Here's the thing, after a great deal of research, it seems that a lot of agents still ask for a synopsis and not just a query letter (or actual pages). So, as well as working on editing and editing and re-editing the query letter (and still editing the novel), I'm also writing a synopsis.
Google was particularly unhelpful when I asked it how to do this. It was super helpful with the query letter, so I was rather disappointed by this. Most of the links that came up said things like 'there's not one way to write a synopsis' or 'everyone has a different way to do this' or 'it's hard to give advise on the dreaded synopsis'.
None of those filled me with much confidence. But after a bunch of sites, it became apparent that even if there is not 'one way', there is a bunch of things NOT to do, and there's a few things that YOU MUST do. Unsurprisingly, neither of these lists were as clear-cut as the query letter ones. Are you getting a theme here?
One of my favourite things on the NOT to do list was: don't make it sound like a story. And for a while that confused me a lot, because it's the synopsis of a story, how can it not sound like a story? But after reading a bunch of sample synopses online, I realized what they were getting at. It's supposed to be boring. It's supposed to be 'this is what happens' and then 'this is what happened afterwards'.
That doesn't mean it has to be dry as dust or just a statement of events. One of the best pieces of advice Google gave me was to remember to put emotion into the synopsis. The story is all about how the characters feel and react to the events that happen, and the synopsis has to convey that. So it can't just be all 'Character X goes to a party and meets character Y.' 'Character Y is a bad boy and isn't good for her'. 'Character X falls in love with character Y.' OMG I'm bored already. There's no emotion in that. There's no story in that. It shouldn't sound like a story, but it should clearly show that you've written a story. A story is not just a bunch of things happening. It has to have emotion.
Now how to show that in the synopsis. Well, I'll get back to you, shall I, because I'm still writing it. Like the query letter, it's a work in progress. It takes time. It takes a lot of rewriting and reworking. It takes a lot of editing. And a lot of having other people read it and tell me how wrong it is. I'm not sure I'll ever be 'happy' with it, but I will reach the stage that I have to let it go. And hopefully, at the end of the day, the query will make the first impression...and the synopsis won't blow it too badly.
Showing posts with label editing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label editing. Show all posts
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Saturday, February 13, 2016
What Happens After NaNo
I talk a lot about NaNo, but beyond complaining about editing, I haven't really talked about the afterwards. Often, there isn't an afterwards. Half-finished or un-edited novels languish on hard drives the world over and no one ever gives them a second glance.
That is what happened with my first two novels. I finished them, but I never edited them. Mostly, I thought they were crap and might as well be rewritten from scratch than edited.
But in 2014 I wrote a novel for NaNo that I didn't think was an utter waste of words. I spent all of last year editing it, and even had it test read. I'm still polishing up the last few things on my long list of 'issues', but at least those are the little things like continuity of hair colour and making sure the calendar is right (there are a lot of events that happen in a very few number of days - and there are still only 24 hours in a day in this world).
Editing was not fun. There were times it was, but overall it was as hard work as writing the novel had been, and that hadn't been easy. This was not one of those 'words flowed onto the page' novels. This was a lot of work to outline, plot, world build, and then write. And it was just as hard to edit afterwards. It was scary as anything to have test read, because I've offered up plenty of my writing for public consumption, but never let a single person near my novels. Asking people to 'please read this and give me your brutally honest opinion' is terrifying. There's no way to do it without thinking 'what if they say it's awful and I should just delete it?'
They didn't, thankfully. They were actually very supportive and very helpful, and found issues I hadn't noticed. One of them was especially excited, because it was exactly her sort of genre and she fell in love with the story. Which is always a nice pick-me-up. That didn't mean she didn't send me a long list of questions, though, but at least I know what I have now is something she'd pick up off a book shelf. So I have a reading audience of one. It's a start.
