In writing a book, where does one end one chapter and start the next. And what do you call those divisions within a chapter, often separated by several dots or astericks?
Peace,
mangeorge
The subdivisions of a chapter are called “sections” or “subchapters”, although they are rarely separated by asterisks anymore, usually just blank lines.
There’s no hard rule for it, especially in fiction. The asterisks or dots are merely a convention for separating one subsection of a chapter from another.
The main reason to split into chapters or sub-chapters is to make the narrative easier to understand. Running the whole book together would be possible, but it would make finding a single part much more difficult.
By convention, each chapter addresses a different subject, just as each act does in a play. In a work of fiction, chapters talk about different parts of the story, moving the whole narrative along without having to recount all the parts that are not very important.
I often think of a novel as a series of short stories on a related theme. Each short story does not stand by itself. As the stories progress, each refers to events and characters in previous stories, leading to the final story that caps them all.
More modern novels may have “stories” that jump about in time. One wonderful example is The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Each chapter is a day in the life of the time traveler. They aren’t in chronological order, but as you read you begin to see the narrative thread.
Plays are the same way, and in fact all literature probably started first with plays and spoken poetry. Greek plays started as religious rituals, and Greek poetry started with memorized narratives. All of them related stories or “myths” that explain the world as events and clashes with results that affect us to this day.
Look at the first part of Genesis in the Bible. It is a creation story, that explains all of the modern world as events (creation) and clashes (Adam, Eve, and G-d) with results we still see. The chapters in Genesis are a series of related stories, pushing towards the eventual creation of the Hebrew people.
Of course, Genesis and the rest of the Torah did not start out as separate books, chapters, or verses. The earliest versions were probably split only by story (creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, the Tower of Babel, etc.). In a Torah scroll, the “books” are clearly delineated, but everything else is run together.
The current chapter organization is roughly by story, with some stories having multiple versions. The text shows no indication of chapters; the current organization was made hundreds of years after the oral Torah was first transcribed and organized.
Similarly, the verse organization is not clearly indicated in the text. The Hebrew has no punctuation marks per se. The transcription has trope marks (cantillation) that tell the reader how to chant each word. Some of the marks clearly mark the end of a thought, and can be interpreted as “periods”.
The bottom line is that it’s up to you. Regardless of what you’re writing, make each major “story” a chapter, and then if you want make each substory a subsection delineated by asterisks.
If you’re James Patterson, the answer is simple: every three pages.
Start a new chapter every time you reach a point where, if you stop reading, you won’t need to back up and catch the threads. In a multi threaded plot, you should try to swing that for all the threads simultaneously. If that isn’t possible, the thread which isn’t catchable needs either better writing in the previous chapter, or the next chapter should concentrate on putting it into the same general level of development as the other threads.
Mostly try to make your work worth coming back to, but still satisfying in some way at the chapter breaks.
Tris
I know what you mean.
Actually, I like short chapters in fiction. I often read while I eat, and it gives me a good place to pause or stop. Otherwise, a good story can be hard to interrupt.
Or, if you’re Glen Cook.
OTOH, if you’re Terry Pratchett, there’s an equally simple answer - none at all. A couple of his books have had chapters, but Pratchett has stated the “Life doesn’t happen in chapters”.
Make sure a reference to Room 101 ends a chapter.
Everyone knows what’s in Room 101.
But life does happen in chapters.
And there is limited continuity between them.
Moving to CS from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I wondered about that when I OP’d.
Looks like we might be headed for MPSIMS. 
with me.
If the point of view shifts, you should start a new chapter or at least a new section.
If the scene shifts (i.e. to a different location or time), it may be a good time to start a new chapter.
Two mutually exclusive rules:
A chapter should end at a point of resolution, when something ends, before something new begins.
A chapter should end on a “cliffhanger,” leaving some unresolved question that makes the reader eager to continue on to the next chapter.
When, if your book were a Law & Order episode, they would play the doom-doom music.