Synopsis Again

Last week, I was having a brief discussion about that most hated thing... The Synopsis. Or "How in the hell to boil 100K words into 2-pages?"

There's been a lot of discussion around the web about this issue, since it seems to be the bane of a writer's existence. With this discussion there seems to be many conflicting opinions on how in-depth one should be, how snazzy one should make it, what should-could-can be left out of one.

My understanding after boiling all this down is that a synopsis should generally be no more than two pages. Hit the high points. Who is your main character? What is the problem he faces? Who is the antagonist? How does the problem get resolved? In other words, a blurb with more detail. (And please understand, I haven't sold a page yet, so my understanding could be way off the mark.)

When I first started working on a synopsis, I took my outline (and we'll talk about that another time) and I put each bullet point into a sentence, creating a paragraph for each scene. I ended up with a 5 page synopsis that read like a litany of separate incidents. In other words, it blew chunks. But since I didn't know any better, that was the synopsis that got sent out whenever an agent asked for a synopsis to be included in a query packet.

I think that synopsis did more to torpedo my work than it ever helped. Looking back on that thing, I wouldn't have asked for pages if I was faced with a massive boring thing like that.

So I did some more research. I found a couple sites that gave very good information (See Mastering the Dreaded Synopsis - Condensing Your Novel for one of the best, IMO.) And I took that information to re-write the synopsis for Caldera. My first stab at the synopsis wasn't anywhere near as horrible as the very first one I wrote for Spectacle, but it was still fairly rancid. My last stab was much better. (I think... I hope.)

I read an agent's blog recently (Sorry, I forget who) where they said they hate reading synopses as much as we hate writing them, but they are a necessary evil. It's the only way for an agent to see that you can, in fact, write all the necessary components of a story (i.e. beginning, middle, end) without having to read the whole story. Think about it from their standpoint: When your time is split between your myriad of clients plus the work necessary to sell their books, AND the 100-200 queries you get every week, AND the partials you request and the fulls you request, AND keeping up with the industry news, etc., you really don't have time to get halfway through a book only to find out the writer wrote well at the beginning, but he didn't have a clue about how to wrap the story up and everything fell flat. All that time wasted. Synopses cut that time considerably. So, hated or not, they're vital to the job.

I don't have all the answers. Like you, I am doing the best I can to create the best query packet possible. After all the time I spent writing my books, it seems silly not to spend a large amount of time perfectly my queries for them.

Any thoughts? How is your synopsis writing coming along? And if you've got any hints for those people who are still floundering, comment away. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Here I Go Again

Here we go synopsizing along the... la la laaaa. I forget the words. Anyway, I'm back to synopsizing again. Weeeeeee.

This morning I re-read Anne Mini's series on writing a synopsis. It fired me up last time. This time? Not so much. I know the drill. I've done it umpteen times now; I can do it again.

So why the hell is it so damn hard?

*shrug* Hard or not, it has to be done. The first agent on my list asks for a synopsis up front. Of course, I could be a wimp and not submit to her yet, but that would be cutting off my nose to spite my face. There is no rational reason to handicap my chances by not doing a synopsis, so here I am. Again.

One of the things Ms. Mini says about writing a synopsis is to not get a 'tude about it. I don't have one. I seriously understand the need, and I'm happy to comply. My problem is, I don't feel like I write them nearly as well as I write the story. My stories flow out of me, and I have to drag a synopsis out.

Another thing she says, and many agree with, is that the synopsis should read like a story. It should not read like a laundry list of events. I get that. I try to write them that way. I really do. And they still come out that way. Turds that they are. So I edit the damn synopses almost as much as I edited the manuscript (maybe more... I know it feels like more).

Anyway, enough bitching. I got a good start out tonight. And this is how I've learned to do it...

First, I sit down on the couch with a notepad. Today I spent most of the day thinking about how to begin. I made a few lame attempts, and finally hit on the wording for the first paragraph. After that I did several more lame attempts at the second paragraph until I was irritated enough to walk my ass over to the computer. I typed in the good stuff, and let my fingers do the walking from there. It's crap, and it needs a boatload of editing, but it's better than sitting and thinking about what I want to say. (Never get writing done just sitting and thinking, I say.) After the first few paragraphs, I opened the manuscript, and checked to see if I was skipping anything. Yep, missed some important points. Added that stuff in, and moved forward.

Right now I have 713 words of synopsis, and I've covered the first six chapters. Not a bad start now that I think about it. Since part of my attack plan for these things is to write down every little thing, there'll be a lot of chopping to get it down to the typical 3-5 pages - depending on which agent wants it. Then there'll be those agents who want the whole damn thing, and the agents who only want a page or two at the most. I'll tailor it to whoever I'm sending it to, of course. (One thing about writing an in-depth synopsis is that you can always tweak it to whatever length it needs to be. If you've only got a two-pager, expanding it to 7-10 pages is so much harder, I think.)

