What books have you read that were not formatted in the traditional chapter style? How was it done? Do you recommend doing it? What books have you written that you want to format differently? Are there rules for this?
I know about books and parts. I've read books where there were no chapters, just parts. In Donna Jo Napoli's Zel, the 'books' were like really long chapters. Within them they were in sections told from three different veiw points. Nothing was numbered. So it would be like,
"creative descriptive name"
MMC name
MFC name
SFC name
Sometimes there would be more than three parts to a 'chapter'. The order changed around according to the narrative. It was really cool.
I frequently see books where each chapter switches view point. 'Ever' by Gail somebody Levine does this in a similar style to 'Zel.'
Scott O'Dell's "The King's Fifth" was done in a similar style to how I want to do Lightning Ranger. each "part" began with a journal entry by the main character; the story was told entirely from his point of view. The chapters were about the adventure he was telling you, he was writing it all down in prison. The journal entries were like prologues, keeping you informed on current happenings; the process of his trial.
Now we get to the really weird part. You know, how in some books, the header at the top is sometimes the name of the chapter? Sometimes its the book title, sometimes it's the author title, sometimes there's nothing there, but sometimes it's the chapter title. this particular book, (can't remember what it was) I think was either in parts or had no specific divisions, but every header was different. Like every page had it's own chapter name. Is that weird or what? I can't remember what book it was, Dickens or somebody like that.
Anyone else encounter odd ways of formatting?
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