Now I'm struggling with the next big thing: building an audience and a brand. I have no desire to self-publish (unless I exhaust every other avenue), but I still want to position myself in a way that will appeal to agents. I don't have a website (well, not one that's public anymore - thankfully), but I do have this blog. And so it's going to become much more writing focused in the coming weeks. And I'm going to be much more honest about the nitty-gritty. This is just the introduction post.
That is what happened with my first two novels. I finished them, but I never edited them. Mostly, I thought they were crap and might as well be rewritten from scratch than edited.
But in 2014 I wrote a novel for NaNo that I didn't think was an utter waste of words. I spent all of last year editing it, and even had it test read. I'm still polishing up the last few things on my long list of 'issues', but at least those are the little things like continuity of hair colour and making sure the calendar is right (there are a lot of events that happen in a very few number of days - and there are still only 24 hours in a day in this world).
Editing was not fun. There were times it was, but overall it was as hard work as writing the novel had been, and that hadn't been easy. This was not one of those 'words flowed onto the page' novels. This was a lot of work to outline, plot, world build, and then write. And it was just as hard to edit afterwards. It was scary as anything to have test read, because I've offered up plenty of my writing for public consumption, but never let a single person near my novels. Asking people to 'please read this and give me your brutally honest opinion' is terrifying. There's no way to do it without thinking 'what if they say it's awful and I should just delete it?'
They didn't, thankfully. They were actually very supportive and very helpful, and found issues I hadn't noticed. One of them was especially excited, because it was exactly her sort of genre and she fell in love with the story. Which is always a nice pick-me-up. That didn't mean she didn't send me a long list of questions, though, but at least I know what I have now is something she'd pick up off a book shelf. So I have a reading audience of one. It's a start.
Now I'm struggling with the next big thing: building an audience and a brand. I have no desire to self-publish (unless I exhaust every other avenue), but I still want to position myself in a way that will appeal to agents. I don't have a website (well, not one that's public anymore - thankfully), but I do have this blog. And so it's going to become much more writing focused in the coming weeks. And I'm going to be much more honest about the nitty-gritty. This is just the introduction post.
Friday, November 28, 2014
The End is Nigh
No, okay, the apocalypse isn't coming. Well, at least not to me. In my novel it's already been and gone and humanity is dealing with the utopian aftermath. But in real life, 'apocalypse' is a nice turn of phrase that we rather overuse. After all, December 2012 passed without any adverse effects, despite dire predictions to the contrary because people don't understand Mayan cultural history.
But I digress. I've been doing a lot of that these days, because - like a five year old who's grown up on technology - I do in fact have no attention span whatsoever. Even writing a blog post takes more concentration than I can typically expend. This is, unfortunately, normal in the final months of a PhD. That doesn't, however, make it easier to live with. I am quite proud of my ability to focus on one thing for - literally - days on end, but even the things I used to expend vast amounts of time on last me about five minutes now.
So no, the apocalypse is not coming, but the end is - thankfully - nigh. And that's a blessing, because the inability to focus is a frustration and only adds to the stress I'm already experiencing as being about to submit. It makes editing hard. It makes watching television hard. It makes meetings next to impossible. I lose track and focus from one minute to the next and honestly forget what I was about to say half way through a sentence. It's not particularly fun, living this way. But the end is nigh and - I can hope - it does get better afterwards.
If you have read the above three paragraphs, you have all the proof I need of my lack of focus. The overall theme may be the same, and we might end where we began, but even those 19 sentences skip around, backtrack, repeat and sometimes make little to no sense even to me.
Though, if they do make sense to you, that's proof I'm suffering from problems other than just a lack of focus, so please let me know.
But I digress. I've been doing a lot of that these days, because - like a five year old who's grown up on technology - I do in fact have no attention span whatsoever. Even writing a blog post takes more concentration than I can typically expend. This is, unfortunately, normal in the final months of a PhD. That doesn't, however, make it easier to live with. I am quite proud of my ability to focus on one thing for - literally - days on end, but even the things I used to expend vast amounts of time on last me about five minutes now.