So, the hope is that I will be able to send this out on submission soon. If you're reading this and you're still reading for me, keep going. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

How do you feel about synopsizing? Any tips?

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That Darn Synopsis

The bane of the writer's existence... The Synopsis. It really ought to be a B-grade horror movie. The Synopsis That Ate New York. (Or maybe just made New York gag because it was so bad.)

But seriously. I just got a line on a publisher that might love Caldera, but they ask for the first 3 chapters and a synopsis, and to be perfectly honest my synopsizing blows chunks.

So, sitting here not writing, (and worrying over creating a zippy enough synopsis to make this particular publisher pant like a hungry dog over a much-prized meaty bone), I read a wonderful blog post by my new hero - Allison Brennan - called Book Proposals. In it she gives a very cut-and-dried method for creating a synopsis. It involves four key components:

1) Hook
2) "Back Cover"
3) Climax
4) Ending

And she says it should be no more than a page - "cut and refined for a query letter." Hallelujah! (Is it any wonder the gal is my new hero?)

So, as soon as I get out of this slump I've been in, I'm hitting the keyboard to come up with just such a synopsis. (And then I'm going to cross every dual part of my body - including kidneys and lungs if I have to - that this sucker will fly.)

Wish me luck.

Synopsizing Again

If you haven't read Anne Mini's workshop on writing a synopsis, what are you waiting for? I know, I know. I hadn't read it myself, but I was busy writing. No excuse, but it works for me. The last thing I like to do is write synopses.

Or maybe I should make that past tense.

This morning I read the workshop, and let me tell you, it fired me up. She's so right on so many levels, I can't begin to describe them all.

First off, she hammers the point home about the synopsis being a major marketing tool for your work, and let's face it, we all need to think of our books as products. Like it or not, they are and they need marketing. If we were just writers to write, none of this would be necessary. I mean, good lord, I could crank out a half-dozen books a year if I never had to think about whether anyone else was going to read them. Since I'm writing to be read, I need to take the time to think about selling these once I'm done. (Unless, unlike me, you're a wealthy philanthopist who's planning on giving away your books. Then ignore this advice, and send me a grant so I can eat while I'm waiting to sell.)

Then she not only reminds writers that a synopsis shouldn't be just a litany of events, that synopsis should be as interesting and exciting as the book itself, but she also gives tips on how to achieve that.

Reading the whole thing took some time, but it was worth every second. It was an eye-opening experience for me, and inspired me to get cracking on the new synopsis for Spectacle (since that's the one ready to be pushed into query-land right now).

Oh, and one other thing she says that I think bears repeating. It's never too early to start working on your synopsis. Don't wait until the last minute, or you'll find yourself throwing some pointless crap together and defeating your own purpose (my words, not hers - she says it nicer).

So, what are you waiting for?

Writing a Synopsis

Let's say you've finished writing your novel. One of the first things you need to do (after you've edited the hell out of it and it shines like the top of the Chrysler Building), is to write a synopsis.

Okay, the general concensus about synopses is they suck. How do you take a 100K word novel and smoosh it down to a page or two (at most)? As horrible as they are, they are quite necessary if your goal is securing representation, or even to go directly to publishers. So the sooner we all master them, the better our lives will be.

After a long and arduous Google search, I found the following which I thought was helpful:

http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/synopsis.html "Mastering the Dread Synopsis"

You can also find help by reading through Miss Snark's Crapometer postings. The current one is about how to write a hook, so you may want to skim through the archives of her past contests.

As I prepare to edit draft 1 of book 3, I'm not really worried about doing a synopsis yet, but I know as soon as I'm through, I'll be working on it.

Good luck and success to you all.

Good Rejections

*yawn* :blink: :blink:

I feel like Rip Van Winkle this morning. Not that I spent yesterday sleeping or anything, I just feel like I did. In fact, I probably should've, but that's a whole nother story. After the weekend writing marathon, I was just bleh. To combat the blehs, I sat on the couch and watched TV, and I read most of a book. I also played some poker, but that went badly so I'm trying not to think about it.

Now about that oxymoron of a subject...

In the midst of my bleh-defeating day, I received a rejection letter from a partial of RTL I sent back in May. And yay, it found me, since it was sent before I knew I would have to move and therefore the SASE had the old address. On the rejection scale it was a really nice letter. She said she really liked my writing, but... 1) with the economy sucking like it does, she has to be extra super selective, 2) the synopsis didn't wow her, 3) from said synopsis, the bad guys all seemed one-dimensional, and 4) she was concerned the politics of the plot would overwhelm the suspense.

I'm hanging on to the 'really liked my writing' part. I'm also cursing the economy and the people who got us in this mess. As for the synopsis thing, I'm going to have to take a look at it and see where it fell apart, because it obviously wasn't doing its job.

