I have figured out what the crippling, frustrating thing is that makes me cry and rage and veer away from my computer every time the issue of publishing my book comes up.
God knows I've dissected this a hundred times.
I've got THREE novels WRITTEN. COMPLETED. And I know the plots for the next three or four! And people have read them and liked them.
(
Read more... )
Try taking an Evan Marshal-like approach (whether you hate him or not): break your novel down into sections (or decide how many paragraphs you want in your synopsis) and for each one, just write what happens. You aren't summarizing the novel; you're listing the action (internal and external) and major changes that occur (again, internal and external). Basically, leave out anything that answers "why" in the first pass.
And don't do it for the whole book. Do it section-by-section. Much easier.
Practice by writing a synopsis for someone else's book. One you neither love nor hate.
The synopsis is the place you get to tell a little. Not too much, and you do want to go back andput some "story" in the synopsis after the first pass is done, but none of the examples I've read really summarize a novel.
The synopsis isn't where the agent or editor will look to decide if you can write. It is where they will look to decide if you can plot. Story telling and story crafting are wildly different skills and they want to know if you're good at one, both, or neither. The sample chapters in the submission will answer the writing question.
Take a look at more samples. I like the one in Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript, but I like that book overall. The examples in Writers Markets aren't as good.
But advice from me isn't worth much. I don't write to publish. I wrote to expand my collection of rejection slips. (I have 3 of the 5 major rejection lines from JJA at FSF and a signed rejection from ASFSF, but only a white slip from RoF). Rejectomancy is a beautiful art.
No matter what you do with it, good luck and keep enjoying writing.
- Xowl/Frie
Reply
Leave a comment