The Neverending Chapter

[wayfaringwordhack]

 I'm writing a chapter that just doesn't want to end. I keep waiting for the characters to work out their problems and give me that sweet chapter-closing line/moment. I'm 4.5K in and I still can tease it onto the horizon.

What do you do when you have a chapter or a scene that just won't give you a break?

Have any advice or techniques you'd like to share?

Comments

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

I've had that before, but so far I've been able to find a break point about half way through.

I wish you luck :)

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I just put an ending on it. I'll try to smooth out the mess once I get the next one headed in the right direction. :P

That or I'll leave it to betas to help me. They need to earn their keep somehow.

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

Lol, Beta Readers in the Basement, now there's an idea for a story ;)

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Beta Readers in the Basement

I won't tell the Beta Reader Protection Services if you won't. :D

[sunflower-sky.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I just cut it. There are always lulls in the scene/conversation/events that I can sneak a chapter break into. Sometimes I have to scroll back to find one.

~D

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was leaning toward cutting, too, but the problem is that this stuff has to come out now or later. If I get rid of it here, I'll just have to put it in the next chapter (which already has a full agenda) or else I look like the worst tease in the world to readers.

[sunflower-sky.livejournal.com]

Well, this isn't your final draft, right? Write it out, keep going, and when the whole thing is done see if you can find a different place for it or cut it down somehow. I'm a big fan of being able to see the whole picture to better understand the arrangement of its parts. :)

~D

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

*nods* First draft. Far from final.

I think I've got a pretty good handle on it now. I've gone on to the next chapter, so that automatically makes me feel less antsy about the one behind me. Can't worry about getting two things right at once. ;)

[clarentine]

I think that, since it's first draft, I'd just write it the way it comes to me, and worry about where to break it, if I decided to break it, when I had a better feel for the themes and stuff involved in the brief. (Caveat: I tend to write chapters with several scenes, and base my chapter breaks on the overall unity of the chapter, not necessarily where the action breaks. Helps avoid those pesky going to bed/waking up scene transitions. *g*)

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Yes. First draft. End it and move on. All things can be made and broken better with the rewrite, right? *g*

[clarentine]

Why else would you keep those scene pliers on hand?

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

No other reason that I can think of. Certainly not for torturing characters um, making jewelry. *g*

[clarentine]

Jewelry out of characters' tortured psyches. I want some of that! *g*

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Whoops, there should have been a strikethrough through "torturing characters." What was my subconscious trying to pull over on me there? :P

[clarentine]

And damn, you can tell where I was (well, still am) when I wrote the above: strike "in the brief" and substitute "in the novel." Sheesh. Work invades everything.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

*lol* Looks like your subconscious is as invasive as mine.

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

I try to come up with some buh-BUMP! moment that'll let me break thinsg off, but only if I have an equal amount of Arc that'll let the next scene in that storyline make sense. If it'd be a 75/25 split, I soldier through with the mega-scene/chapter.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

*nods* I kept writing and writing and hoping that moment would come along. I even had some moments that *almost* fit the bill, but like you said, the arc just wasn't sufficient at that point.