Mal_Bey
Sloth-Speed Writer
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2015
- Posts
- 49
I am in the final stages of polishing a new chapter for my tale I am publishing in Novels. The previous chapter ended with a cliff hanger suddenness where the heroine extracts herself from a bad situation, and exits stage right. The new chapter catches up with her literally minutes after the previous chapter ended, and deals with the ramifications of getting out of the situation. Because of the serial nature of publishing here, where weeks or months between publishing chapters is normal, I put a short recap in the form of a "WTF just happened? Let me think about it..." paragraph. Multiple of my valiant beta readers flagged it as repetitious. And if I was publishing this as a true novel, I never would have written a recap. I don't think I would have even written the recap if more time had passed in the story. But given the two weeks between the chapters being published, and the importance of being in the same headspace as the heroine in the new chapter, it feels wrong to not recap.
What is the popular wisdom here? If I am publishing in N+N, is it better to ignore the serial nature of Lit publishing? Or is this a legitimate exception to the general rule you shouldn't recap between chapters?
What is the popular wisdom here? If I am publishing in N+N, is it better to ignore the serial nature of Lit publishing? Or is this a legitimate exception to the general rule you shouldn't recap between chapters?