So no, the apocalypse is not coming, but the end is - thankfully - nigh. And that's a blessing, because the inability to focus is a frustration and only adds to the stress I'm already experiencing as being about to submit. It makes editing hard. It makes watching television hard. It makes meetings next to impossible. I lose track and focus from one minute to the next and honestly forget what I was about to say half way through a sentence. It's not particularly fun, living this way. But the end is nigh and - I can hope - it does get better afterwards.
If you have read the above three paragraphs, you have all the proof I need of my lack of focus. The overall theme may be the same, and we might end where we began, but even those 19 sentences skip around, backtrack, repeat and sometimes make little to no sense even to me.
Though, if they do make sense to you, that's proof I'm suffering from problems other than just a lack of focus, so please let me know.
Friday, February 19, 2010
The Wonderful World of Editing
This is not a post about NaNo 2010. Rather, it's all about the lingering joys of 2009.
I should, at this venture, point out that in the month of November last year I wrote the required 50,000 words, plus 3000. Between November 30th and December 31st, I wrote a grand total of 2000 words. In January I did slightly better, but I did not complete the story until the first week of February 2010. It bugged me all through December, because I had so many hours of work and it was the Christmas season. I just came home exhausted at the end of the day and couldn't face writing the hardest part of the novel. Interestingly, it bugged me for different reasons than I would have thought. Mainly, not being able to write in December made me irritable because I wanted to finish the story and was unable to. Unfortunately, by January, the drive that had pushed me all through November was waning, and I attribute that to why it took another five weeks after Christmas to punch out the last 12,000 words.
I really have to be fair with myself, though; 12,000 words is an achievement all on it's own. That is roughly the word count of my last dissertation, which was written last summer. Which means, ignoring everything else I wrote, that between the novel and the thesis alone, I spewed out 67,000 words (ironically, the total word count of the novel as of now). I feel that that's a pretty large accomplishment. And they are 67k good words. At least, I am assured the 12k of the dissertation is, by my mark alone. But I felt, over 2009, that writing was becoming easier for me. It wasn't such a challenge when I hit the rough patches to keep going. And more than that, especially during November, I found I could force myself to write even when I woke up with no interest in writing. For many years I have only written on days I felt inclined, whether creatively or for school, but I know it's a personal achievement that I can do it at anytime now. And that it's honestly worthwhile writing.
But this post was intended to be more about editing than writing, wasn't it? To have the need to edit is something new to me, as I mentioned in the previous blog. I am usually quite happy with what I turn out the first time. The exceptions to this have been the two dissertations over the last 24 months. The first one, which clocked in at just shy of 20k was a bitch, to be honest. It was my first massive work in such a short period of time and I just sat down and wrote. Usually, I pick away at it, and therefore edit - to an extent - as I go. No so with that one. Because of that, there was a painful three weeks of intense editing with an actual editor. It was a learning curve, to be sure. I pride myself on being both a good speller and marginally better than the average person at grammar. It was a wake up call to be told, almost point blank, that I'm horrible at the grammar part. However, it was a good learning experience and paid off well this past year on the second dissertation. I felt that it was easier to write and easier to edit on my own. It also required a great deal less editing to start with, which I hope is the greatest sign of improvement.
I also believe it's held me in good stead for NaNo '09. I won't talk much about that novel in this blog, because I want to concentrate on the next one, but I have just finished editing last year's still untitled work. Most of the changes were for continuity's sake. I shouldn't be greatly surprised by this because in a 65k+ work, it's inevitable that you forget a name here or an order of events there. Or you realise you've written the same scene twice, just at different moments. I now know that I need to keep better track of what I've written for 2010. Maybe a diary or a list of points? I'm not sure, but I have time to think on it and decide what will work best for me. I don't want to create too much extra work during November beyond the novel itself, but I do need some way to ensure plot continuity.
