SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

When I hear 'serious' I take it to mean literary fiction.

Anyway, as far as chapter titles. I read a lot of books that have chapter titles and some that don't. I'm fine with the chapter designation '1.' But titles can be fun. They also show style and how the writer relates to the story. They can give a sense of enigma or be a specific roadmap. In the case of Game of Thrones, it indicated what was next--and what was *not* next. Got a bit disappointed. What? Still no Arya?

Here is just an example of a table of content from a fiction book that I will leave unnamed for the sake of discussion:
TABLE OF CONTENT 3
CHAPTER 1 – 2012 4
CHAPTER 2 – ARSENAL 15
CHAPTER 3 – NEW MEMBERS 59
CHAPTER 4 – OP ATTENTION 100
CHAPTER 5 – FIRST MISSION 174
CHAPTER 6 – YESHUA 195
CHAPTER 4 – OPERATION VIKING RAIDER 257
CHAPTER 5 – COMRADES AND DISCIPLES 293
CHAPTER 9 – MIDDLE EAST TROUBLES 330
CHAPTER 10 - CRUCIFIXION 426
CHAPTER 11 – POLITICAL HEAT 461
CHAPTER 12 – INFANTICIDE 494
CHAPTER 13 – ACTION! 523
CHAPTER 14 – ASYLUM 537
CHAPTER 15 – DOUBLE-CROSS 570
CHAPTER 16 – EXILED IN TIME 633
CHAPTER 17 – TASK FORCE BABYLON 670
CHAPTER 18 – RAVENSBRÜCK 713
CHAPTER 19 – LIBERATION 772
CHAPTER 20 – THE IMPERIUM STRIKES BACK 837
CHAPTER 21 – PEACE CONFERENCE 877

I believe that this kind of chapter naming, with both chapter numbers, the page number where the chapter starts and a short title to entice the reader, is a nice way to both attract and help guide readers to the book.

It's basically Fiction vs Non Fiction. The conventional wisdom nowadays is that non fiction needs chapter titles and fiction doesn't require them. It's up to the author to include them or not. If the author's readers like the way the book is put together then the author will continue doing it.

If the chapter title is functionally needed it should be put in, if it is decorative then it is optional.

Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences makes use of chapter titles to give an idea of the characters involved, a hint of what is happening but nothing that tells you what is going to happen. They don't use a table of contents so you don't see it until you read the book.

I put in a TOC that had imaginative chapters titles listed up front and some people assumed it was collection of short stories instead of a single story.

There are several factors changing the use of book titles. One the problems with E-Books is that the programs that publish them are sometimes quite automated, such as Amazon's Kindle creator. This will automatically chop up a chapter title that exceeds more than a few words. To keep out of this bind, the easiest thing to do is to chop the length of the chapter title which automatically restricts what can be said.

The use of character names for a title makes it easier for people to follow the content of the chapter more easily when it indicates a change in the direction of the novel.

Another factor is the way progress makes older things unnecessary. It is very hard to lose your place in an EBook, as that is automatically recorded and brings you to the last place you read without even asking.

Personally I prefer chapter titles whether it is fiction or non fiction but times are changing and the procedures of yesterday are quite easily changed by the number of people doing something different than what use to be done. Our grammar is changing on a daily basis and is automatically accepted long before the official books record those changes as standard practice.

The first letter of a new chapter used to be quite fancy. It was larger, very ornate and had a picture around it. The historiated initial [picture] could contain information about the chapter, the book, the author, the purpose of the book. When someone puts a picture around a first letter nowadays I would think it would have more to do with decorating the letter itself and nothing to do with the chapter or the book.

Michel wrote: "Here is just an example of a table of content from a fiction book that I will leave unnamed for the sake of discussion:
TABLE OF CONTENT 3
CHAPTER 1 – 2012 4
CHAPTER 2 – ARSENAL 15
CHAPTER 3 – NEW..."

Those are great! It sounds like the author is having fun.

Reminds me of another book:
"The Dreaming Prince"
"The Thief And The Box"
"Tawaddud And Dunyazad"

Those are just a few of his chapter names. Hannu Rajaniemi. I think he has fun with is writing. Wicked smart.

Now this book I would say is literary (serious, classic), and has 1, 2, 3, etc. Madame Bovary. Which I loved but not everyone does.
Another book with numbers only is Ancillary Mercy, so an example of a recent one.

This one, the chapter name says all: "The Bridge Of Khazad-dum." Chapter naming, like blurbs, is an art in itself.

Another thing about Ebooks, you can't put in page numbers, the only thing for certain is that the cover is the first page.

Robert wrote: "Another thing about Ebooks, you can't put in page numbers, the only thing for certain is that the cover is the first page."
Actually... ebooks work based on hyperlinks/HTML. They track location differently. And they CAN have page numbers. I've done conversion on my draft in Calibre and Kindle then shows page numbers calculated based on some algorithm (which I'd guess to be some number of words/characters per page to simulate print book, counting enforced page breaks) and if this is done, then it'll show page numbers, possibly even in the auto-generated ToC.
They can't be put in manually, if that's what you meant, but they can be there.

M.L. wrote: "This one, the chapter name says all: "The Bridge Of Khazad-dum." Chapter naming, like blurbs, is an art in itself. "

That’s true. That chapter title certainly is evocative of how aggravating road construction is.

The page numbers sort of work on my kindle. Increase the font size, the total number of pages increases, but decrease the font size and the total page numbers doesn't decrease. The page numbering is based on the font size. Depending the on the font size you can have multiple screen pages all with the same page number. You would have to have a very sophisticated table of contents that could renumber the page number where a chapter is to be found. The TOCs I saw with printed page numbers did not change when the font size was changed. The TOC always works because it uses the link.

I've seen page numbers in eBooks on my Kindle and I've always considered it totally useless. The % completed number is far more useful. Let's face it, eBooks are HTML documents and there are no such thing as page numbers. The sooner one accepts that eBooks aren't physical books and are their own thing, the easier life gets as a reader and as an author producing eBooks!

];P

Yep, % is more useful.

What I don't know why it does not work is that when I mark a book as currently reading from my kindle, then want to update, it's still on pages and I need to switch to % manually, despite GR saying in help that e-books default to % progress...

Trike wrote: "M.L. wrote: "This one, the chapter name says all: "The Bridge Of Khazad-dum." Chapter naming, like blurbs, is an art in itself. "

That’s true. That chapter title certainly is evocative of how aggr..."

"Reduce speed. Construction ahead."
#portals are everywhere #amwriting #fantasy :)

I've been reading Rick Riordan's books to my son (9) at night lately and he really loves the chapter titles. It gives him something to look forward to in the story. So, for YA fiction I would say that chapter titles should have names.