What Makes A Chapter “Gnarly”

Over the last few days I’ve been tweeting about working on a “gnarly” chapter—in the slang derived sense of “difficult.” (Although it may also relate to the more formal “gnarled”, meaning “bumpy” or “twisted”, e.g. often a tree.)

So this particular chapter has difficult aspects, which makes for a bumpy ride for the writer.

Some of those aspects include:

Pacing:

This is a transitional chapter, so although things need to happen, their chief purpose is to move the story, and the reader, forward in...