Finished the synopsis for Petra early last week. It clocked in at 1800 words–way too long for a synopsis. I figured I would allow myself an absolute limit of 1K. So I spent the rest of the week sweating out those 800 words.
Have I mentioned that I hate writing synopses? Yeah, I think I might have.
Somewhere over the course of the week, I found a bit of advice that helped me quite a bit (I’d credit the author, but I can’t remember where I found it): a synopsis should focus on what happens in the novel, not on how it happens. Keeping this in mind, I was able to finally wrangle the beastly thing down to manageable length.
After that, I took on the next challenge–drafting my query letter. I banged one out in a matter of minutes and thought it looked pretty good. Then I said to myself, "No way it could be that easy." So I took another look. Did some more poking around online for advice about query letters. The late, lamented Snarkives of Miss Snark proved invaluable here. Sure enough, my query letter was too vague, and a little heavy on the cliche. I think I have it fixed now, but I’ll need to take another look at it with fresh eyes.
Then I just need to get some queries in the mail. And hope. There’s always hope.
All this struggle with the synopsis should be good practice, because I have another one to write, for Petra Released. This one isn’t for queries, but for a novel contest happening over on Codex. I guess it isn’t a contest so much as a friendly bit of competition aimed at pushing the participants into finishing their drafts. I don’t really need encouragement in that regard; this ain’t my first rodeo. But the timing of the contest dovetailed nicely with my own schedule, so I decided to throw my hat in the ring. And it’s injected a bit of fun into the process. Anyway, the entry deadline is the 15th of this month. I have until then to revise my first 3 chapters and slap together another synopsis.
So that’s next on the hit parade. I’ve just done a read-through of chapter one, and I like a lot of it. I find myself looking forward to reading the rest of the draft and re-familiarizing myself with the work I completed earlier in the year. I certainly have enough distance on it by now.
Oh, yeah, and the Silly Season is upon us, with its attendant challenges to my daily routine. But I feel reasonably well-positioned. Heck, we already have our Christmas tree up–usually a gargantuan endeavor, the work of several days. Seriously, folks. You haven’t seen our tree. It’s been compared to the Mother Ship in Close Encounters. We had help this year, thank goodness. Now my wife can wrap presents, and I can . . . well, start my shopping, I guess.
Ah, but that’s for another day. For now, it’s back to the grindstone.
No updates for Write Club.
I’m out.
