📖 Misery is a classic suspense novel by Stephen King.
✍️ I studied Misery and discovered techniques you can apply to your own writing.
My analysis is broken into four posts:
Part 1: How to put readers into the mind of a character
Part 2: The unorthodox chapter design of Misery
Here is Part 2:
Misery doesn’t have chapters in a conventional sense.
The novel is made up of four parts which are numbered and named:
Part I: Annie
Part II: Misery
Part III: Paul
Part IV: Goddess
Each part is broken up into chapters:
Part I = 36 chapters
Part II = 23 chapters
Part III = 48 chapters
Part IV = 12 chapters
The chapters vary in length, ranging from multiple pages to even one sentence.
When a chapter ends, the next begins immediately below; there’s no need to turn the page.
Take a look at the first and second chapters of the book:
Every time the reader reaches a new part, the chapter count resets to one.
Here’s how Part II begins:
So why did Stephen King use such an unorthodox chapter design?