Chapter Structure Quotes

The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.

I don't see how anybody starts a novel without knowing how it's going to end. I usually make detailed outlines: how many chapters it will be and so forth.

I treated the first few books as a very long journalistic exercise. I thought of every chapter as an article that needed to be finished.

The beginning of a book is always the hardest part for me. I'm a Chapter 3 kind of writer, which means I naturally start at Chapter 3.

I try to have a mood or a rhythm for a chapter.

For all my longer works (i.e. the novels) I write chapter outlines so I can have the pleasure of departing from them later on.

I know what I want to achieve in each book and the major points, but I don't plan right down to the chapters. I think that the characters write themselves in some degree.

I remember when I was in graduate school and someone in workshop would say, 'I'm going to bring in a chapter of my novel.' The thought that someone could think they'd write a whole long thing... I could only see twelve pages ahead. But then I realized that if you could see twelve more after that, you can start.

It's always a challenge to discover the most effective first sentence, and the most effective final sentence, in a chapter for instance, and in the book as a whole.