When you plan a chapter, you are not just dividing up a topic into neat components. You are planning how your readers are going to spend their time. A chapter plan is an agenda for a meeting between you and the reader. And the finished chapter is that meeting.

As you plan, ask yourself “am I using my reader’s time well?” Would you concentrate on a meeting with an agenda like this, or would you find yourself drifting off, doodling, or fiddling with your iPhone?