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I figured someone else might know and, if not, someone else might like to know. Didn't want to bother the poor man with yet another message.

Welcome, Randall, and thanks again for the review. I'll recip shortly.

I use chapter titles to tease the reader, either with a few word summary of a key event in the chapter, or with a little misdirection.

For example, my story builds up over many chapters that one of my MCs, Apollo, is heir to the Imperial throne and is expected to become emperor and lead a holy war. It's pretty much a given that that event will occur, so I give the reader something to look forward to when they check out the table of contents. Through chapter titles, they see his rise and fall, followed by a climax where everything will be decided. As you read it, you know he will fall, but he doesn't. As a result, I have a chapter called Emperor Apollo that includes his coronation, which is the peak of his success before the fall.

It's kind of like when you saw the second death star in Return of the Jedi. You know a big battle will occur, but not the how, including the fact that Emperor Plapatine has planned the whole thing. So, there were still a lot of surprises left to be had in ROTJ. Dune did something similar. It used epigraphs at the top of each chapter (I use them too) to give historical information about Maud'dib, the protagonist. You know from early on that Paul Atreides will become Maud'dib, but you have to tear through the book to get there and see how it happens.

The other example, misdirection, I do for fun (my story tries for a fair bit of humor). I have a title called Joseph Enters Heaven. He's a religious character, so it could be interpreted as him going to Heaven (in some form). In reality Heaven is the name of a prison.

By using both types of chapter titles, I also keep the reader guessing.

If you want the whole story to be a closely held secret and only unfold through the content of the chapters, then leave them out. If you prefer to tease them with some information, then use chapter titles. The latter also gives potential readers a little more information about the book when they're deciding whether or not to buy it. You have the book title and the book summary to sell your novel, but a few interesting chapter titles in a TOC might help seal the deal. In my book, a chapter titled "Worlds Collide" let's the reader know that, as suggested in the book summary, the quests of the two MCs will indeed collide.

Hope that helps.
Dirk

Dune uses omniscient POV and is the best-selling sci-fi novel of all time. Today, publishers are so focused on a POV style that masterpieces of the past would never even get published.

I started with omniscient because I didn't know any better and was strongly encouraged to drink the cool-aid and switch to 3rd person limited. I'm glad I did because there are several key chapters that wouldn't have worked if I had been inside both MCs heads at the same time.

That aside, I plan to self-publish, so I have no problem breaking a few rules to tell the story the way I would like to read it.

Mike, if it helps, my prologue is 5000 words (about ten pages). I'm going to put up version 4 tomorrow. As NJC mentioned somewhere in this thread, make the prologue a good short story. If you decide not to go with it, you'll have fleshed out the details of the past to use to fill in the rest of the story.

From what I've read of your story, I think the flashbacks would work well as a prologue, unless there's more of the past than I've read so far (Clay's interrogation and guilty plea). There's nothing quite like trying to squeeze a ton of story into 10 little pages. Tonight I deleted a lot of stuff I previously thought was essential to the prologue, all to pick up the pace.

The other way you might consider going is to break up the flashbacks into a long guilt trip for your MC. Have him think of it in short recollections that coincide with your main story unfolding. Only you would know if that makes sense here.

Cow brains and eggs? Now that brings back memories. :-)
Dirk

Many articles I've read equate omniscient POV, multiple POV, and head-hopping, as if there were no distinction, which is how I learned it. Interesting to see the subtle differences. To the best of my recollection, Dune (mentioned in the article) uses not just omniscient, but head-hopping. I'll have to look for it again the next time I re-read the book.

Janet, I thought you were self-published. Who's your publisher?

to smile/him/to bristle/his doesn't flow well. I prefer Tom's combined sentence for this one, perhaps with a tweak or two.

Thanks
Dirk

Oh, heck. I had my answers after the first few replies to this thread. The rest is just good entertainment. :-)

Thanks to all.
Dirk

Sol, I'm still not seeing behavior consistent with what you've told me. I read your latest post about the (apple) writing competition. It still shows up on my home page. I don't mean to beat this to death, but I think it would help us to know how it works so we know when/when not to rely on it as part of our workflow.

Thanks.
Dirk

Connect with Janet Taylor-Perry here on the site. English teacher, author, and part-time editor. There are others too. If you can post your request to Premium, you should do so.