Each character, scene, and bit of backstory should matter
I don't know exactly how and why all these details are important, but I know they are. This author does not waste the reader's time.
Make sure your audience can feel it when the story has reached a turning point.
be{ing} creative first thing in the morning, before doing anything for the outside world, really sets the day up for me. It makes it feel that CREATING is my job, not answering emails.http://www.sfwa.org/2011/06/guest-post-the-no-1-habit-of-highly-creative-people/
Brainstorm what everyone else would do, then do the opposite.
Peak curiosity. Raise questions... Will your readers wonder why? If not, then rewrite it so they will...
Add a secret...
Always end at a place where the reader will wonder what will happen next... Does the last line of chapter one hook you? If not, why not? Rewrite it so the reader will want to know more....
withhold... valuable information... If you{r readers} already know, then there is no suspense.
1. Article - The girl sat on the bus.
2. Noun - Rain soaked through his jacket.
3. Interjection - Oh, he knew what he was doing.
4. Participial phrase - Running after her, he stumbled and fell.
5. Conjunction - Either she wanted to be with him or she didn't.
6. Adverb - Stubbornly, he crossed his arms.
7. Adjective - Upset over what had happened, he refused to speak to anyone.
8. Prepositional Phrase - At the top of the stairs, he turned around.
9. Infinitive Phrase - To pour out his soul to the woman he loved was his goal.
10. Gerund - Shouting was the only thing that worked.
A chapter summary is not a synopsis, btw. A synopsis has its own narrative flow. It is meant to engage, inform and basically sell your work.
In the first level of imagining a story, I say, “It was a beautiful sunny day.” In the second level, I take it from the abstract to something more concrete. I try to make it not just “a” day, but “a real” day. Maybe I’ll describe the wildfires, or the afternoon thunderstorm that you smell coming even at dawn. In the third level, I go even farther. I begin to come up with details that don’t just make it a “real day of a kind” but that make it a “unique” day—a day when ladybugs land on your arm at the mailbox...
I also tell you something about my character. She doesn’t try to kill the insect or brush it off; she admires it
