Monster Chapter From Hell

Back!
Back, foul beast!
Back into the depths of Hell from which you were spawned!

Okay, maybe I'm being overly dramatic, but I managed to tackled what turned into a somewhat monstrous chapter today. I've had readers ask me in the past how I know when to put in a chapter break? My smart alec reply would be "when I'm tired of writing." I wish I could have tried that trick today.

Typically, my chapters are broken up usually as a scene that takes places in a specific location. If I change the location, then the next chapter usually begins. Usually. Book 3 has been different in a lot of ways. I've actually changed locations within the same chapter. I had two chapters back to back in the same location, but separated because of a dramatic change in which characters were in the scene.

Does any of this make sense? I hope so, because my brain is fried from all the writing I've gotten done today.

Typically, my chapters run around 10 pages. Unless it has a major fight scene within it, then it runs closer to 20. Today's monster chapter? I don't know how many pages its runs and I refuse to count. My brain keeps shutting down. I think it's all great stuff and the scene took a turn in a direction that I was not expecting, but I think will end up being really cool in the end. However, it was still a really long chapter. Long enough to make me uncomfortable. I have a feeling that in the revisions, I'm going to go back and break it down into two separate chapters. I like to give the reader chunks that are of the appropriate size that you can find a good breaking point along the way in case you have to do something important like sleep.

The next chapter has the potential to be long as well, but I think that naturally happens with me as I draw closer to the end of the book. More action, longer chapters.