The structure of chapters can play an important part in not only immersing your reader in the story and keeping them interested, but also in making them feel satisfied. Satisfaction is trying to make the reader feel that the chapter provided enough information, possibly answered some questions, and overall made them feel like it was worth their time to read.
But first, let’s start with ‘what is chapter structure’.
In traditional novel writing, chapters tend to have a specific structure that hits the following points that push the story forward:
Attracts the reader’s interest: First few paragraphs.
Plot Development: Bulk of Chapter
Raises interest in what is to come: Culminates at the end of the chapter.
The ultimate goal of a chapter is to push the story forward.
A reader should feel somewhat satisfied with a chapter after reading it, and this is done by having given them information or answering a previous cliffhanger ending. In addition to this, each chapter is used to break up the story, either by POV, time, or scene. For example, the previous chapter could be from Character A’s POV and the next chapter picks up at a different time or place from Character B’s POV.
This helps give the reader a broader sense of the happenings in the story, insight into the different minor story lines, and increases expectations on what is to come, as it gives a glimpse into what one character may know that the other doesn’t.
Shifts in POV and scenes also give variation to the story, allowing the reader to skip past monotonous parts and on to important details and actions.
At the end of a chapter, you want your reader to be encouraged to continue reading, and this is especially true in webnovel writing and serials, where there will be some time between chapter postings. With a time delay between chapters, it is easy to lose the reader’s attention.
In order to keep it, their interest must be piqued at the end of a chapter.
This is usually done as a cliffhanger.
However, these should be used in moderation. The longer the story and the more cliffhangers, the more a reader can get bored or irritated with constant cliffhangers, especially if they add no value to the overall story and are just there in an attempt to keep interest.
How to make a reader feel satisfied with a chapter and come back to the story?
It generally depends on the reader, but a good idea is to ask what makes YOU feel satisfied after you, as a reader, finish a chapter, and what about it makes you want to continue reading?
Does the chapter:
Provide new information that is useful to the story flow?
Address the cliffhanger or ending of the last chapter in any way?
Have a good balance of scene and narrative? - You don’t want it to sound like an info dump or summary.
Does it pique interest towards the end of the chapter?
Is it long enough to allow the reader to imagine the scene before it is over?
While word counts and page lengths can be a good measure of the length of a chapter, the content of the chapter is equally, if not more, important.
All that being said, this is not always concrete and sometimes the story may not call for such a structure. I don’t put too much importance on story structure, but I find it useful to have a template for stories that are released chapter by chapter. Doing so eases the mental burden, as I am following my own guidelines to keep things cohesive.
In a traditional novel, readers are more likely to finish the book, even if it’s bad, as the entire story is there and can be read it in one go. But in a serial or webnovel, they can simply drop it as they don’t know when the ending will come - if there will be an ending at all. As such, chapter structure helps guide and fulfill the reader.
