When first starting your story, no matter if it's a short story or a new epic novel, some consideration has to be taken towards the structure. How you write the piece, that is the format in which it is presented, can be just as important as what you write. If it's presented in a way that makes sense your story is bound to make sense. If it's haphazardly thrown together into a random collection of ramblings readers will become easily lost, no matter how good your storyline and characters may be. Before you get started, you have to decide how you're going to present your story. It can vary gradually through the story so long as there is some sort of consistency.
A question that may arise in the mind of the young writer is how long should each chapter be? Knowing just when to cut off Chapter 3 and transition to Chapter 4 isn't always evident. There are a couple ways to go about dividing your book into chapters. Each one has their own merits and in the end it really does depend upon the kind of story you're writing. One way is to divide each chapter by blocks of time. Make each chapter occur with the span of a day or a week or a month. This give the story some sensible structure and clear boundaries for your chapters. Another way is to make one chapter focus on a certain character or set of characters and then alternate to other characters in the next chapter and continue in that pattern. Have Chapter 1 focus on Bob and then have Chapter 2 focus on what Bill is doing. Lisa can get Chapter 3 and then go back to Bob next chapter and start the whole thing over again. In a struggle between good and evil, make one chapter focus on the bad guys and the next on the good guys and alternate in that pattern. There are several other ways, such a restricting each chapter to a maximum number of pages, but be sure to divide your chapters in way that makes sense. If two chapters fit just as easily into one, make them one and don't worry about chapter count.
Something to consider when writing your story is how dense it is. How much material is going to go into each chapter? Do you spread it out or do you pack as much as you can into as many pages as you can? If you spread it too thin the story will be frustrating to read since you may have to read through several chapters to get to something interesting. If you pack too many happening into one chapter, readers can be overwhelmed and more easily lose track of the story. Your challenge is to find a happy medium regarding how much story to tell at once. Try to set a formula for how much and what fashion to move the plot along. Setup at what points you want milestones to take place that unfold the story. Don't make it static either, but make them appear random to make the story exciting.
How a story should be structured time-wise is something each writer has to decide for themselves. However when making that decision, several factors come into play. What we mean by structure in this case is the time format in which the story is presented. Suppose you have three different story threads that will eventually mingle into one. The structure of the story is how each thread is handled. Breaks in one thread to check-in on another have to be handled in a way that makes sense. The biggest factor should be ensuring a good story flow. If you're structure is too choppy, it will make it hard to follow. Keeping it chronological order is usually best. But if you have to go back in time to check-in on a character in a story thread, there are way to do without getting the reader lost, such as using a flashback. If you want to show things happening at the same time, the use of timestamps before each section will help keep things straight. Say you have 2-4 chapters take place at the same time, and divide those chapters into time blocks. That makes the timeline more sleek, and the resulting structure of the story makes it interesting to weave into one thread where something has already happened and then go to another where that thing is about to happen to get another take on it. Playing off the causes and effects and perspectives make the story a tad complex, but the use of timestamps help to keep it flowing smoothly. The easiest way is to just keep things in chronological order. If you have to recount something that happened at the same time as something you just described, simply explain what happened and then continue on with the story. Real-time is something else to consider. In the '24' novels, they make each chapter an hour of the day, keeping it clear how much time is passing. This does limit you as to what you can do, since this is a time constraint. However real-time does add a built-in element of suspense as the clock ticks down. However you choose to do it though, make sure it doesn't become a jumble of flashbacks and time discrepancies.
Whether you like it or not, size does matter. A lot of people will be intimidated when seeing a book that's overly thick and will likely never read it, even if it's the great story ever told. Laziness and short attention spans abound so it's best to be sensitive to size when publishing a book. Publishers care about it too with regards to printing coasts. J.R.R. Tolkien walked into his publisher and slapped 300+ pages of 'The Lord of the Rings' onto his desk and they were mortified, telling him to break it up into 3 books. Now days 300 is about normal for an epic book, so LOTR is often sold as one piece. But anything over 500 is often broken up into smaller parts. This makes it easier and less intimidating for readers. Cutting down on page count doesn't have to restrict your storytelling. Use as many pages as you feel you need to tell the story you want. Just be prepared to dish it out in smaller doses if it ends up being longer.
How many times should you write a chapter? How many drafts should you write? The drafting process will differ from author to author. Whether you just want to do a quick run through of the basic story points the first time around and gradually flesh it out or simply work on each chapter until its where you want it, its best to do what works for you. In reality though, it's best to keep rewriting until you get it right. The only way to right well they say is to rewrite. This doesn't mean you have to start over from scratch for each draft. It does mean you should give your story a gradual overhaul with each pass. You might be one of those rare writers who can get it right the first time, but chances are it can be even better. Writing drafts is a good way of keeping it all straight in your head. This way you can focus on a different aspect with each draft. The first one can be basic storyline, the second one dialogue and character development, another one descriptions and world building, etc. Drafting really allows you to build the story from the ground up and layer it into a masterpiece.
Hopefully when preparing to weave your tangled webs of intrigue it makes sense when laid out. Both your readers and your publisher and editors will thank you later. Keeping length, density, and time structure in mind can really keep your story flowing smoothly.
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