For instance, I really don't think my villains are one-dimensional. Sure, they're all evil (because I don't do diet evil) but each of them has many layers to their personality. Perhaps that's not quite apparent in the first few chapters, and obviously not in the synopsis, but the layers are there.

There's nothing I can do about the politics. They're integral to the plot, but IMO they don't overwhelm the suspense of the book. I purposefully wrote the novel in such a way that the politics are an undercurrent, but not the main thrust of the plot. *shrug* I guess my synopsis didn't tell that tale very well.

So anyway, I'm taking that one as a positive letter. Have to take the positives where you can. I'm also calling another RTL rejection positive (I got this one back in November from a partial sent in September). In that one, the agent said she liked the premise but she thought it was more suited to the SF market, with which she wasn't familiar. *shrug* Miss Snark always said : Query Widely. Since RTL is one of those stories that crosses genre, I was trying everyone who represented any of the three genres it touches.

Anyway, as I approach the end of the year, and the end of another novel, I'm starting to think about the query process again. I'm taking the lessons learned, and working to apply them to the next round.

Oh, and speaking of rounds... Karin Tabke is getting ready to host another First Line Contest. I think I'm entering RTL this year. Here's hoping my first lines make the cut. I could really use some good news this month.

Your turn: Any thoughts on my rejections? I'm trying to stay positive about it, but I don't want to turn into Pollyanna. Have you ever gotten a good rejection, or is the oxymoron just too much?

Unstuck (Kinda, Sorta, Maybe)

Part of the problem with writing a synopsis is trying to jam a whole book into 2-3 pages. Hitting on the important parts without sounding like a grocery list; infusing your voice into a sequence of events so the damn thing isn't dry as a Colorado riverbed. It's damn hard.

But that wasn't my problem yesterday. Or rather, it was but not like it usually is.

Yesterday morning and all day Saturday I was agonizing over every sentence and worrying over every word. I forgot to give myself permission to suck. This time it was all coming from the fact that I have found what I think it the perfect agent for this book, and I am so freaked out about making the synopsis perfect, I can't even write the damn thing. Every sucky word was killing my ability to just get the thing on paper. Once you get the thing out, you can fix it. If you never get it out, you're truly screwed.

I was truly screwed.

In the end, I tricked myself. I told myself I was just going to sit down and compile the events of the book so I could use that to write the synopsis. I sat on the couch with a notepad beside me, and I wrote stuff down as it occurred to me. Commercials, slow spots in a show.... Any time I could think of a good way to describe the next event, I wrote it down. Guess what? I now have a good beginning to my synopsis, and I did it without even trying. Sure, it needs rewording. I knew it would. But it's there, and this time, that was the hardest part.

Except now that I admitted my trick publicly, my subconscious may try to torpedo my progress. *shrug* I'll deal with that when the time comes.

How are things in your world today? Ever had to do an end-around on yourself?

Stuck

I went to bed last night thinking about my synopsis. I spent about 90 minutes working on it after dinner. Sitting here at the computer seemed to be causing writerly constipation, so I grabbed a notebook and worked on it while sitting on the couch. Nope. I'd write a paragraph and cross it out. Pages and pages of crossed off paragraphs later, I gave up and went to bed. Which is why I lay there thinking about it for too long, and woke up thinking about it too early.

I am officially stuck. RTL flowed out of my fingers--a waterfall of inspiration. Its synopsis is a dry riverbed. And I'm choking on the dust.

During this hardcopy work last night, I did manage to rewrite the first paragraph of my WIP (now known as Pseudonymous Mystery) and get some plotting done so I can fix the problems with it, so it's not like my writing is totally jammed. It's just this blasted synopsis. It's bad enough now that I actually thought about offering money to my CP just to get her to write it for me. (And I never ask anyone do my work for me.) It's 'beat my head against a wall' frustration I'm talking about here.

So now I'm up at an ungodly hour (thanks in part to my furry gray alarm clock), and the blockage is still there. Gah.

Screw it. I'm going back to bed. Maybe when I wake up I'll be refreshed--bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and raring to go.

Heh. That'll be the day.

Done

Okay. This is it. Other than a few tweaks, I think I have a blow-by-blow synopsis that is neither expansive nor boring. Unfortunately, there are too many plot spoilers for me to detail it here.

Anyone who wants to give it a looksee, let me know. Any volunteers would be greatly appreciated, and I am offering payment either in the form of a free book of your choice from my store or reciprocal readings of your query, synopsis, outline, or writing.

The new synopsis is just under 5 pages or 1549 words. Should be a breeze, but I can't look at it any more and remain objective.

Any takers?

The Flying Leap

Taking the big leap, I'm prepping a packet to send to a publisher. I know, bypassing the agent step isn't always the best way to go, but in this case, I'm just taking a flying jump into the fray.

