I’ve got a two-hour lesson, I need something ready to go
Writing a chapter in 4 steps
The structure of every chapter in the novel, ready to use on any situation you’ve lived through.
Every chapter of the novel is built the same way. 4 steps, always in the same order. That’s how you can laugh at a hard situation without playing it down: you laugh first, you understand next, and you decide at the end.
4 steps
1 · The sketch
You tell the situation the way you went through it — but you act it out. Nobody comments, nobody explains. You see the scene.
What it does: readers recognise themselves, and they laugh. Laughter creates the distance no explanation ever could.
2 · The analysis
After the scene, and only after: what really happened? On my side, on theirs. Which wounds make this behaviour exist, and why it can’t work.
What it does: you understand who you’re dealing with. You stop looking for someone to blame.
3 · The repositioning
What I change: my place in the scene, my state of mind, my behaviour. Not theirs — mine.
What it does: you step out of the role you were playing without ever choosing it.
4 · The action
A concrete answer, said straight away, in a real situation. A short sentence, a line drawn, and some humour in it. You repeat the key lines until they come out on their own.
What it does: I’ve understood, so I act fast and clearly.
Why this order, and no other
Start with the analysis, and readers start thinking instead of feeling, and nothing moves.
Start with the advice, and you’re telling them what to do before they’ve seen the problem: they obey or they resist, but they don’t understand.
The sketch first is what makes the rest possible. You can’t look at what hurts if you haven’t laughed once.
Using it in class
The pattern works on any situation a pupil has lived through: a row, an injustice, an awkward moment. It doesn’t need the book to work.
- 20 minutes. Everyone tells a scene by acting it out. Explaining or justifying yourself is strictly forbidden: you describe what happened, like a scene in a play.
- 10 minutes. Out loud, as a group: what did each person want in this scene? Not who was right. What each one was looking for.
- 10 minutes. Everyone rewrites their scene changing just one thing: their own place. Not the other people’s lines.
- 5 minutes. One sentence, just one, to say next time. Short. Read it out loud.
⚠ A rule to stick to, and it matters
Nobody has to tell anything personal. An invented scene, a scene from a film or a scene seen on TV works exactly the same.
And the exercise stops at the third step if the subject is heavy: you never ask anyone to “take action” on a situation that’s too big for them.
You laugh first.
You understand next.
You decide at the end.
Taken from the working document “Guidelines, plan of a chapter” — The Hammock and the Hummingbirds.