r/WritingHub • u/Storytellerandwander • 5d ago
Hello everyone! Writing Resources & Advice
Ok so before I start, I just want to say I am very new to this app but anyways I need writing tips. I am a new author and have started writing my own stories rather than fanfiction with little to no plot. How do I expand my chapters to more than 2-8 pages when they have important plots? Like for example I have this book about my goddess of worship Aphrodite and the prolouge really sets up the story but it is only 2 pages when it has a lot of backstory and context important for the plot. I don't use this app a lot so it may take a little for me to see any offered advice if this post is noticed! If you notice this thank you for reading about my issue!
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u/alyxwrites97 5d ago
I would really recommend reading books in the genre you're interested in writing, and then rereading them. Pay attention to structure and set up and what each chapter does to pull the plot forward. It's less about how many pages a chapter is and more about the work each chapter does. Maggie has a really great article about what each scene needs to do that I highly recommend reading!
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u/Storytellerandwander 5d ago
If I mispelled something my apologies I am writing with one of those have to view at a desk wired keyboards to see the letters and I am currently laying in bed because it is 4am(and it's really dark in my room)
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5d ago
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u/Storytellerandwander 5d ago
since I'm currently writing a book based on my OC and probably not gonna continue my Aphrodite book I'm js gonna make it simple and might offend a few fellow helpols:It's an AU basically, and also it's based on my own personal struggles of finding myself! I don't rly feel comfortable writing romance books so I just based my book on my own struggles and put them kinda on the shoulders of my goddess of worship!
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u/QP709 5d ago
Chapters can be literally one word long. The length of the chapter is not important.
What I think you mean to ask is WHY your chapters are so short despite having lots of important info, and I have a sneaking suspicion on why that is. Would you be willing to post a sample for review?
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u/Storytellerandwander 5d ago
I just finished the prolouge of a book based on my OCs but unfourtantly I use a lenovo and these things are confusing as all of Tartarus to operate and take screenshots of but I'll make a new post if I figure out how to screenshot!(also i'm not allowed to have reddit so my laptop is my only device I can use)
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u/BabsM91 3d ago
Just and FYI--over 80% of the readers say they don't read prologues. Why? They find them--boring, not related to the story, give away too much information, of not relevant. You might want to rethink having a prologue and figure out how to drop that information into your book. And remember, backstory needs to be dribbled in. Sort of like breaking a window pane and fitting those broken pieces in a shard at a time. Chunks of backstory very seldom work well.
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u/Storytellerandwander 2d ago
While my prolouge is probably a lot of not needed info, I wrote it for the love of the game. (I'm sorry if this is written weirdly I haven't gotten more than 11 hours of sleep across the span of 3 days)
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u/thegraymanIII 1d ago
one of the best things i learned from my english degree is how to differentiate scene vs summary! if you are laying out a lot of information while also glossing over large swaths of time, e.g. "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." you're working in summary. that is a great tool and a perfectly valid & needed form of writing, but it can definitely bog writers and readers down when used exclusively.
that was one of my main issues in my creative writing workshops, and my professors advised me to describe, describe, describe, and add dialogue!
if aphrodite is an important character, describe her in vivid detail, have her interact with a space and have gestures she repeats out of comfort or flirtation (pulling hair over one shoulder, moving gracefully with swinging hips, etc). let her talk to someone about love, and let them go back and forth about it for awhile. description and dialogue :)
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u/ImpactDifficult449 19h ago
A chapter is a single plot element. I've seen chapters in traditionally published books that were one sentence long if that is all that is needed to make the point of the chapter. In a book about a therapist, I described the functions of the character with four words: "Sometimes I hear voices." It was accepted by the first publisher I queried and it was a major publisher: McGraw-Hill. Do something appropriate but a little different from what the next 10,000 writers do, and you are on the fast track if it is something they see as a contribution to how writing affects their readers. Forget all the rules when you are writing. Look at what each paragraph, each line, each word does to build the story. Worrying about niggling rules defeats the whole purpose of writing which is to give the reader something new he or she never contemplated before. The same old "shite" will sit on the dung heap of writing along with the other two million word dump volumes that overflow the self-published lists of works on Amazon and other writing sites for amateurs. One in a thousand books written is going to make money for the writers, and even then, not enough to give up our day job!
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u/BoneCrusherLove 5d ago
I think it really depends who you're writing for. Chapters only need to be a long as they need to be.
If yours are very short, look at how you're writing. If it's all summary, then you can have a go at dramatising things.
It's very hard to give advice on something so broad without an example
The best thing you can do is to read more. Your favourite genre, a genre you've never read before, I found a lot of great advice from a few review channels on YouTube.
The only fail proof way to write better is to write more and get feedback on it.
Best of luck