Summarise a Novel Manuscript Chapter by Chapter for a Beta Reader Brief

If a chapter is hard to summarise in one sentence, that is usually a sign it does not know its own job yet. This works through your manuscript chapter by chapter, then flags the ones where the summary itself struggled, which is where your revision time should go.

Take the manuscript or chapter-by-chapter outline pasted below and summarise it chapter by chapter, one to two sentences each, tracking the throughline of the main plot. Note anywhere the summary itself feels hard to write, since that is usually a sign the chapter's purpose is unclear.

[paste manuscript or outline here]