to have slightly more dramatic chapter endings in my first few chapters because at that point you're still drawing the reader into the story.  Once you're past the first three or four chapters, you can assume you've got the reader hooked and can give them a wee rest from the big, dramatic chapter endings.  

Basically, as long as the end of each chapter propels the story forward, you're ending in a good place.  Try to avoid ending chapters with characters falling asleep (unless of course, you have a Freddy Krueger-esque villain waiting to terrorise them in their dreams) or doing something else mundane that won't lead to the next bit of action.

I often write my books without chapter breaks when I'm drafting and then add them later, once I've seen where the story lends itself to breaking at a moment of tension.  And if the moments of tension are a long way away from each other (or too close together), I know I probably have a pacing issue to deal with too.  But I'm notorious for not plotting (and for not writing in sequence), and if you're a thorough plotter you'll probably have that under control already!

Hope that helps!  

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby: How Do I Create a Page Turner When My Story Is Quiet?

Dear O'Abby,

I'm writing a novel that I would call quiet.  There isn't a lot of external action, but the characters go through substantial change through the course of the book.  I was taught that every chapter needs to leave the reader with a reason to turn the page to the next one, but in a book where the conflict and the character journey are all driven internally, how do I create a cliff-hanger at the end of each chapter?

Best,

Quiet-Writer

Dear Quiet-Writer,

Even a quiet novels without a large amount of external action can be filled with suspense.  The end of each chapter doesn't need to be a huge cliff-hanger like those old serials they showed at the movies where a hero would be left in an out-of-control railcar heading for a cliff and the end of an unfinished railway line at the end of that week's installment.  It just needs to end with something intriguing enough to make the reader want to continue reading.

Sometimes it helps to stop mid-scene.  Someone is about to say something that will be revelatory to your MC?  Don't let the scene continue until its conclusion, break it just before the speaker says whatever will change things for your MC and start a new chapter.

Other times you can finish the scene, but leave questions unanswered so the reader needs to read on to find them out.

I find it helpful sometimes to write without imposing chapter breaks when I'm drafting.  Just write the story all the way through, beginning to end.  When you're editing, find the places you feel are the most intriguing and put your chapter breaks in these places temporarily.  You may find they are far apart, or unevenly spaced which will also indicate you may need to edit for pacing and suspense. Sometimes this is as easy as moving a few scenes around to balance the tension, and other times it may require writing some new scenes to add more in places where things might have gone a little flat.

Even quiet books can be filled with suspense and tension.  People are unpredictable and often behave in unexpected or even irrational ways.  If you find the tension dropping at some point in your story, have a character do something unexpected.  The consequences of this single action can ripple through the entire book and add layers of suspense or tension for the other characters too.

Hope this helps.

X O'Abby