"Why" you ask?

Look at it as trying something new. I haven't exhausted all the possible agents in the world, but when I heard about a well-known publisher who's taking unagented submissions, I figured I'd give it a go. Nothing ventured; nothing gained.

The packet will consist of the first 57 pages of Nature of Destruction (Caldera), my nifty neat synopsis, and a yet-to-be-written cover letter. (And always the handy-dandy SASE.) They're asking for the first three chapters or the first 40-60 pages, and since this book's first three amount to 85 pages, I decided to give them the first two and the beginning of chapter 3. The first two probably would meet their requirements--ending at pg 50--but the first scenes in chapter 3 are so essential, I'm jumping at the chance to include them, too.

Additionally, their idea of a synopsis is 3-10 pages, and as I'm sure you all know (and are sick of hearing about by now) mine is just over 1 page. So, my nifty neat synopsis is going to have to expand to meet their needs. After the slice and dice I did on it, it's not going to be an easy task, but I'm going to suck it up and do it anyway. Besides, any writing is good practice for the future. Right?

Anyway, with any luck, the packet will be heading out Monday morning. Then comes the waiting game. The expected lead time on this submission is posted as 4-6 months. Maybe I'll get some Christmas news. ;o)

If I do, I'll post it here as soon as I get it.

Synopsis - Caldera

I said in a comment a couple of days ago that I was going to post the synopsis out here for god and everybody to read.

D'oh!

I forgot that eventually I'm going to want people to buy this book, and if I give it all away in the blog, I'm going to lose sales. So, I decided to give an abbreviated version here - with all plot spoilers removed to avoid the reader-hate. (Because I absolutely hate when people spoil the plot for me, and I don't want to perpetuate that.)

If you're one of the people who'd like to read the whole unadulterated thing, drop me an e-mail and I'll shoot it over. Otherwise, here's the snipped version:

-----------------
Every six-hundred, thousand years, the volcano under Yellowstone erupts. Right now, it’s way overdue.

When seismologist Dr. Myke Hughes confronts the government with proof the eruption is nearing, they choose to ignore her warnings. When Old Faithful explodes in a torrent of boiling water, they have no longer have a choice. Even though Myke knows no one can stop a volcano, she’s got the plans to control the eruption—to save the millions in its path, but at the cost of the nation’s most beloved national park. With nature at risk, eco-terrorist Fisher will use every nasty trick he can think of to stop Myke’s plan. Even if it means taking out a few pesky human lives along the way.

Driven by demons of her own, Mykaela Hughes poured everything she was into building Hughes Geologic Services. After years of monitoring the megavolcano under Yellowstone, she doesn’t need anyone telling her the data is correct. After devoting her life to finding a way to thwart nature, she doesn’t need a consensus to know her theories are sound. She just needs everyone to get out of her way so she can avert the disaster she knows is coming.

Decades as Yellowstone’s head ranger have given Gray Douglas comfort in the safety of his park. After all, volcanic activity has always been a part of its grandeur. He doesn’t see the danger growing under his feet. All he does see is a certain fiery scientist bent on using Yellowstone as her own private way to grab some glory, and he won’t let a woman like that hurt him or his park again.

Heir to a fortune he couldn’t earn, :spoiler snip: wallows in the achievements only the environmentalist movement could bring him. His wealth brings him the power he craves so he can finally rule the world he hates. Masquerading as the eco-terrorist known only as Fisher, :snip: believes men are only as valuable as his need for them, and he very rarely needs them. Fisher has money enough to do what he likes, but as the great-grandson of a land-raping miner, he hates his money almost as much as he hates mankind. Money only has one purpose for him now though—funding the fight against Myke Hughes.

After the geyser eruption, Gray realizes he’s spent years as a pawn for men like :snip: and his lackeys. His battle to stop Myke becomes a fight to help her save America from the threat growing beneath his beautiful park.

Finally Myke’s plans for a controlled eruption are moving forward. The drills she’s so carefully designed are on their way, and the government has stopped interfering with her plan to vent the lava into their national park. But sometimes when the road seems smoothest, it’s the most treacherous. Soon every path is blocked and at every turn they face another brick wall. It doesn’t take a scientist to know Fisher is behind it all. If only they knew who Fisher really was, and who was on the inside helping him.

Still, discovery of Fisher’s identity doesn’t make the work any easier. Even as he becomes a fugitive, his minions carry out his plans of sabotage and destruction. With every inch drilled closer to the lava, thousands of Fisher’s sacrificial lambs fill the park, hoping their bodies will guilt the government into stopping the project. Despite what Fisher and his minions think, though, a bigger portion of the populous is at stake. Thousands may die if Myke’s plan succeeds; hundreds of thousands will die if it doesn’t.

