Synopses Part Deux

Quote of the Day: "There's a face I know too well, I see it every time I look in the mirror." -Eve 6, There's a Face

Okay, time for Synopses Part Deux: Length.

Lesson #2: Keep it short. Really, really, ridiculously short.

I'm sure you've heard this before. Any google search for "How to write a novel synopsis" will give you this advice. What I hadn't realized before this summer is the reason for it: at some point, someone will probably have to write what's called a "Reader's Report" for your book. And on that reader's report will be a place for them to write a synopsis.

And that space will be less than one single-spaced page long.

Yeah, I know. Ouch, right? Try having to do it at work. I spent longer writing the synopses for some submissions (the good ones, that had a lot going on) than I did reading the submissions themselves. It's a learned skill. Here's the rub: if you can learn it, you will make it easier for a person who wants to recommend your book for publishing to do so, because rather than having to take their own time and write a synopsis for your book, they will be able to start with yours as a base. Win.

Hopefully that's convinced you of the why behind condensing your masterpiece into a teeny, tiny, barebones ghost of its former self. Here are some tips on how to do it--the ones that helped me as I was struggling to learn the skill at work.

1.) Each chapter should be condensed into 2-3 sentences. A micro-paragraph, if you will. You will only be able to do this if you're focusing on one character and plot arc, so like I've said before, pick one and stick with it. The others will still be in your novel, and your reader will still fall in love with them. They will get mentioned elsewhere in the reader's report as a reason for why you should be published. Your work on them will not be in vain.

2.) Focus on salient plot details, and forget the setup. Did Swashbuckling George shoot his best friend in the back for betraying him? Write that. Do not feel the need to add that he found his best friend in the back of a dingy inn in the pirate town of Deadmanschestdale. The first part is what matters to the plot. The second bit is unnecessary, and while it's only a few extra words, and they help to set the scene and give a hint of what your writing is like, over time they add up and bloat your synopsis.

3.) Focus on tone more than direct quotes or excerpts, which also have a bloating tendency. Is the chapter funny? Make its micro-paragraph funny. Is it serious? Make it serious. Is it suspenseful? Make it suspenseful. The tools you have learned as an author can be put to use here, but you need to do it judiciously.

Hopefully this stuff is helpful. There's a lot to be learned about writing a good synopsis, and as I write more of them, I'll post more little tips and tricks that I've learned. You can be sure to expect a rehash when I write the one for my own book. :-)

Where Was This Five Years Ago?

Taking a break from synopses today (don't worry though, there's more to come) because as I was doing my daily blog-reading, I ran across this over at Tor.com.

To sum up, it's a story about a camp for high school kids dedicated completely to world-building, where they got advice from published authors and even a videogame designer. In short, people who build worlds for a living.

There was advice in that little article that I hadn't heard before, even after all my years of trying to learn how to build worlds from as many sources as possible. And that was just in the article. I can't even imagine the head start those kids are going to have on writing sci-fi/fantasy.

Absolutely amazing opportunity for them, and one I wish had been around when I was their age. I went to the Iowa Young Writer's Studio, and that in and of itself was a great experience, but it wasn't focused on sci-fi/fantasy, though my professor there did a much better job of advising me on writing it than any of my highly touted professors since have, and I would loved to have had a more specialized experience.

Really cool stuff out there.

The Importance of Synopses

Quote of the Day: "I'm a lucky man, with fire in my hands..."
--The Verve, Lucky Man

This post kicks off what I think will wind up being a few posts about synopses, as I've had all summer to read them and write them as part of my job, and I've learned quite a bit.

Lesson #1: Focus on who and what the story is really about.

Your synopsis needs to be about the same character and plot your book is about. If it's not, the person reading your submission will quickly become confused and frustrated by one or the other. If they take the route of reading the synopsis first, they will wonder why the first pages of your book are dedicated to a character or characters who aren't really its main focus. If they read the book first, they will be confused about why your synopsis has nothing to do with the characters that they have become interested in (hopefully) while reading your sample pages.

