This week on Carrie’s blog, carriejonesbooks.blog, she’s talking all about chapters and so we’re talking about them on the podcast, too, because Carrie’s controlling like that.
And what we’re talking about specifically is chapter titles.
You can divide your books into chapters and just label them numerically, 1, 2, 3… But you can also give them a title like:
Here’s the thing.
How do they help your readers? In a lot of ways.
You put these bad boys at the top of the chapter. And the reader thinks, “Ah! Look at that! I am paying attention.”
If you have a story with multiple point of views, you can put who this chapter is focused on here.
You can give the reader some help. If you have a time jumping, place jumping novel. You can use this space to say, “Hey, we are in sexy Scotland in 2021.” Or you can say, “Look, we’re in Zambia in August.”
It’s like a happy little spoiler where the reader goes, “Oh, that’s what this chapter is about.” This can be about theme, too.
A chapter title can be a first sentence.
Summing it up: And there you go. A quick bit about chapter titles and what they can do for you.
Chapter titles are good tools. Use them.
Use whatever you can to communicate things to your human. Wag. Growl. Bark. Spin in circles. Hit them with your paw. They are stupid and need a lot of help understanding what you’re putting down.
The music we’ve clipped and shortened in this podcast is awesome and is made available through the Creative Commons License.
Here’s a link to that and the artist’s website. Who is this artist and what is this song? It’s “Summer Spliff” by Broke For Free.
Our latest episode of LOVING THE STRANGE is here. It's about spontaneous combustion and poop styles.
The visuals for our podcasts are all on Carrie's YouTube channel. You can like and subscribe there, too!
