I miss doing chapter summaries, even though I can never stick with it! [READ BEFORE COMMENTING]

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The reason is because I would do chapter summaries for chapters that were over twenty on what I would like to happen in the chapter BEFORE even starting chapter 1. Each chapter would get a summary.

Another reason is that I would create large paragraphs for said chapters on whatever goes on in the chapters. Lastly, when it was time to write, I was burnt out from doing chapter summaries and the fact that I had to turn what I wrote into a chapter after doing all of that. I got bored of it and stressed out.

That is why when I write now, I do zero planning and outlining because I am just free-spirited in my craft.

Yet I do oddly miss doing chapter summaries for my own sake. I mean just to brain dump what I would LIKE to happen in the chapter, NOT WHAT I WANT/NEED TO HAPPEN IN THE CHAPTER. I mess myself up by focusing on the wants and needs instead of the likes because I can always go back.

I think I miss it because, when I jotted down what I wanted to happen in this one scene for Red Reign, I wrote a few paragraphs that weren’t long. I started typing the scene on Google Docs afterwards. That scene might as well be a chapter, because in my mind it is chapter length.

I did the same with the prologue in terms of jotting it down on how I would like it to go. Though I haven’t typed it yet.

My thing is that starting chapter summaries would have to be done one by one. I write the chapter summaries then start the chapter after that. If I start another chapter, that would require me to do some rereading or look to the last chapter summary for guidance on the new one.

I’m also going to write down my chapter summaries in a notebook, rather than using Google docs.

I’ll still never do a full story outline or some three act structure or even some snowflake method, yet chapter summaries are way better for me personally. This is coming from someone who had issues with them. At least chapter summaries were a tad easier, I just tend to over do it.

Thoughts and feelings?

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@Akje
@alenatenjo
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@MatthewJH

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I think it is a great method!

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Thanks. Do you do any outlining or note-taking yourself?

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100% yes

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What is your method like?

I am just curious to know.

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I was pantsing my current work, but it went off the rails and wound up in a stupid place, so now I’m going back and doing chapter summaries to figure out where I went wrong. Out of 43 chapters, it’s all good up until chapter 16. Then it somehow jumped off a cliff on a wild shark and turned ridiculous. (♯ᴖ.ლ)

For the chapters I haven’t written yet, I’m just doing a bullet list of things that logically need to happen in order to end up at the answer to the story question posed at the beginning of the book. Have you tried just doing a bullet list instead of lengthy chapter summaries? That might help keep you on track without going overboard. ( ˆ◡ˆ)۶ ٩(˘◡˘ )

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Honestly, I’ll put like ten or more things on the bullet list making it long too. I get so excited that once the excitement wears off, I just get bored again.

I’ll still do it, I just need five things to add to the story. I go overboard because I am SUPER excited and just want to add everything.

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Very loose outlines, like a flowchart.

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Ooh! I never used a flowchart.

I would create a table of sorts on Google Docs then add the chapter summary inside the table.

It looks professional. LOL!

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