:The last three paragraphs are all about the ending, so I don't want to put those here. Sorry.:
-----------------------------

It ended up at about a page and a half - or 757 words. Still short of the three pages the publishers asks for, but I'm hoping less is more. This sucker is still pretty rough, but I think I'm closer than I've been in the past incarnations of the synopsis. Feel free to comment as you like. Let me know if anything is unclear, or if I've made any gross errors up there anywhere. Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.

(ETA: I accidentally left a plot spoiler in there. It is now snipped, but I apologize to anyone who read it. I shall now go immolate myself.)

Since It's Saturday...

...it means time to work on the non-writing part of this writing business - chiefly synopsis time again. After five days of not looking at it, it's easier to see what needs to be reworded and what needs to be snipped, but it's still slow going. An hour of tweaking and I'm only done with the first page. Only nine pages to go. And then when the full synopsis is finished, I have to trim it down to 3-5 pages for those agents, or the severe trim down to one page for the sticklers who will only accept a single page. Fun fun fun.

In other news, the Wolverines came back from a 19 point deficit to beat the Badgers. Hail to the Victors Valiant! God, the tension of those last couple minutes was almost unbearable. Damn, I love football. ;o) Also in football news, a few teams lost that I don't much care for. Yay. (Mind you, I don't have anything against Wisconsin - lovely state that features prominently in Manhunter. I just want Michigan to win.) BTW, Michigan State won, too. And so did Central Michigan and Western Michigan. Other than Eastern's loss, it was a good day for the state all in all.

Can you tell I'm a little homesick?

How are things in your world? Did your team win, or do you not really give a hoot about college football?

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Synopsis Help

This morning I woke to find Anne Mini had commented on my post about the latest foray in synopsizing (Here I Go Again) and she was wonderful enough to leave a link to her own most recent posts on the topic. If you're in the middle of writing a synopsis, have written one you don't really like, or are even thinking about the subject, I suggest hopping over and reading what she has to say. Every time I have to go through this (and wouldn't you know, it's not like riding a bike - I have relearn the skill every friggin time), I look to her for guidance. Her thoughts on the subject continue to help me, and this newest batch is even better. Here's hoping they can help you, too.

Thanks, Anne.

Woman's Perogative

I changed my mind. I am going to subject y'all to the latest revision of the synopsis. After all, I was up until after 11pm working on it, and I started back in on it first thing this morning. Can't do all that hard work and not let everyone see it, right?

So here is the latest incarnation, better known as version 5.

----------------------------
Synopsis: Nature of Destruction
B.E. Sanderson
Genre: Commercial Fiction
91,000 words

Under Yellowstone sits a volcano 2400 times worse than Mount Saint Helens. every 600,000 years it awakens—spewing pumice for thousands of miles, darkening the skies with ash, causing death and destruction worldwide—and it’s overdue. This time the caldera waited an extra 40,000 years.

The wait is almost over.

Seismologist Dr. Mykaela Hughes has proof the eruption is nearing, but the politicians overseeing the park choose to ignore her warnings. When Old Faithful explodes in a torrent of boiling water, they have no longer have a choice. Even though Myke knows no one can stop a volcano, she’s got the plans to control the eruption. She can save millions from its path of destruction, but only at the cost of the nation’s most beloved national park. Thousands of acres of nature mean nothing when millions of lives are at stake.

Losing her father to the forces of nature pushed Myke to pour everything she was into building Hughes Geologic Services. After all her work monitoring the megavolcano under Yellowstone, she doesn’t need anyone telling her the data is correct. After devoting her life to the potential control of nature, she doesn’t need a consensus to know her theories are sound. She just needs everyone to get out of her way.

Yellowstone’s head ranger Grayson Douglas has spent years ensuring his park’s safety and he doesn’t suspect danger could be growing under his feet. He does suspect a certain fiery scientist is bent on using Yellowstone as her own private way to grab some glory. He’s met her kind before and he won’t let a woman like that near his park again. After the geyser eruption proves Myke’s integrity, though, Gray realizes he’s spent too many years letting the past rule him. His battle against her becomes a fight to help her save America from the threat growing beneath his beautiful park.

As the eco-terrorist known as Fisher, :snip: worships nature almost as much as he hates mankind; as the great-grandson of a land-raping miner, he despises himself almost as much as he hates his money. All that money and all that hate only have one purpose—stopping Myke Hughes and her plans to destroy Yellowstone.

With hundreds of tourists dead, the politicians have no choice but to consent to Myke’s controlled eruption. Even as her plans become real, though, her every move is blocked before she evens knows she’s going to make it and all her hard work threatens to fall apart. It doesn’t take a scientist to know who’s behind it all.

Knowing who the culprit is and catching him are two different things.

