Chapters - Do you need them?
Why breaking up your story is important
Happy New Year dear readers!
Welcome to 2026 - a year that seems to be starting out just as busy as 2025. But that’s for another newsletter.
Let’s talk Chapters.
I’m at the point in my second book right now that I’ve had my outline approved by my editor, and now I’m breaking it down into chapters.
I’ve found that each project I make gets me closer to how I like to work. I’m currently working on a short story with my husband that is a completely new process to me, but I’m learning a lot about what works best. I also wrote a small 5-page story this past fall, and even those few pages taught me a ton.
My new editor asked for the chapter breakdown before the script begins, that was fine with me. When I wrote On Guard!
, the chapters were created while I wrote the script. I picked a spot that felt like a good ending/beginning, and broke it out as I went.
But why break them into chapters?
As readers, I think we all understand that chapters are a nice break in the narrative, and help us understand when one part of a plot is ending, and another is being introduced. They also serve as good place holders. If you want to just finish “one more page” you may still be stuck in the middle of something important and not ready to put the book down. But if you can finish the chapter, you’ve finished the authors thoughts and have a good place to stop and consider the story while you go about your life, anxious to dive back into the next chapter when you pick up the book again.
For Authors, I’m learning more about how helpful chapter breakdowns are for writing the plot. This story is coming together so much faster for me, because I have to think about Chapter breaks.
When it comes to kids, chapters also serve as a milestone while they’re reading. In my opinion, these milestones are so important when trying to instill a love of reading into kids. When a kid tells their adult that they read “three chapters”, we should be proud of them! It’s not always about page counts, especially for kiddos with learning disabilities. “Three chapters” can be 50 pages, or 14 pages, depending on the book, but they will feel just as accomplished as everyone else.
Personally I like an even number of chapters, and for middle grade graphic novels, 10 always feels good to me. This is totally vibes based, but setting up plots, and letting them pay off is so much more satisfying and simple when I know where I am in the story. Though it is a little difficult to stick to that when I have 9 chapters and feel like breaking them into another one would lead to a very short chapter…so I’m not sure what the best practice is there. We will learn as we go!
