Does Your Book Really Need Chapters or Scenes?
If it does, it’s time to vamp them up
We’ve all grown so accustomed to the idea of chapters or scenes that we almost stopped questioning it. And if you’re writing a book right now, you probably have a lot on your plate as it is. So maybe, you can destress just a tiny bit by taking chapters and scenes less seriously and by playing around with them. Here’s why.
John Truby’s Anatomy of Story
Recently, I stumbled across a variation of this idea in John Truby’s book, The Anatomy of Story. It’s a great read, and I can only recommend it. Within the first pages, Truby explains the origin of chapters and acts:
The idea of an act break comes from the conventions of traditional theater, where we close the curtain to signal the end of an act. We don’t need to do that in movies, novels, and short stories or even, for that matter, in many contemporary plays.
In short, act breaks are external to the story. Three-act structure is a mechanical device superimposed on the story and has nothing to do…
