BD still kicking my butt.


I’ve judged a lot of contest recently, and even the most professional entries have been lacking chapter and scene hooks. That seems to be something I learned fairly early to do, and heaven knows, published authors know how to do it or I wouldn’t be up all hours reading.

My downfall are the chapter breaks in the middle of a scene. You stop the scene at an intriguing part, then continue it in the next chapter. That gets me every time.

Or when a character makes a decision, usually one you’ve been wanting them to make throughout the rest of the book. OR one of the characters does something that FORCES the other to make that decision.

So I went to my bookshelf and pulled a variety of books, because it doesn’t matter what you write, you want to keep the reader reading. You know what? I had trouble finding strong examples, even in a Nora!

But Lori Handeland is still the devil. I told you about her chapter hooks, right? Here are a few, just to show you.

“I went in after the wolf.”

“I didn’t recognize him at first. But then, he was wearing clothes.”

“I’d learned long ago not to ignore the steady hum in my head that said something was rotten in Miniwa.”

“’Because we may have a bigger problem in your fair town than one mad wolf.’”

“In my experience, whenever someone said that, it hurt.”

“I hated being afraid. Fear smelled of weakness, and the weak did not survive.”

And that’s just in the first 10 chapters!

From Diane Gaston’s historical, The Mysterious Miss M:

“Unhand my wife and leave.”

“I must marry.”

Ned turned to come face to face with a tiny child, no more than a baby, rubbing her eyes and yawning.
The very image of his brother.

And felt the point of a sword sharp in the small of his back.

“You must teach me how to seduce my husband.”

From Delores Fossen’s Intrigue, Santa Assignment:

She spun toward the hall just off the back of the kitchen and saw her bedroom door.
And the thick black smoke oozing from beneath it.

To save his son, he’d have to ask Ashley to put herself in danger.

“I’ll have your baby, Braden.”

Ashley would be his. All his. Until he killed her, that is.

Cherry Adair’s romantic suspense Kiss and Tell:

Who had given the order to off him? The bad guys? Or, as he was starting to expect, his own team?

It would beat going back and smelling his soap on her skin.
Hell.

He looked up. Just in time to hear the explosion and see the fireball in the sky as the chopper exploded in a burst of flames and blew to smithereens.

Instinct warned her danger still lurked nearby. Closer than that gunshot.

Norah Wilson’s paranormal, Lauren’s Eyes:

“Marlena! She won’t wake up! I think she’s dead!”

Harvey was riding out to the ridge to commit murder, and Cal had sent Lauren right into it, alone.

With a small cry of triumph, she turned back toward the fight only to see both men disappear over the cliff’s edge.

So you can bet I’m going back through my books and making sure I have page-turning chapter endings.