As a writer, I hate writing synopses.
synopsis--singular
synopses--plural, more than one
It's right up there with the query letter, but for a different reason.
A synopsis is the entirety of your story, told in third person, present tense. The idea behind this is to give an indicator to the reader (editor / agent / contest judge) of the story arc, emotional development, plot and ending.
Yes, you have to tell the ending. It's a given if you write romances that there is always a Happy For Now situation, except for Nicholas Sparks. I have yet to figure out why they call his books 'romances'. Romantic, yes, but not romances. It's right up there with Love Story, where the heroine dies at the end of the movie. Come to think of it, that's probably where he got his idea of killing someone off in the end.
With DRAGON, I knew what I wanted to do with the first 3-4 chapters, and I knew where I wanted it to end. It was all the stuff in the middle that I hadn't figured out. Oh, I knew it would work out, because I almost always figure it out, but I needed a synopsis for this one contest I wanted to enter, which meant I had to write one.
After a few days of jotting down notes and ideas, I wrote the darn thing. It was a mess, but it was written. I sent it to my good friend and CP, Meg.
This is where it pays off in spades to have a good CP who doesn't pull her punches--well, I DO think she pulls her punches some, but she hits me hard enough to jostle my brain pan into figuring out the answers.
I tweaked my synopsis and sent it back. SCORE! . . . for now. I'm sure the story will change, but it's merely a guideline. The problem that I had with this story--and most my synopses--is that I want to add all my subplot information. And, let me tell you, there's a lot of subplotting going on in this next book! It grew organically from the first three books, and I think it adds texture to this next story.
So with notes galore--remember all that thinking about the synopsis?--I managed to handwrite profuse amounts of chapter notes. They are all over the place and in no logical order. But the notes are there.
This will be the first time that I've written any story--even the ones that will never see the light of day--with a completed synopsis and profuse notes.
I can't wait to dig into this story!
Later, Peeps!
Showing posts with label synopsis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label synopsis. Show all posts
2/28/12
Mini Rant about Contests
As I might have mentioned, I have another packet of contest entries to judge. For the most part, I judge contest submissions the same way I critique. The difference is that when I crit, I know the writer's history, style and craft, and for the most part, I don't have to explain my comments. When I judge a contest entry, I don't know if the writer is brand spanking new or a published author trying out a different genre, which means you have to explain your scores.
--though you can tell pretty quickly the writers who have a little bit of experience under their belt.
And then you get those submissions where the writer gets your expectations and/or defenses up immediately.
I'm working on one of those contest entries right now.
Let me 'splain a little.
The way this particular contest put each entry together is: manuscript pages, one page synopsis, and score sheet.
Not all score sheets are created equal, so I had to flip all the way to the back to read the score sheet, the questions asked and the categories.
Okay, fine, this one was weighted VERY HEAVILY on the romance of the story, because the hero and heroine each had a seperate category with three questions each for a total of 30 points. OUCH! If you don't intro your hero or heroine within the submission pages, you could potentially get seriously dinged!
I really don't like those kinds of score sheets, as they tend to favor the intro of the H/H almost immediately. If you write a story that intro's either the hero or heroine later, then I'd avoid this type of contest. READ YOUR SCORE SHEETS PRIOR TO ENTERING A CONTEST.
Many times if I'm reading confusing manuscript pages, then I'll go to the synopsis to clarify who is who and then I'll get on with reading the story. But since it was a one-pager, I read it on this first submission.
And I reread it.
And tried again.
Nope. No clue as to who the hero OR the heroine were. NO clue as to what's at stake other than the end of the world (very, very broad external conflict). No clue as to any internal conflict, especially since I didn't know who the main character's were! It was a bunch of plot points that weren't even in any order to even show progression of the story.
And seperated by a couple of blank lines, the author wrote a statement that this was the third book in a series, but it could also stand-alone.
Ruh-Roh! Scooby-Doo!
