McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Chapter Titles yes or no?

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--- Quote from: neurovore on July 06, 2009, 11:41:25 PM ---Readers who have a problem with that really to my mind fall into the 'wanting to be spoon-fed everything" category, and I prefer my entertainment to actually engage my brain.


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Again, its not a matter of spoon-feeding, its a matter of stylistic choice.  If you want those first few sentences to be built so that the reader can get his bearings from them thats fine, but if you have something else you want to do with them, some form of chapter text (titles, timestamp, random excerpt, alternate POV, etc) is a good alternative, one that shouldn't be disparaged on its face.  It can be done poorly of course, but it can be done well also.  Its not a mark of laziness, or a commentary on the intelligence of the audience just because its not accomplished in the body of the text.  Hell, it wasn't that long ago (relatively speaking) that even the great authors included illustrations. 


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Jarring is not inherently bad.  Sometimes it is exactly the effect the author wants.


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Oh, absolutely.  But at the times that it isnt what the author wants, Chapter text can be a good tool to use.

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