clipped from: www.timothyhallinan.com   

And, like a scene, a chapter should end with something that makes the reader want to keep going. I mean, if you're going to put that big expanse of nice clean white paper there, you need to throw the reader a line to make him or her want to cross it. And preferably, the line should have a hook at the end of it.


A scene can be one person working something out. It can be two people talking something through. It can be three people throwing eggs at each other. It can be expositional, meaning that one character tells another something that he or she needs to know. It can be internal, meaning that it happens entirely inside a character. It can be action, which I assume doesn't need to be explained. Two people deciding to take a train is a scene. That bunch of villagers with torches storming Frankenstein's castle is a scene. Juliet's realization that Romeo is dead is a scene.