When Fisher’s identity becomes public, it doesn’t stop his plot, and as he becomes a fugitive from justice, his minions carry out his sabotage and destruction for him. With every inch drilled closer to the lava, thousands of Fisher’s sacrificial lambs fill the park, hoping guilt and fear will halt the project. Despite what Fisher and his minions think, though, a bigger portion of the populous is at stake. Many may die if Myke’s plan succeeds; more will die if it doesn’t.

:snipped out the ending again - sorry:

ETA: I forgot to mention, in case you didn't notice, I changed the title of Caldera to Nature of Destruction, and I shifted the genre from Literary Thriller to Commercial Fiction. There was some question as to whether it was thrilling enough to be called a thriller and the whole literary thing was just confusing some people. Hopefully these changes will help put Caldera in a more saleable light. (And it will always be Caldera to me, so I'll probably keep referring to it here as such.)

News and Updates

If you haven't heard by now, Miss Snark is retiring from blogging. It seriously sucks, but I don't blame her. She's done a lot of work - battling ignorance and evil wherever she found it - but it has got to be a drain on her. I can't imagine putting up with the tons of emails, the occasional snerty commenter, the weight of thousands of wannabe writers looking at you for advice. Whatever she does in the future, I hope she excels. (I'm sure she will. Whoever she is, she's one sharp gal.)

On another front, BookEnds is doing their Query Critique. Very helpful stuff from these extremely bright gals. (I'd link directly to the posts, but they don't seem to have them all in one place. Just scroll down, and you'll find them.)

Jennie Crusie over at Argh Ink has an excellent post on How to Start a Writing Group. Her suggestions for critique questions, though, would also be helpful during the editing process. Questions we should all be asking ourselves about our writing. And her suggested questions for synopsis critique are very helpful for anyone laboring over writing their own synopsis.

Oh, and we have a new member in the Novel Race - Home Thoughts Weekly. Welcome to the race.

Now for the update portion:

I got some words out on AWJ. While it doesn't sound like a big deal, I haven't written any new words on it since the middle of April. I can't believe I was a toad for almost a month. I should be horse-whipped (with a real horse).

I got back to querying this week. I sent out five queries to respectable agents, and within 24 hours, got back one rejection. We'll see if I ever hear back from the other four - since they were all equeries and I'm collecting a large number of what we call 'non-responders'. Strangely, the agent who rejected me within 24 hours was a member of that group when I queried him for Spectacle. Dare I hope that his taking a moment to respond this time means Caldera sparked him a wee bit more than Spectacle? Be still my heart.

I sent two short stories out in submission this past week. Haudego went to Abyss & Apex Speculative Fiction, and Fire was entered in the Pagan Fiction contest. A&ASF has a two-month response time (their website says one month, but their auto-response said two) so I should be hearing something by the end of the summer. The Pagan Fiction contest wrote me a note back saying they were passing the story on to the judges, and the winners will be announced in February 2008. I guess that means Fire is shelved for now. By that time I'll probably forget I even entered the contest and if I win, it will be a total surprise to me.

How are things in your world?

Linkage Friday Plus One

I completely forgot yesterday was Friday. Ack. And it was such a productive week on the web, too. So without further ado...

ALERT: Lynn Viehl has some irritating news at her blog Paperback Writer. It seems some people aren't playing fair, and they're dumping addresses into her contests (presumably to tip the scales toward themselves so they can win.) Personally, I think this behavior is pathetic. If you're so hard up you have to win books because you can't afford to buy them, maybe you better think about how much money you're spending on internet access, and proceed accordingly. Feh. So, if you host contests, be on the lookout for scammers.

And in happier news...

Erica explains her methods and reasoning for using Story Boards. It looks like a solid system - very intuitive and very well organized. So if you're looking for a way to keep all of the elements of your story together and keep track of everything in an easier way than trying to store it all in your head, check her post out. And for back-up on this idea, check out how Diana Peterfreund does it in her post Brand New Plotting Board.

Over at Manuscript Mavens, the guest blogger is novelist Kimberly Llewellyn talks about The Secrets of Romantic Comedy. If you write or are thinking about writing anything even slightly comedic, this is a must read.

The awesome Allison Brennan talks about Loglines over at Murder She Writes.

Or if you're slogging through the business of creating a synopsis, head over and commiserate with Laura Bradford in her post The Synopsis Heave.

Check out the awesome book trailer for Wendy Roberts. Way to go Wendy! It looks awesome. Perfectly creepy. Good job. And the new site is gorgeous.

Oh, and Rachel Vincent is trying to decide on a new author picture for her books - Because I Like New Toys. The new toy is a blog survey on which picture you like best. If you've got a second stop by and help her out. I think they're all beautiful, but I picked A.

So, what's up in your blogosphere this week?

Synopsis Time Again

It's time again for the oh-so necessary evil - the synopsis. (I heard that collective groan.)