What I found the most difficult was tense. I've written a variety of stories using different tenses, and I've dabbled in time travel before, but this was even harder. The story took place in nearly a dozen different times, and jumped around in no particular order through them. However, two sub-plots did take place on a lateral time line, throughout the main story. I had to ensure that these remained in the same tense, but that they routinely linked up with the tenses that were jumping around. A right nightmare! No more time travel, that's my lesson learned. Still, I think I've done an admirable job of editing on my own. Now, I can slowly funnel it off to other people who will be in charge of telling me how bad it is, how confused they are, and how I should just give up now.
I won't listen.
I should, at this venture, point out that in the month of November last year I wrote the required 50,000 words, plus 3000. Between November 30th and December 31st, I wrote a grand total of 2000 words. In January I did slightly better, but I did not complete the story until the first week of February 2010. It bugged me all through December, because I had so many hours of work and it was the Christmas season. I just came home exhausted at the end of the day and couldn't face writing the hardest part of the novel. Interestingly, it bugged me for different reasons than I would have thought. Mainly, not being able to write in December made me irritable because I wanted to finish the story and was unable to. Unfortunately, by January, the drive that had pushed me all through November was waning, and I attribute that to why it took another five weeks after Christmas to punch out the last 12,000 words.
I really have to be fair with myself, though; 12,000 words is an achievement all on it's own. That is roughly the word count of my last dissertation, which was written last summer. Which means, ignoring everything else I wrote, that between the novel and the thesis alone, I spewed out 67,000 words (ironically, the total word count of the novel as of now). I feel that that's a pretty large accomplishment. And they are 67k good words. At least, I am assured the 12k of the dissertation is, by my mark alone. But I felt, over 2009, that writing was becoming easier for me. It wasn't such a challenge when I hit the rough patches to keep going. And more than that, especially during November, I found I could force myself to write even when I woke up with no interest in writing. For many years I have only written on days I felt inclined, whether creatively or for school, but I know it's a personal achievement that I can do it at anytime now. And that it's honestly worthwhile writing.
But this post was intended to be more about editing than writing, wasn't it? To have the need to edit is something new to me, as I mentioned in the previous blog. I am usually quite happy with what I turn out the first time. The exceptions to this have been the two dissertations over the last 24 months. The first one, which clocked in at just shy of 20k was a bitch, to be honest. It was my first massive work in such a short period of time and I just sat down and wrote. Usually, I pick away at it, and therefore edit - to an extent - as I go. No so with that one. Because of that, there was a painful three weeks of intense editing with an actual editor. It was a learning curve, to be sure. I pride myself on being both a good speller and marginally better than the average person at grammar. It was a wake up call to be told, almost point blank, that I'm horrible at the grammar part. However, it was a good learning experience and paid off well this past year on the second dissertation. I felt that it was easier to write and easier to edit on my own. It also required a great deal less editing to start with, which I hope is the greatest sign of improvement.
I also believe it's held me in good stead for NaNo '09. I won't talk much about that novel in this blog, because I want to concentrate on the next one, but I have just finished editing last year's still untitled work. Most of the changes were for continuity's sake. I shouldn't be greatly surprised by this because in a 65k+ work, it's inevitable that you forget a name here or an order of events there. Or you realise you've written the same scene twice, just at different moments. I now know that I need to keep better track of what I've written for 2010. Maybe a diary or a list of points? I'm not sure, but I have time to think on it and decide what will work best for me. I don't want to create too much extra work during November beyond the novel itself, but I do need some way to ensure plot continuity.
What I found the most difficult was tense. I've written a variety of stories using different tenses, and I've dabbled in time travel before, but this was even harder. The story took place in nearly a dozen different times, and jumped around in no particular order through them. However, two sub-plots did take place on a lateral time line, throughout the main story. I had to ensure that these remained in the same tense, but that they routinely linked up with the tenses that were jumping around. A right nightmare! No more time travel, that's my lesson learned. Still, I think I've done an admirable job of editing on my own. Now, I can slowly funnel it off to other people who will be in charge of telling me how bad it is, how confused they are, and how I should just give up now.
I won't listen.
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