Catch-up Chapter

[johndoe2007]

Someone else on another thread pointed out that he never read ________chp. 3 of a series unless he's read the previous ones. NOw this may be a problem to me and others writing a series consiering our chapter 1 might be shit while chapter 7 might be the greatest thing ever written.

So I was wondering if I should do a catch-up chapter for my series. Kind of like a sperate story to tell every what's happened so far. Thoughts?

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

No. That's like chopping down the trees to save the forest

 

[elfin_odalisque]

OMG no.

If chapter 1 is shit, abandon ship and start again. If you've reached chapter 7 and it's not in novels, you are writing a soap-opera or a pot-boiler and the readers just have to cope with joining in (or not) in the middle.

I've got exactly the same problem. I wrote two parts of a story that got well received ages ago and I've now finished part 3. The fact that ch 3 starts the morning after ch 2 ends doesn't help one bit. I've been toying with doing a 'what happened previously' para (don't like it), just plunging in, or - the option I've chosen for the moment - leave it on the hard drive.

Jenny, in her incomparable succinct way, is pretty well right.

 

[johndoe2007]

Thanks. But the wholechopping down trees to save the rainforest remark is a pretty wierd way of putting it.

 

[starrkers]

That's our Jenny
If you want more input, you could try this question in the Author's Hangout, it's more authorial than feedbackish.