Chapter planning for your own book?
I'm currently writing a novel and working on a chapter plan/summary. But somehow, it seems tedious in the long run, and I almost never stick to it; I almost always improvise. Will it be as beneficial later on?
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I think that a rough planning pays off.
Planning doesn't mean you have to stick to it 1:1. However, it helps to keep an overview, especially when you work with multiple actions and/or telling people.
Personally, I find a planning useful to be able to see if I have forgotten important things when writing. I plan my chapters/sections in order to have a rough overview of what is to happen in any case (whether exactly in the chapter or somewhere else is no matter).
Yes, usually it helps to have at least a rough plan where which chapter takes place and what happens in it. Whether you can shape it a bit further, bring it in a plane, etc. is your thing.
But I personally noticed that I am much more motivated in a story when I have a rough plan and can therefore follow my progress.
And if you're bringing in various different lines of action, I'd usually recommend that you do that just to keep an overview.
For my book project, I had the course of action to the end in my head, but really only rough, only written in three or four sentences.
I hadn't planned until the individual chapters.
I can't think of a scene "on order", so I failed with attempts like: "There must be something funny that forces the two to work together." Then, for months, I don't think of anything concrete they could work together.
I have to take my seizures as they come – and they come in fragments. One sentence, one whole scene, one squirting dialogue. time for the middle part, times for the end; for this and sometimes for that action.
Also on this path, I will certainly come to the goal of a coherent overall history. Only it is very laborious and time-consuming to assemble my "puzzle parts". Very often, I have to change and rewrite scenes so that they interlock. For about 10 months, I have been sorting and reworking more than writing new things. But in these 10 months I managed to puzzle more than half the manuscript into a coherent story.
My conclusion: Many ways lead to the goal. If the shortest way to me doesn't fit, I just have to go a long way.
No.