This is one of those "Can't help you but can hurt you" kind of things. Your synopsis and your book are supposed to be about the same thing. Doing this right merely satisfies the requirements of a synopsis, it doesn't earn you any extra points with the person reading your submission, but doing it wrong can really hurt you. And as an incidental, your book should kick off with the main character and main plot. It may be tempting to kick it off with a subplot or secondary character, but trust me, it's more confusing than cool or unique. I've tried it, I've seen it tried, and it just doesn't work. If you want to make that experiment, feel free, but don't expect much success.

I understand that it can be hard to get down who your story is really about. I mean, part of what makes it good is all the different stories inside it, right? All the different character arcs and interesting subplots? Shouldn't those go in the synopsis too?

And what I've learned over the course of the summer is that the answer is no.

Get the reader interested in one story, one plot, because that's what you have time to do. The others will come out when they read the manuscript. Trust me. Don't feel like you have to cram everything that's good about your novel into your synopsis. When the person evaluating it finds extra good stuff in the manuscript it works in your favor. When they get confused by your synopsis it doesn't.

The Line Between Fantasy and YA

Quote of the Day: "Into the pastures of our minds goes my nearly beloved and I."
--The Wallflowers, Nearly Beloved

So many things to blog about today! But not to worry, I'm saving most of them up to be released in a user-friendly, easily digestible format rather than cramming them all down your throat.

We'll start with another thing I learned at Tor yesterday, when I finally had the chance to ask an Editorial Assistant who deals with fantasy about where the line between Fantasy and YA Fantasy is drawn. Her answer?

"Good question."

Initially she suggested theme, but in the course of our discussion we discovered that since a great deal of fantasy deals with the quest of a hero, which typically involve a lot of steps that are very YA in theme (Youngish person discovers something new about themselves, has to learn how to use it, deal with the changes it brings about in their life, and eventually triumph either because of it or in spite of it. Sounds like puberty, eh?), and some YA fantasy deals with very dark, "adult" themes, theme doesn't really work as a criterion.

So finally she hit upon complexity, and I agreed entirely. YA fantasy tends to be simpler than adult fantasy. The worlds are less detailed (or at least tend to spread the detail out over multiple books rather than hitting it all at once), and the novels are shorter and tend to focus more on one particular plot, or two or three, rather than some of the sweeping, sixteen-characters-with-their-own-plot, full-of-intrigue epics you'll find without the YA designation.

Personally, I don't see this is as a value judgment. Lack of complexity does not make something inherently worse. See the music of Nirvana versus the music of Mozart. Both are incredible. One is more complex, but there are things that Nirvana's simplicity can accomplish that Mozart, for all his orchestra and musical brilliance, can't. Sometimes a more single-minded focus can reveal nuances of one particular plotline or story that would get lost in the more complex machinations of another book.

Either way, I'd love to hear opinions on this one. Complexity as the barrier between YA and adult fantasy---sound about right?

Slush Like Fine Wine?

Quote of the Day: "Bee-bop-bop-ba-da-bo!"
--Scatman John, Scat Man

Today I had the absolutely incredible, mind-blowing opportunity to tour Tor, my own personal Holy Grail when it comes to the publishing industry. I learned a boatload, met some wonderful people, and had a very enlightening lunch with an editor and three editorial assistants. I'm still processing all I've learned, so expect more of the gems of wisdom they dropped on me as the week continues.

But for today we'll start with an interesting fact the editor told me, and an amazing term that as far as I'm aware Tor has coined themselves: they "age" their slush.

Apparently they're good enough at staying on top of slush that they could have very short turnaround times if they so chose--but in the past when they've gone for that approach authors have refused to believe that their submissions were actually read and re-submitted, leading to a lot of wasted time and postage overall. So now they "age" their slush in piles based upon when it was submitted, and it was generally agreed upon that the best vintage is about 3 months.

I was amazed because the situation made perfect sense (I can easily imagine jilted authors assuming that their submission must have simply been rejected summarily, because it's so good that if anyone read it they would love it), despite its utter absurdity. Only in publishing, friends, only in publishing...

So moral of the story, if your submission got rejected, it got rejected. Don't resubmit or you'll ruin the short response times for the rest of us!

...also Tor is awesome and I got more free books than I know what to do with.