Once again, I will be assembling the bones of my story to build a bridge between the book and the agent. Hey, you gotta get from here to there somehow or other. Now that I have the blurb, and the hook, and the general guts of my query letter, I need to finish this last piece of submission materials so I can get RTL in front of the right people.

I know I said I wasn't going to post the gist of the story online, and after a great deal of thought, I'm still not, but maybe the hook will be okay. (As in, won't get me a string of hatemail. I hate hatemail.)

HOOK: When the Right to Life is decided by the government, neither rights nor life are safe.

Anyway, I'd really like to tell y'all about it, but the whole potential of snotty comments leaves me cold. That's part of the reason why I don't discuss 'issues' here on my blog. (I know if this book ever gets published, I won't have any choice, but for now, I do - so I won't.)

So, as I sit here basking in my accomplishments of yesterday and dreading the work ahead, what's on your plate?

Checking In

Hi!

It's been a couple days since I stopped by here, and I just thought I'd take a moment to let y'all know what's been happening.

Let's see... Friday: I think we may have found a house. I'll be finalizing details tomorrow. It's lovely, and it's not too expensive. The only problem is it's furnished. Not huge - most of our furniture is old and worn - but the problem is: What to do with all this crap. Garage sale anyone? Great, but if it doesn't sell, where the hell am I going to put it? *shrug* Distractions, distractions. I also started packing. I've only done the living room and only the books we're definitely keeping, but I've already got a dozen boxes filled. I haven't even started on the store. (BTW, the store is closed until further notice. I can't pack and sell books at the same time.)

Yesterday I proclaimed it would be a weekend where I wouldn't do any packing or think about moving. I needed a day off. The proclaimation was great, but it only half worked. I didn't do any packing, but I can't stop thinking about the damn move. Sleep? Not getting any. I also took the day off writing. Instead, I watched football, played poker and read. Kay Hooper's new book "If There Be Dragons" is pretty good. Not what I was expecting, but still enjoyable. Oh, and MSU beat Notre Dame, so the honor of the state of Michigan is once more intact. Too bad Michigan didn't play, but maybe they needed a week off to get their heads out of their... Ummm... Maybe they needed a week to get their game back together.

Today I sat down and worked. I took the comments I've gotten back on Manhunter so far and plugged in suggestions, fixed typos and generally cleaned up the manuscript. One comment I found helpful was that I used the word 'bitch' too much. I searched the whole document, and switched out about 75% of the instances. (Couldn't remove them all. After all, sometimes 'bitch' just fits.) Thank you very very much, Ladies. :hugs: You guys are awesome. Once I finished up that bit of work, I started back on the synopsis. (Okay, I played poker for a while first, but I did get some synopsizing done.) I'm now about halfway through the story, and 2100 words into the synopsis. I'll finish it all up - hopefully by tonight - and then start with the weed eater-whacking off unnecessary bits. I was hoping to start submitting this by the end of the month, but with the impending move and stuff, I think it might have to be put off until I have a firm physical address again. Unless, of course, I get antsy... then I'll submit to people who take e-queries. My email addy is not changing, and neither is my phone number - so if I get requests for more pages or THE CALL, I won't be out of touch completely.

Well, that's my life in a nutshell. How's things on your end?

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Expansion

How does one expand a synopsis without it sounding like a laundry list of events? Hmmm?

That is today's main problem. Yesterday, I worked on doing a Blow-by-blow synopsis. Chapter by chapter until my eyes began to bleed and I set it aside. Tearing my hair out, almost literally, I set the damn thing aside and told myself my one-pager was going to have to be good enough. If they want 3 pages, I'll just double-space it and be done with it. What a weight off my back that was.

Last night I wrote a most excellent cover letter--using elements from former query letters and putting a new spin to make it directed toward publication rather than representation. I'm pretty proud of it. Using the publisher's guidelines, I zipped through the particulars - genre, subgenre, word count, etc. - then I added a nice paragraph on my qualifications for writing this particular novel (Caldera, or NOD, is the one book so far where I can actually say I'm qualified to talk about some of the subject matter) and a lovely paragraph on where my book would fit on the shelves. Gotta love the fact that Follett, Crichton and Clancy have all written books where the environmentalists are the bad guys. (Well, in Follett's case, it's more hippies than enviros, but close enough to mention.) This is one of those cases where it's good to be slightly similar, so you can say "My book should be shelved here."

Anyway, I have the letter, and I was going to print all the pertinent stuff out to send this morning, but I woke with renewed vigor for writing the blow-by-blow. I didn't settle for 'good enough' when I wrote the book, and I'll be damned if I'm going to settle now. So there. =op

So, today will be spent slogging through writing a blow-by-blow without making it sound like a litany. Which means I probably won't be able to send my packet out tomorrow, because after I write this sucker, I'm going to need someone to look at it again before I send it out. Ugh.

Onward!

