i'm starting a new science fiction novel, and after finishing up the notes i decided to have a crack at writing the thing. my main buff is that for this particular project, i dont just want to write "Chapter 1." I've already done numbered and titled chapters and i wanted to do something different for this one. I just can't exactly come up with anything appropriate. any suggestions?
Well not sure if this would work with your story and such. but Every new chapter could start off as sort of a journal entry of sorts. Though I doubt this is what you were asking for. I haven't the slightest idea though. I mean what else is there? Other then just having a linebreak at the end of a passage, where a chapter would normally come.
that's exactly the kind of thing i'm asking for. My last book i started off the Chapter with the number, title, date, time, location, etc. since this new idea i have is very different from that one, i just feel like i should start it off differently. and journal entries is a fantastic idea, it could work very well.
Don't be different just to be different. Be different if it serves a real purpose in telling your story.
yeah... starting off with a journal entry would be redundant and rather unecessary. i just wanted to try to create a different feel for myself really. i had a hard time getting through my last novel and i wanted to make this feel as different as possible to avoid getting slumped again. it's been doing a good job of that on its own so far, but precautions are nice. :\
I wanted to write a story from the perspective of an immaterial "demon" thing wandering the abyssal plain between reality and what you might call "hell" - but despite the vast imagery in my head, I simply do not have the words to effectively convey the story. So I gave up. Different rarely works well the first time!
I don't think you should ask us pointers on how to be unique - then it wouldn't be unique at all. Just write your story the way you want to, something "unique" will eventually come to you, if the need be.
it's not exactly what i wanted to do. i already noticed the story itself is unique, and surfing around the net i was ecstatic to find there was nothing even remotely close to what my novel touches on. it's just that when i opened up the notepad, started the intro, and began to type "Chapter 1" i stopped and told myself i didnt want to do this. i think i'll just deal with this and do it the way i always do. i think i can find difference in the way i title my chapters. my two stories themselves are very different, so maybe i can just let that shine through on its own with different titles.
good point. i think i may just be stalling and getting hung up over stupid things. thanks for the help peeps.
That's exactly what you're doing But if you want to keep the reader's attention, have something that makes them think just beneath the chapter title. I use proverbs that are relevant to the chapter, that I think the main character would like.
once i get way into the writing, if i feel that the reader may not pick up on the main character's drastic transformation throughout the entire first part, (i mean it'll be obvious, i'm talking more about the way he thinks and feels inside) i may decide to put some kind of quote from him at the beginning. Observations and such, kind of like the journal entry suggested earlier, but much shorter, like a sentence, encompassing a single thought. isolated portions may snag more for the memory, therefore ensuring readers feel his inner turmoil. maybe...
Like I remember reading in Michael Crichton's The Lost World he always started a chapters off with just one word or a name that related to the chapter. I thought it was very creative, and it kind of intrigues the reader, letting them guess what the chapter may be about without spoiling it if say it read 'Double Crossed!' Then it's pretty easy to figure out what's about to happen.
i used to do something like that with my other one, except with chapter titles. sometimes there just summarized the whole theme and were pretty obvious like "Power Out" or "Onslaught", but sometimes there were kind of mysterious and vague, like "Salvage and Reclamation" or "Suspension of Disbelief." it was pretty fun, and chapter titles kinda bring everything together for me, at least with that type of story.
I have also adopted the Chapter Title scheme. It helps give me a focus for each chapter, but it is also probably makes the reader wonder "hey, what's about to happen?" For instance, chapter 1 of my current project is "Hell Week" - which anyone familiar with the military will immediately recognize. Thus, the reader has a preface, knowing "Hey, this chapter will likely have something to do with military training!"
