Writing Chapter Summaries: Theme, Objective, and Takeaway Tips for Narrative Creative Writers

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When I wrote my manuscript, “In the beginning” weren’t the first words I penned, and “The end” weren’t my last words. Like a roller coaster, I was in and out and flipping upside down, putting together what seemed like a jigsaw puzzle. And then there were the edits and revisions, which certainly had me all over the place.

So too, it is like this in writing my book proposal. While there are many components to this, I’m starting in the “middle” with my chapter summaries. After all, these summaries will be the backbone in supporting everything I need to say.

If you have a memoir, fiction manuscript, or other narrative creative writing story, then this post could help you.

Tips for writing each of the chapter summaries are:

Keep it brief, from one to five paragraphs. Once you’ve covered the below needed information, that’s all the facts you need:

·       Who (As minimal as one word)

And each of the below can be covered in one paragraph, if not less:

·       Goal(s)

·       Problem(s)

·       Reaction(s)

·       Outcome

Leave out subplots. Only the gist of the chapter is necessary.

Also:

·       Include internal and external conflicts—perhaps in the goal or problem descriptions.

·       Keep characters to a minimum. No need to include everyone who’s involved.

·       Keep paragraphs to a manageable size—no long-winded jargon—keep it tight.

·       Don’t use rhetorical questions

·       Do tell what happened, and

·       Do tell the end.  

Theme, readership objective, and takeaway are also musts. These need to be smoothly interwoven into each chapter summary.

Theme

Each summary needs to be inclusive of my themes. For example, two themes in my manuscript are 1), my relationship to my maternal great-grandmother, Nana, and 2) secrets. These two themes are stated in my description of my manuscript, as found on my web page. This excerpt reads:

My story is about becoming who I was supposed to be, and not who as a child I agreed to become. Highly regarded by our family matriarch, my place in the family lineage as first great-grandchild came with a price. I learned early how to please my nana. But, life isn’t perfect—sometimes it involves testing dangerous waters—and as a young woman my transgressions chased me into an abyss of secrets. Nana was no longer living, but her revered voice pounded at my thoughts. Then, I wanted to make right where I’d gone astray, but could I? Would I?

So, in each summary, I need to reference my secrets and I need to show movement through my relationship with Nana. I’m still working this out—it’s a lengthy process to write these summaries. But when done, I plan to do a “search and find” in my document, pulling out my Nana statements for review. I will look to see if these statements tell a story all on their own. Where revision is needed, I’ll revise. Having a bunch of facts about Nana isn’t going to impress anyone. Showing our evolving relationship and how this affects the outcome of my goal is my aim.

For you, themes are any topics which pervade every chapter.

Readership objective

Think of this with a twofold purpose. 1) To target who will read this and 2) Marketing your story to reach these readers. A story might be good, but if our intended audience doesn’t know it exists, we fall. In stating our key events of the chapter, include those parts which specifically correlate with your targeted audience.

Takeaway

Takeaway is the message, reflection, or truism. In each chapter, ask yourself this question: “If I could make my reader understand something, what would it be?”

Now, infuse an emotional answer in your chapter summary. For example, in my second chapter, I want to let my readers know it is possible to have courage when faced with opposition. Thus, in my chapter summary, I describe an event which is in opposition of my feelings, how I feel about it, and then how I gain courage to overcome the difficulty.

For more about Takeaway, I have two past posts on this subject:

·       Reflection versesTakeaway, 11/3/2016 and

·       Takeaway Part 2, 11/20/2016

In Conclusion 

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Once completed, to consider if the overall length of your chapter summaries as a whole is on target, consider this math equation:

Number of chapters’ times one.

Number of chapters’ times five.

If your paragraphs are well structured and brief and to the point, then your final overall count in paragraphs should fall in the range between those two numbers.

Photo by James Tarbotton

Remember, we are writers—we can do this. And it can be exciting to do this because it means an opportunity to tell agents, editors, and publishing houses why our readers want us to get our story published. Please share in the comments or drop me a line if you’d like to weigh in on this.

Photo by Joe Wroten

Bye for now, and happy writing.

-Elle-