Sunday 8 March 2009

Chapter by Chapter

Okay, true to my word I have looked at BTL with a view to composing a chapter by chapter breakdown of the book. I'm doing this because I assume that if I am lucky enough to get someone interested in it they are going to want to see such a breakdown. The trouble is that I have never done this before and I wondered if anyone could give me any advice. Which would be a better approach?
A) Dark house. Where is this place? Why is she here?
or
B) Margot finds herself in a dark unfamiliar house. She has no idea where she is or why she is there.
or
C) Both of these are wrong and there's another way that I should be doing it.
Any advice would be most welcome.
Just for the record, I don't know where the house is or why there are no lights on. I don't know why she is there and I've never met Margot.
Oh and so much for that lovely weather that I talked about earlier. That has swiftly been replaced by wind, rain and even a bit of snow. Don't you just love this country?

10 comments:

Annie Wicking said...

The way I did it was I did a mini synopsis for each chapter picking out key points in each chapter i.e beginning, middle & end. Each of the main characters names in the chapter are hightlighted in bold the first time they appear in the story and who they are in relationship to the main chapter.

Freelance journalist Jake receives a surprising visit from Caroline Cooper an old family friend.

Oh, and Chapter by Chapter is always written in the present tense and doesn't include extended dialogue

p.s how do you get the names to show up in bold when posting a comment?

Colette McCormick said...

Thanks Annie, and as you had a favourable response I guess that's a good way to go.
To get anything in bold, I think that you just highlight the bit you want in bold and then click on the "b" in the top left hand corner. There's probably another way but that's the way i do it. I tend to fumble my way through anything technical.
Thanks again for the advice.

Amanda said...

Very useful post, Gonna Be, thanks!

Anonymous said...

If it's a synposis that you're talking about, then I have some notes about writing these. I got them from Elizabeth Hawksley at the Caerleon Writers' Holiday last year. If you like I can e-mail them to you.

Annie, to make things appear in bold text, you surround it with "b" tags. For example: Here is some <b>bold text</b>, would make those two words appear bold. Italics is a similar trick, using <i>tags like this</i>.

Colette McCormick said...

Glad to be of help Amanda. Hopefully we'll come up with the definitive answer.

I'd appreciate you emailing those notes to me Captain.

Pat Posner said...

There's a good example here, Gonna Be:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/4449516/Huckleberry-Finn-Chapter-by-Chapter-Summary

Colette McCormick said...

Thanks Pat I'l certainly check it out and thanks to Captain Black for the notes that he emailed me.

Annie Wicking said...

Right Cpt Black, I hope GBW doesn't mind me giving it ago. Nothing like trying it right away.

Colette McCormick said...

You go girl Annie

Annie Wicking said...

Wonderful Thank you, GBW, I love learning new things. Thank you too, Cpt Black.