Uh, no, it can't.
A quickie note about a synopsis. I don't care about all the politically correct upheavel about what constitutes a romance--romance writers know what I'm talking about here--so I will go as generic as possible.
A synopsis for a romance must show the two main characters with an attraction toward each other (they're usually fighting it) (for example: cop/con, werewolf/hunter), as the romance develops they experience internal and external conflict that tries to pull them apart, until the moment when they realize it will never work out (black moment) and resign themselves to the fact that they will never be together until something happens to threaten one of the MC's and they realize they can overcome their conflicts to live happily ever after or Happy for now.
So now, I'm faced with scoring this entry and writing copious notes about how I came to my conclusions. I have to say that giving a "1" is pretty harsh and I avoid it if at all possible. I try not to score below a three EVER, but I had to be harsh with this entry. Everything got a one, and yes, I explained why I scored this way.
But I have a feeling that this author won't have her listening ears on.
She was already defensive when she wrote that it was the third book in a series, which I think she felt excused her starting the story in the middle nowhere. Just because a book is the third in a series doesn't excuse the fact that you have to ground the reader in THIS book.
And this is my public service announcement for the day.
If there are any typos . . . oops, my stupid spell check button isn't working!
Later, Peeps!
--though you can tell pretty quickly the writers who have a little bit of experience under their belt.
And then you get those submissions where the writer gets your expectations and/or defenses up immediately.
I'm working on one of those contest entries right now.
Let me 'splain a little.
The way this particular contest put each entry together is: manuscript pages, one page synopsis, and score sheet.
Not all score sheets are created equal, so I had to flip all the way to the back to read the score sheet, the questions asked and the categories.
Okay, fine, this one was weighted VERY HEAVILY on the romance of the story, because the hero and heroine each had a seperate category with three questions each for a total of 30 points. OUCH! If you don't intro your hero or heroine within the submission pages, you could potentially get seriously dinged!
I really don't like those kinds of score sheets, as they tend to favor the intro of the H/H almost immediately. If you write a story that intro's either the hero or heroine later, then I'd avoid this type of contest. READ YOUR SCORE SHEETS PRIOR TO ENTERING A CONTEST.
Many times if I'm reading confusing manuscript pages, then I'll go to the synopsis to clarify who is who and then I'll get on with reading the story. But since it was a one-pager, I read it on this first submission.
And I reread it.
And tried again.
Nope. No clue as to who the hero OR the heroine were. NO clue as to what's at stake other than the end of the world (very, very broad external conflict). No clue as to any internal conflict, especially since I didn't know who the main character's were! It was a bunch of plot points that weren't even in any order to even show progression of the story.
And seperated by a couple of blank lines, the author wrote a statement that this was the third book in a series, but it could also stand-alone.
Ruh-Roh! Scooby-Doo!
Uh, no, it can't.
A quickie note about a synopsis. I don't care about all the politically correct upheavel about what constitutes a romance--romance writers know what I'm talking about here--so I will go as generic as possible.
A synopsis for a romance must show the two main characters with an attraction toward each other (they're usually fighting it) (for example: cop/con, werewolf/hunter), as the romance develops they experience internal and external conflict that tries to pull them apart, until the moment when they realize it will never work out (black moment) and resign themselves to the fact that they will never be together until something happens to threaten one of the MC's and they realize they can overcome their conflicts to live happily ever after or Happy for now.
So now, I'm faced with scoring this entry and writing copious notes about how I came to my conclusions. I have to say that giving a "1" is pretty harsh and I avoid it if at all possible. I try not to score below a three EVER, but I had to be harsh with this entry. Everything got a one, and yes, I explained why I scored this way.
But I have a feeling that this author won't have her listening ears on.
She was already defensive when she wrote that it was the third book in a series, which I think she felt excused her starting the story in the middle nowhere. Just because a book is the third in a series doesn't excuse the fact that you have to ground the reader in THIS book.
