I'm in a good mood this morning, which means I've finally stuffed my inner rage/disappointment/depression into the corner it usually occupies.
Which means: More writing to do today. Still working on the chapter by chapter summary of Fury (the first step to beginning my synopses). More than halfway done, so yay!
I will also be working on ONE THOUSAND and my evil tree story. EVIL TREE (working title) is a bit slippery at this point. I thought first person POV would be appropriate, but now I'm not too sure. Morgan is coming off a bit melodramatic. Not what I was going for. So I might try an exercise in third person limited today. Depends.
Apparently Writer's Digest will be releasing the names of the finalists in its short story contest this week. I'm not holding my breath, but I am crossing my fingers. Please, professional somebody, like my work. (Fingers hurting now.)
Working on a synopsis? Try this:
ReplyDeleteState your beginning in a sentence. Go to the bottom of your page, and state the ending in a sentence. Then fill in the rest of the page with the key points. Yes, ONE page (single spaced).
This is much less work than going through your story chapter by chapter and trying to decide what to include and what not to. You will find that some chapters can be skipped completely, since the synopsis only needs the MAIN plot points and MAIN characters. Just because you can skip a chapter in a synopsis, doesn't mean it's an unnecessary chapter for the novel. There is no way you can include one point from every chapter and keep it succinct.
Once you have the one-page synopsis complete, this is your baseline. For most agents, it is enough, especially ones that require a "brief synopsis" with the query letter. But if someone wants more, you can expand it in certain places.
And remember, there is proportionately more telling in a synopsis than showing. Clear, simple prose is best. Compared to your story, it's going to seem boring. Agents understand that the true storytelling is in the story, though. Not the query letter. And not the synopsis.
I could go on forever. Sorry. I'll stop there.
Go Brandi! Go!
ReplyDelete@ Lydia
ReplyDeleteOMG, where were you three weeks ago! LOL. Just kidding. Truly, this exercise in chapter summary has proved quite beneficial. Now, I can refer back to it and look at my plot arc. I've also picked up on inconsistency in characters and my own voice. (One chapter I had a character mad at the other one and then in the next chapter all was forgiven FOR NO REASON). It makes me want to cry, but luckily I'm catching this before I'm sending it out to agents.
Does it suck? Yes. But I'm learning from it. AND I'm 3/4 through. Hooray. I might even be DONE today. Yay!
@ Telliot
As my fiance says: OOOHHHRAHH! (Ok, all marines say that. But he's the only one I know, so...yeah.)
Ah inconsistencies. My current bane. Good luck with your summary and synopsis. You can do it.
ReplyDelete