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Not just to me.

As a writer of plays and musicals... I actually know how to end a chapter just like I know when to end a scene.

I am just trying to stir up conversation and maybe learn something new that will improve my writing. (The whole chapter thing came from enduring an 81 page chapter last night. Really?? 81 pages... chapter two - 90 pages. Really?)

So, please I would love to hear your analogy. I am hoping I am not the only one who will be helped by it.

I don’t know if this will be at all useful or interesting, but in writing music whether formal composition or improv on the spot there are certain things you can do to induce change, variety. Change is what gets the attention, especially when it is unexpected and still continues the composition. What are the variables in music?

Tempo, rhythm, pitch, harmony, instruments, melody, timbre, scale (96 kinds of 7-note scales for starters), mood, phrasing, mode, intensity, smooth, staccato, etc. In writing there are also variables, probably more kinds than in music. After all, there are only 12 notes, but 26 letters. What are the varibles in writing?

Language, font, grammar, strophe, rhythm, periods, character, scene, and your chapter, as well as breaks, paragraphs, conversation, situation, genre, narrative, description, purpose, footnotes, endnotes, etc. We expect change in writing or we wouldn't read far. It was highly amusing to find the German general speaking in pre-war Black Letter font in one of Umberto Eco's recent novels. Generally the situation, motif, is resolved very near the end, which is how you know you have reached the end. The reader will know if he has something by the end of the first page. Finis right there like a 3-minute pop tune if he finds it flat.