Streamwriting

No, the two events are not entirely unrelated. Check out the email my friend send me a few minutes ago:

‘The cosmos is stretching you to the limit as the Full Moon (activating 5 degrees of Virgo and Pisces) strikes at 3:36AM PDT. This will be followed by a Total Lunar Eclipse - happening just 2 minutes later. Any Full Moon/Eclipse has awesome potential for healing, enlightenment and passing along sacred teachings to earthlings in search of a deeper understanding of the purpose of life.’

You see, I could do with some sacred teachings for myself. For the past two days I’ve been trying to write a short synopsis. It’s been one of the most difficult writing challenges of the past year. Harder than writing the book and much harder than writing this blog. (The blog is fun, writing a short synopsis is like extracting my teeth.) Of course after attempts two and three I went to bed last night convinced of my failings as a writer. ‘That’s it! I’m doomed if I can’t even nail a one-page synopsis.’

After banishing the doubt I tackled it again. Two more attempts later and I’d got it down to a page and half. (This was supposed to be a short synopsis in contrast to my previous page and three quarter effort.) Now it sits at a page and a half until I take the delete button to it again.

There’s lots of varying advice on the art of good synopsis writing. That brilliant article on Annette Green’s website www.annettegreenagency.co.uk says the synopsis should be no longer than 500 words and work in the manner of an ‘extended book-jacket blurb, giving a strong sense of the novel’s premise, flavour, tone and direction, but stopping short of mapping out every turn of the story, and certainly not divulging the ending. It’s a tool to get the attention of the agent.’

BUT when I started to surf the web under the canny search title of ‘How to write a good synopsis?’ it threw up all sorts of differing advice. My first hit said NEVER leave a synopsis open-ended. So I searched again. My second hit said NEVER leave a synopsis open-ended and also gave lots more interesting advice as follows:

‘Keep the tone and style of your synopsis consistent with the type and genre of your book. Include enough detail to show you’ve done your research and know your subject and setting. But, here again, don’t overload the synopsis. Be brief, cover only the barebones of your plot.
Pacing is critical to your synopsis. Summarize only the key scenes, building them, one on top of another. This will force your characters to make decisions, then act on them until the climactic moment. Show that the plot is well thought out and resolved. Make certain your characters’ motivations are clear and convincing.
Always write as clean and tightly as you possibly can. Cut out all those extra adverbs, adjectives and excess description. Ax anything that bogs down the pace of your synopsis and will cause and editor/agent to turn down your submission. She doesn’t have the time or interest to wade through a lot of clutter to find your dynamite story.
To recap: Start with a hook, then introduce your main characters. Construct the body of your synopsis using short paragraphs to write the high points of your story. Write the crisis and resolution of your story, never leave the editor/agent guessing. Then rewrite your synopsis until each sentence is polished to perfection. Use strong adjectives and verbs, and make every word count.
Remember, a synopsis is a summary of your book in narrative form. It explains a series of motivations, actions and reactions that build to a crisis then a satisfactory, believable resolution. It’s the first thing an editor/agent reads to determine if your manuscript is worth considering. As your key sales tool, it should illustrate your writing at its very best, showcasing your skills and telling a compelling, well-balanced story.’.

As it was such good advice I’m including her website: www.viviansnotebook.com

My bezza already an author of two books published by penguin agrees with the ‘always write the ending’ point of view.

So this is what I’ve been doing. Writing the ending. I don’t think my synopsis is quite there yet (less bog, more bones) but at least I’m working on it. Some more sweat and tears to follow and perhaps a full moon dance to invoke some sacred teachings on the art of how to write a snappy short synopsis.

At last! Enough pics of cars and strange looking women pulling funny faces. What about this business of book writing?!

Well, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit I have made little progress on the actual writing front. (Write? When I can have so much fun uploading silly pics on this instead?!) But here’s an update on everything else: I’m still in discussion with Julie about our multi-national and hideously successful publishing house plan – the one which sees us retiring to the Caribbean. In the meantime, and because of another rejection, this one from Piatkus Books www.piatkusbooks.co.uk she’s asked me to give her new-look synopsis a once-over. Julie swears that the sample chapters weren’t even read and she knew this because she had placed her paper clip in a certain way and it hadn’t been moved (or something like that). So she’s shortened her 3-page synopsis to less than 1 in the hope that next time she submits it at least it will get further than the paper clip test.

Am quite curious to know if anyone else has a similar paper clip test story to tell. The more subversive the better! I love those tales of authors submitting work and the agent pretending to have read it. My all time fave is the guy who sent in photocopies of a washing machine manual and got polite rejection slips back showing that the agent had obviously not read a word, and most recently of the author who submitted some of Jane Austen’s work – only changing the character names – and just one agent noticed. Here’s the story in full: http://uk.reuters.com/article/entert…41223720070719

Back to me and my progress. I have got no further in my proposal plan. This would be that wow looking document that takes the breath away from prospective publishers as it presents them with evidence of need of mind, body, spirit fiction books. Evidence of need apparently the in phrase at the mo.

(What I need is Nexus: A neo novel becoming a bestseller and thus quite artfully doing my evidence in need job for me.)

I, ahem, I have not started my hard-edit for the new look The Voices of Angels. (New look involves culling one of the two narrative voices and boldly defining the book as a m,b,s genre.)

So, what have I been doing?!

Well, eating lots and lots of puddings, sweets and ice-cream, swimming off the fat in vain get-fit post-feast events, and entertaining my holiday-making parents. Tomorrow the fun ends when ma and pa jet off home to not so sunny England and I am left alone with the laptop and quite a few projects to be getting on with.

I am excited by the new-look book most of all because it’s the most creative project out of them all and will leave me with a leaner, fresher, bolder novel on my hands. Just for the record I’m going to give you all a sneak preview of Chapter One in the not so distant future just so you know I do actually have a book and don’t just spend all my time writing about writing. Or on facebook. Or stuffing my face with cake.

Or putting silly photos on this blog that have absolutely no connection to writing.

Like this one:

Bye bye from me. And bye bye from her.