Is there a way to re-organize existing chapters?

[CurvyLinesEverywhere]

I've been pantsing with my writing so far, with only a vague idea of the climax each scene is building towards, and a far-off overall goal stated plainly in the opening scene. With this framework, I can generally go back and tweak small details in the past to improve the payoff in the present and set up the cool ideas I just came up with for the future.

But what about when I suddenly realize that I missed out on an opportunity to flesh out the relationship with a character before introducing new ones? What about when I realize more time should have passed, and there's a nice little interlude between two characters that we could have inserted back there? What about when I just plain want there to be a chapter 2.5 in between chapter 2 and chapter 3?

If I were writing this all in plaintext, it would be as simple as just moving the carat to the end of Chapter 2 and typing. Moving chapters around would be as simple as copying and pasting. And while I realize it's possible to copy and paste the contents of old chapters into the bodies of brand-new chapters, it's a lot of busywork, it's prone to user error, and it loses all engagement information from the original version of the chapter.

So, is there a way to click and drag existing chapters around? To plug an existing Answer in to a different chapter's Question? Or perhaps to edit the decimal numbers for each chapter directly? I haven't noticed any controls like that clicking around my Story Map or the individual Story or Chapter editors, but it's possible I'm just looking in the wrong places.

Come to think of it, I've even seen a story that pulled off a time loop, before. So I know it must be possible. If I can't re-organize Chapters, how can I at least link to an existing Chapter?

 

[CurvyLinesEverywhere]

Google led me to this forum thread, which pointed back to the Add/Edit Chapter section in the CHYOA guide. From item 5 on this page:

Link Chapter
It is possible to use a chapter to forward the reader to another existing chapter. This way you can merge branches or create loops in your story.
A. Click on "Link Chapter" in the sidebar.
B. Switch to the "Chapter"-field and type the chapter name, you want to link to. Choose the desired chapter from the list, which opens after typing the first letters.
Only use empty chapters as Linking Chapters! Linking Chapters are chapters on their own and can't have Chapter text. If you add a Chapter Link and save the chapter, the text in the Chapter text field will be discarded.

So, basically, it would require creating a new "dummy" chapter at the end of Chapter 2, which is nothing but a Chapter Link to my intended next Chapter, and then at the end of that chain I'd do another Link Chapter back to Chapter 3. Then Unlink Chapter 3 from Chapter 2.

I could see the story map very quickly turning into a mess of spaghetti using this technique, so I guess I'd better use it sparingly.

I hope somebody will let me know if I got it wrong, or if there's any gotchas in this process that I need to know about. Thanks!

 

[gene.sis]

So, is there a way to click and drag existing chapters around?

It is currently not possible for users to move around chapters.
Right now, only Friedman can manually rearrange chapters in the database.

So, basically, it would require creating a new "dummy" chapter at the end of Chapter 2, which is nothing but a Chapter Link to my intended next Chapter, and then at the end of that chain I'd do another Link Chapter back to Chapter 3. Then Unlink Chapter 3 from Chapter 2.

I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve.

You can't use a Link Chapter to create an empty dummy chapter between two chapters as a Link Chapter can't have child chapters. (There was a bug that allowed you to do that before, so you might still find some chapters on older story maps.)

 

[Dissonant Soundtrack]

So, basically, it would require creating a new "dummy" chapter at the end of Chapter 2, which is nothing but a Chapter Link to my intended next Chapter, and then at the end of that chain I'd do another Link Chapter back to Chapter 3. Then Unlink Chapter 3 from Chapter 2.

I could see the story map very quickly turning into a mess of spaghetti using this technique, so I guess I'd better use it sparingly.

I hope somebody will let me know if I got it wrong, or if there's any gotchas in this process that I need to know about. Thanks!

Your problem is the bolded. To my knowledge, unless you delete the entire chapter and add it back, you can't break the link from 2->3.

Imagine you have Chapter 1 -> Chapter 2. You decide you want to add a Chapter 1.5.
1) Go to Chapter 1, hit Add New Chapter.
2) This is Chapter 1.5, write it.
3) From Chapter 1.5, hit Add New Chapter
4) Select "Link Chapter" [Step A above]
5) Type in the Title of the chapter you want to link it to. [Step B]

When you're done, you will have two paths a reader can follow:
1 -> 2

and

1 -> 1.5 -> Link Chapter -> 2

You can't create 1 -> 1.5 -> 2 on your own.

FWIW, I did this in one of my stories. This is the setup I have here (https://chyoa.com/chapter/Michael-Clark,-a-41-year-old-owner-of-a-struggling-firm-[Prologue].1137084)

You can continue the plot with "Ok now seriously..."https://chyoa.com/chapter/Ok-now-seriously,-Michael-this-time.1137086
or you can read the rules, then select "Back to the Plot," which takes you back to "Ok now seriously..."

 

[gene.sis]

In a story with game mode activated, there would be another possibility.
There, you could add a link chapter that links to the chapter where you choose the link chapter as an option.
Depending on if you came from the parent chapter or the link chapter, you could show a different chapter text. (You need to use a variable that gets set/changed in the parent chapter and link chapter and conditions that ensure that you can only access the link chapter once.)
If doing so, both chapters would be in a single chapter, so readers liking or unliking the one part would also like or unlike the other part.

This only makes any sense if you make use of game mode anyway.
After taking a quick glance at your story, I guess it is rather a linear story, so game mode might not be necessary. (If you don't know what it is good for, you might also rather turn game mode off.)