"Hi Ksenia,

I love everything about the blog and your work, kudos. I am writing my first book (non fiction), and am lost as to how to break the whole thing into chapters.

Mayowa"

Hi Mayowa,

Thank you, darling. Great question. I used to break up my manuscript into chapters as I wrote it every day. In the morning I would start a new chapter, and by the end of the writing day I'd try to finish it. The good part of it was, I completed a chapter a day. The bad part of it was, I have constrained my writing into this one-chapter-per-day schedule, and sometimes I rushed my story to make it happen, and the rushed part almost always had to be rewritten, so I wasted time.

Later I got smarter. I read a lot, as in, A LOT, and I steal chapter structure I like. It struck me to see some chapters very long and others very short in the same book. "How could that be?" I thought. I would imagine what's to follow can apply to any book, fiction or non-fiction.

Instead of focusing on chapters focus on the scenes.

"Hello, Ksenia.

I have followed your blog and writing for a while now and you've given me lots of advice and insight into my own. I would like to embark on a writing career, but I have been constantly beset by the same niggling worry: how I didn't really read much as a child. I pretty much only started "properly" reading in my twenties and, it may come completely from a place of insecurity and doubt, but I was wondering if it would come to affect my writing, i.e. if I will ever be as good as someone who has spent their entire lives immersed in books. Do you think I am just battling insecurity, or do my silly brain thoughts have a point?

Liam"

Hello Liam.

First of all, I'm not an expert in this (nor do I think anyone of us writers is). Everything I've done so far with my own writing I've done based on my gut feeling. And my gut feeling told me to look to the great ones, and the great ones usually talk about their reading habits or researching or whatever after they've started writing, not before (and if they do talk about their befores, they're vastly different). And all the great ones happen to say that reading is crucial to writing, and I agree with this as I've experienced it myself. Yes, many writers have spent their childhoods with their noses in books. But just as many haven't.

Does this mean you HAVE to be well-read to be good at writing?

Nope.

Breaking your manuscript into chapters

You don't need any special skills to start writing