And this is my public service announcement for the day.
If there are any typos . . . oops, my stupid spell check button isn't working!
Later, Peeps!
8/3/11
Going Nuts
On Tuesday, I managed to drive myself bonkers.
Personally, I blame the weather. 110 degree of heat is insane! We aren't a desert here in Oklahoma. In fact the Northeastern section of our state used to be called 'Green Country'. I think we might have to change that to 'Brown Country' soon. It's not like this is an unusually temperature, but it's an extension of the days upon days of 100+ temps since JUNE. Ugh!
But then again, it could be the fact that I woke up at 3 freaking 30 AM! I finally gave up trying to go back to sleep at 4 AM. I thought, "Oh, I'll play a little Cafe World and write." I played CW, but then a CW friend IM'd me and that's all she wrote on the writing. Though I did manage to write 176 words--WooHoo--NOT!
So I went for my morning walk and felt quite refreshed afterwards. The kidlet had a friend spend the night and the girls wanted to swim. I managed to hold them off until I took a shower and had a smoothie.
--on a side note: My niece Carrie told me to try fresh spinach in my banana smoothies. So I did. It wasn't bad. I couldn't taste the spinach, though tiny bits did get stuck in my teeth!
3/4 cup 2% milk + 1/2-1 cup spinach leaves + frozen bananas (@ 1 1/2) = green smoothie 2 WW pts.
Anyhoo, while the girls frolicked in the pool. I took my netbook and worked on the synopsis of FIRE. I had about 500 words written and managed to delete most of it and wrote 300 new words. I like the synopsis so far, but now I have to BS my way through the rest of the story.
The girls were good, but distracting, so I decided to do 4 loads of laundry while I worked on the How-To article for Amy. She liked the way my blog looks and wanted me to write an easy how-to.
THIS is what finally pushed me over the edge. I started this blog 3-4 years ago and tweaked it as I went along. I didn't do it all at once!
I think I dug myself deep as I went into far too much detail. I called Amy (she was gone) left a pitiful message and decided to walk away and iron some shorts. By the time Amy called back, I knew where I went astray. I'll probably ditch most of what I wrote and start over with the basics.
Though my kidlet is now off playing at BounceU, I decided to throw in the towel for the day. My allergies/summer cold is bothering me (watery eyes, runny nose, etc) and I'm mentally drained. I have about an hour of peace and quiet.
I think I'll sit down to enjoy Judge Judy eviscerate some poor fool.
Later, Peeps!
Personally, I blame the weather. 110 degree of heat is insane! We aren't a desert here in Oklahoma. In fact the Northeastern section of our state used to be called 'Green Country'. I think we might have to change that to 'Brown Country' soon. It's not like this is an unusually temperature, but it's an extension of the days upon days of 100+ temps since JUNE. Ugh!
But then again, it could be the fact that I woke up at 3 freaking 30 AM! I finally gave up trying to go back to sleep at 4 AM. I thought, "Oh, I'll play a little Cafe World and write." I played CW, but then a CW friend IM'd me and that's all she wrote on the writing. Though I did manage to write 176 words--WooHoo--NOT!
So I went for my morning walk and felt quite refreshed afterwards. The kidlet had a friend spend the night and the girls wanted to swim. I managed to hold them off until I took a shower and had a smoothie.
--on a side note: My niece Carrie told me to try fresh spinach in my banana smoothies. So I did. It wasn't bad. I couldn't taste the spinach, though tiny bits did get stuck in my teeth!
3/4 cup 2% milk + 1/2-1 cup spinach leaves + frozen bananas (@ 1 1/2) = green smoothie 2 WW pts.
Anyhoo, while the girls frolicked in the pool. I took my netbook and worked on the synopsis of FIRE. I had about 500 words written and managed to delete most of it and wrote 300 new words. I like the synopsis so far, but now I have to BS my way through the rest of the story.
