I wrote a great entry for this yesterday. It was full of humor and ethos (if that's the word I want), insight and wisdom, in short it was just like me.
Then, right before posting it, my browser crashed, taking with it all my writing.
"Oh, sure," you say. "It was just more lame ramblings. Why didn't you just write it again?"
I was discouraged, that's why. It was late at night and I knew, down to the fuzzy dust bunnies in the farthest reaches of my soul that I could never again write so profoundly. I wept. It had all been so good, and it was all lost. The blog entry that would have put me on the map, that would have justified the bandwidth it takes to visit my site, all gone.
Well, not exactly. I gave kind of a cross between a sigh and a whimper, then crawled off to bed.
What I recall saying about writing is in the "more" section...
Synopses...
I hate these damn things. I think a great deal of my disdain comes from anyone reading them. When I've done them in the past they've been part of a submission package, and I just know that none of my stories sound very interesting if you just look at the story. If any part of my writing is above average, I think it would be the language.
And all that's missing, of course, in a one page synopsis. I imagine the people who enjoy reading my stories do so because they're interested in "what happens next" or to see how it turns out. No, I'm no master of suspense, but without it I don't think there's anything special about what I write at all.
I try to write so that the journey to the end is fun and enjoyable. There is no journey in a synopsis, and anyone who reads it loses the only part of my writing that I think saves the work as a whole. I know, it's submitted with a sample chapter or two, where my writing is displayed, but I'd rather hook someone with the beginning and have them read the whole story.
Then again, I don't have fifty novels to read each week.
I don't mind the short descriptions, but I question their veracity. I'm never sure if my attempt to describe "what the novel's about" is all that accurate. Quite often it feels more like a justification, and I wonder if what I think is going on is remotely connected with what the reader sees. Maybe I'll see how far off I am when I submit my stuff later this week.
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5 comments:
I've recent written a synopsis of Recovering Eden. The synopsis doesn't tell the whole story, but it intended to be a teaser, to hook a potential reader's interest. Rarely do I commit to reading something without getting some general synopsis from some source. This is a pragmatic choice. I can only read a limited number of novels per year. Synopses for NaNovels are important since few of us have reputations or critical reviews circulating to direct people to our work.
I hate to give you the bad news here... if there is no journey in your synopsis, then there was no journey in your novel. The synopsis is the equivalent of an express train, the novel is the long and winding road... but both are moving you from point A to point B.
One approach to doing a synopsis is not to "reduce" it out of your novel but to "build" it, starting with your theme. There is a single word that conveys the most essential movement of your story - like maturation, decline, ascent, obssession, etc. This is what you're aiming to show with your synopsis in an abbreviated form.
Start with the "before" state - who/where/why are the characters where they are when the story opens. Then just stay at the high level and describe the basics of how the get to their end state.
Good luck!!
Well, you'll see what I mean in a few days when I post them on my site and in the Yahoo! group.
I have no idea what I'm doing, so thanks for the advice.
I'm just making up all this stuff as I go along...
Try this, Russ.
First summarize it one word. Then a sentence. Then a paragraph. Then a page.
Then you're done. :)
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