So I try and give writing advice because I enjoy it, however, I don’t know everything and I would like to ask for your advice on this topic. I received some feedback from a beta reader, not to end my chapters with dialogues and when I tried to look up what other people's opinions were, I couldn't get a clear reason.
Before I begin, I want to state that I don’t hate my beta reader, I think they did a fine job. I just want to understand the no dialogue endings as maybe it’s a rule within the writing community which I missed.
Some of the points that my beta reader gave me are that it feels like the chapters end mid-conversation, it’s annoying, and repetitive (to be fair I did it a lot).
In my beta reader's opinion, a chapter should end with one of the following: a surprise, a promise, a question (that’s not huh?), humour or themes. I don’t disagree with these statements, I’m just curious why can’t a chapter ending with a dialogue still address one of those points?
To answer your question, eleven out of 15 chapters ended with dialogues. Yeah I can tone it back a little but my beta reader said they could only handle one or two chapters ending with dialogue so I asked the question, does this come down to reader preference or am I missing something in the writing community? I tried looking this up but couldn’t find anyone giving me a good reason to not end chapters with a dialogue. What are your thoughts?
@AnOrdinaryWriter From reading what you related, it looks like 'no ending on dialogue' may be about how many chapters they can handle ending mid-conversation.
If I kept stuffing up baking chocolate cakes for birthdays, 'don't do chocolate cake at birthdays' may be said and it likely doesn't mean nobody should do it, but just that I shouldn't.
What the beta reader said is only internally consistent if they meant something contextual but this wasn't stated clearly enough.
@Trajecient Here's all of the comments about my dialogue ending chapters. The feedback does come across as a "don't do this" especially when they said they could only handle like one or two.
While personally I don't think my conversations end abruptly, that's something I'm willing to go back on. This was just the first time I received this feedback and I couldn't find out a reason why ending a chapter with a dialogue was bad. I do understand it may be repetitive after all I did it 11 times out of 15 chapters, but I never thought it was bad or would make someone upset.
"That is a rather sudden ending. I feel like the chapter ending mid conversation. Is there any way to conclude the conversation and then have Cjaee exit scene for some reason?"
"I don’t recall how many times the chapters have ended with dialogue, but I am seeing a pattern that the chapters are ending with dialogue, and that is just annoying and repetitive."
"Another dialogue ending..."
"Another dialogue ending. I already made an end note about it."
"There are just so many dialogue endings. But I guess this one can stay, if the other endings are changed."
"Another dialogue ending?"
"So the story did know how to end a chapter. I’m keeping my end comment about chapter endings at the end. I just feel there are too many dialogue endings."
"Yeah, I feel like the chapter ended, but it’s a dialogue ending again."
"A lot of the chapter endings end with dialogue, and while I can handle one or two of them, too many of them make it repetitive. Here are some ideas for chapter endings: a surprise, a promise, a question (not huh?), humor, theme. Whatever the chapter ending, I need something to keep me reading forward."
@AnOrdinaryWriter Yeah, given the full context it does read very much more like a general dislike for chapters ending with a conversation rather than a critique grounded in the execution of it.
It is a very odd perspective to come across.
It is common for books to end most chapters the same way in terms of the extremely broad types of 'dialogue,' 'internal monologue' etc.
Usually the content is varied enough readers don't notice. There certainly isn't any rule against such practice.
Huh? Never in 50 years I've been writing have I heard that.
What the beta reader is correct about is that the dialogue or whatever at the end of the chapter needs to end with something to make the reader breathlessly turn the page. My opinion.
I write first person, so my narration is practically dialogue, but ending a chapter with...
She spun around. "Oh, shit? Was that a cannon blast?"
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