It does seem at times that cliffhangers end chapters in the middle of a scene’s action, and that the scene continues in the following chapter. However, usually a cliffhanger is, as you said, a setback for the protagonist.

At times the action may resume immediately in the next chapter, but I think in most cases there is probably a beat of reaction that transitions right into a new or renewed goal.

For instance, the creepy stalker appears out of the gloom, a knife raised to strike - end of chapter.
Then the next chapter (or if the writer is particularly devious, the chapter after that) begins with the heroine’s reaction to that motivation and the acquisition of a new goal - run! All of this happens in a few sentences, but the Reaction Scene (or perhaps Beat) still takes place.

(Regardless if anyone would actually read it) Is it possible to have a novel in which there are ONLY Reaction Scenes? Some kind of reflection novel? A memoir? Non-fiction?

Just curious.

I know, can we say, “newbie”….

Thanks for the posts!!

Okay, so that is a big help to me. I tend to show this and then the Action Scene ends on a really campy, sentimental note. Yuck! I’ll try taking those reactions out and see how it helps.

Thanks for the great help with the distinctions between Action Scenes and Reaction Scenes!

Without getting too regimented (this is ART after all, dadgummit!) is this a good pattern to follow?

(opening scene/introduce character)
GCS, RDD, GCS, chapter break
RDD, GCS, chapter break
RDD, GCS, chapter break, etc.

On Multi POV and chapter breaking: I have the first two scenes done on the new novel and I am working on a third to complete the first chapter. Don’t know if that will make the chapter too long, but the pattern for chapter one goes:

Scene 1: Both POV A and character c have a simple GCS and RDD within the first 2 page scene.
Scene 2: POV A has another brief GCS and RDD back to back.
Scene 3: we amp things up with a longer GCS for POV A and ends with her literally hanging on a cliff (okay, stuck in a ravine) with a busted leg. End of Chapter.

Chapter 2 will open with A’s brief RDD and a new GCS all crammed together. Things were a mess before and just got worse. Then we introduce a new character and switch to POV B, whose existence was mentioned in the predeeding scene. Thanks to this lesson, I’ll remember to leave POV B hanging on a setback too. He will probably need a full GCS-RDD-GCS cycle before I can switch POV or end the chapter.

Thanks. I’m glad we had this talk. I hope our bumbling along and baring our novels here helps you write your book, Randy. I’ll be a beta Dummy.

I think this is a general assumption propagated by the industry without true and substantial evidence in the overall scope of fiction. I would agree that thrillers require more Action by the nature of the stories and their audience. But some noir mysteries and suspense novels with good writing can take a reader into the mystique of the mindset of all kinds of characters without under emphasizing Reaction at all. (And of course the romance/women’s fiction genres as well.) JMO

Well, times are changing, and the nuns who taught us those rules have gone on to that great creative writing workshop in the sky. Because more and more these days you’ll find successful novels that mix the two POVs, and with killer effectiveness.

But there are still a couple of rules. First, you can’t do this within the same scene (or chapter), it’s messier than a first date gone wrong. And, if you try it, there should be roughly the same amount of scenes from both POVs. Dropping only one or two first person scenes into a novel that is otherwise all third person omniscient is, well, awkward. And you’ll never sell it.

Nelson Demille mixed first and third POV in his #1 bestseller, “The Lion’s Game.” I did it in one of my novels, too (which I won’t name because I don’t spam and don’t want to be accused of it), and it got a starred review from PW, among other props.

So consider breaking that old rule and watch your novel go deeper, faster, and with greater effectiveness.

When I was in college, I read a lot of old German Literature and some of those authors (Goethe comes to mind) really seemed to emphasize the reaction scene- some of those works literally have a super short action scene followed by an entire novels worth of internal reaction, which is kind of interesting.

I wonder if this will “swing again” in “popularity”, and come around the other way, and if it does, I wonder how long it would take.

It might be fun (and fairly simple) to play around with this idea to see what could be done by an enterprising writer and a good storyline. It sure might allow that writer to stand out a little from the pack.