The girls were good, but distracting, so I decided to do 4 loads of laundry while I worked on the How-To article for Amy. She liked the way my blog looks and wanted me to write an easy how-to.
THIS is what finally pushed me over the edge. I started this blog 3-4 years ago and tweaked it as I went along. I didn't do it all at once!
I think I dug myself deep as I went into far too much detail. I called Amy (she was gone) left a pitiful message and decided to walk away and iron some shorts. By the time Amy called back, I knew where I went astray. I'll probably ditch most of what I wrote and start over with the basics.
Though my kidlet is now off playing at BounceU, I decided to throw in the towel for the day. My allergies/summer cold is bothering me (watery eyes, runny nose, etc) and I'm mentally drained. I have about an hour of peace and quiet.
I think I'll sit down to enjoy Judge Judy eviscerate some poor fool.
Later, Peeps!
7/20/09
Synopses
Awhile back I commented that every author should have a couple of different lengths of synopses for each of their novels, along with a good query letter.
I have an excellent query letter (after numerous ass-whoopin's from my buddy Jody-check out her blog, she's got snark down to an art!), which could also be a 'mini-synopsis' except it doesn't give away the ending. I honestly think this is my best query letter. Trust me, I've had enough stinkers to finally recognize a 'good' one.
--One, Jody had read MOGG (short for MISSING: One Garden Gnome, don'cha know) and knew the story.
--Two, she kept pushing me to try harder, to use better descriptors, etc., and did an incredible job making my query better without trying to rewrite MY query (VERY difficult to do, but she's the best!)
--Three, I'm sure there's a three, but it's early and I'm drawing a blank.
Anyhoo, so far I have 20 basic queries floating around--I've recieved two rejections, and one partial request (YAY! query works!). And I still have about 15 more agents I want to query, but they all want some form of synopsis along with the query, and/or pages. Every agent is different. At this point in the relationship (i.e. there IS NO relationship) the author must play by the agent's rules.
This is where the synopsis part comes in. This particular requesting agent wants a two page synopsis.
Uh, I only have a five page synopsis. This is the very resion why I suggested having a long (5-10 pgs) and short (2-3 pgs) synopsis plus a one page single-spaced synopsis. It's a good way to cover all the bases since no agent is alike in there preferences.
So I wrote my two page synopsis this last weekend between running errands, laundry, cleaning house, and swimming and relaxing with the family.
BUT the partial (synopsis and pages) will be waiting for the agent when she opens her computer today.
Write on!
I have an excellent query letter (after numerous ass-whoopin's from my buddy Jody-check out her blog, she's got snark down to an art!), which could also be a 'mini-synopsis' except it doesn't give away the ending. I honestly think this is my best query letter. Trust me, I've had enough stinkers to finally recognize a 'good' one.
--One, Jody had read MOGG (short for MISSING: One Garden Gnome, don'cha know) and knew the story.
--Two, she kept pushing me to try harder, to use better descriptors, etc., and did an incredible job making my query better without trying to rewrite MY query (VERY difficult to do, but she's the best!)
--Three, I'm sure there's a three, but it's early and I'm drawing a blank.
Anyhoo, so far I have 20 basic queries floating around--I've recieved two rejections, and one partial request (YAY! query works!). And I still have about 15 more agents I want to query, but they all want some form of synopsis along with the query, and/or pages. Every agent is different. At this point in the relationship (i.e. there IS NO relationship) the author must play by the agent's rules.
This is where the synopsis part comes in. This particular requesting agent wants a two page synopsis.
Uh, I only have a five page synopsis. This is the very resion why I suggested having a long (5-10 pgs) and short (2-3 pgs) synopsis plus a one page single-spaced synopsis. It's a good way to cover all the bases since no agent is alike in there preferences.
So I wrote my two page synopsis this last weekend between running errands, laundry, cleaning house, and swimming and relaxing with the family.
BUT the partial (synopsis and pages) will be waiting for the agent when she opens her computer today.
Write on!
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