What I Do - Agent Hunting

Bait them with lost masterpieces from Steinbeck?? Catch and release?

But seriously...

I thought I might start a series of 'What I Do' posts just to give everyone an idea of how I approach this whole crazy business of writing. (We'll see if it really turns into a series or if I totally blow it off by next week.)

This week, since I'm getting prepped for submitting Blink, I thought I'd talk about the process I go through when I'm agent hunting.

1) Write the book to completion. It sounds silly to say it, but from what I hear there are folks out there who query agents before their work is done. That may be fine for some people. It doesn't work for me. I can't even show my CP my books before they're as close to completion as I can get without outside input. (As in, I've edited it so much I can no longer be objective, so I pass it off to her to shred.) If you're sending out work you'd be ashamed to have your high-school English teacher read, then why in the name of all that's good would you send out a query for it. Even if the agent is interested, he's going to want to see more, and you don't have a polished piece to send him.

2) Decide what genre your book is. If you're a long time visitor to The Writing Spectacle, you may have already heard me grouse about this subject. I am horrible at deciding what genre my books fit under. Of course, it probably would be easier if I wrote straight genre of some kind, but most of my work swings on several sides of the street at once (and no, I don't write that kind of fiction - it's a metaphor). But in order to target the right agents, you have to know what it is you're sending them. Take Blink, for instance. It could be considered soft SF. It could be considered 'speculative fiction'. It could be considered literary. So who do I send to??? The short anwer is everyone who represents any of those three genres. The long answer is...

3) Do a boatload of research. For example, today I spent a large portion of the day on AgentQuery.com (which if you haven't used it, is an awesome first research source). I waded through the listings for agents who represent SF. 8 pages worth of listings, or 64 total agent names to read through. And read through them, I did. As I read each listing, I ignored any agent listing who, other than checking some box for SF, didn't actually say anything about SF in their listing. I also dismissed any agent who only talks about hard SF. I paid special attention to those people who said they were looking for future SF and social SF, as well as those few who specifically said 'speculative'. I looked through their client lists and picked agents whose clients styles seemed similar to my own, or their subject matter was closely related. (For instance, I printed off the listing for Ray Bradbury's agent, even though Blink only resembles Fahrenheit 451 in the dystopia aspect, it's worth a shot.) Additionally, I went a step farther for the ones I liked.

4) I looked at their websites, if one was available. I read their individual agent bios. I looked at their philosophies. I tried to see if they were a good match not only for my work, but also for my personality and beliefs. As much as I'd like to get an agent, I don't want to go through all that work only to reach the point where I can't stand them and they can't stand me on some personal level. This is only business, but we still have to work together. An example of this is one agency that looked particularly yummy until I went to their website and learned they are very environmentally conscious (treehuggers or if not, borderline ones). One look at Caldera, and we'd come to blows. It's not worth the effort only to have the relationship dissolve eventually.

5) The next thing I do before I send out any queries is I take each of the potential matches and run an internet search on them. I read whatever articles they've written, any news pertaining to them, any warnings or cautions. I figure this'll keep me away from the scammers out there. So far, so good. Part of this process is checking them out at Preditors and Editors. P&E keeps up with all the scuttlebutt about agents, they tell writers who's good and who's bad, and they keep our butts out of the fire. Another place I go is Writers Beware. Those gals are the best watchers for scam agents and schisters.

6) Finally, before even start creating query packets, I plug all of the keepers into a database program so I can keep track of who has what, when I sent it, and what their reaction was. Personally, I use an antiquated contact management program (for DOS). It works for me most of the time and when it doesn't, it takes ten minutes to reload. I can use it to generate letters, too, but the letter template looks hokey, so I don't bother. I highly recommend using some tracking system to keep yourself in the loop on your own submissions. Mine not only helps me stay on track, but it also prevents me from sending things to people who've already rejected them. When I sent out queries for Spectacle (back in 2004 when I was still a neophyte), I didn't keep track of anything. I even threw out the rejections. Then my computer crashed and I lost the names of everyone I had already queried. If any agents reading this got multiple submissions on Spectacle after that, please forgive me for my stupidity. Now, not only do I have everything backed up and protected, but I also have hard copies of everything.

7) Now that I'm ready to query, I have to go through the business of writing and perfecting a query letter, a synopsis, an outline, and making sure I'm ready if anyone requests a partial or a full. I won't go over all that here. Plenty of sites online help with creating those things, and making sure your manuscript is polished. You'll get much better information there than I can provide at this time.

And then I sit back and wait.

Okay, I don't really sit back and wait. I keep working on my other books and wait. Sitting back is not allowed. Even after you get a contract, there's no sitting back in writing.

I'll be starting querying again after I'm sure my manuscript is polished, and I still have to write that darned synopsis. Keep a happy thought for me.

Now, what're YOU waiting for?