There’s a strange moment that happens while writing a book.
It’s the moment between chapters.
Not the dramatic ones inside the story, but the quiet ones behind the scenes — when a chapter is finished and the next one hasn’t quite begun yet.
For a brief moment, the story feels still.
The previous scene is complete. The characters have taken their last step for that moment. But the next part of their journey is waiting just beyond the edge of the page.
Those moments are where a lot of thinking happens.
What choice will the character make next?
What consequence should ripple out from the last scene?
What emotion needs to carry forward into the next chapter?
Sometimes the answers arrive quickly.
Other times they take a little patience.
Writing a book is rarely a straight line from beginning to end. It’s more like a series of stepping stones. Each chapter reveals a little more of the path, but the full picture only becomes clear as the story unfolds.
Tomorrow I’ll open the document again and step back into the world.
The characters will be waiting where I left them.
The next scene will slowly take shape.
And somewhere in that quiet moment between chapters, the story will begin moving forward again.
That’s the rhythm of writing.
One chapter finished.
Another waiting just beyond the page.
🖤
— Anna Gerard