Leaving My Pantzer Past Behind Me
July 5, 2008 by Melissa
The title of this blog was going to be The Synopsis Sucks because it applies to any synopsis I write. Seriously. I hate the bastards, they drive me up the wall. There have been times that I know a book hasn’t made it past the slush pile based on my synopsis. For you non-writers, the synopsis is a summary of the book. Mine are usually way too short.
But, I am turning over a new page with the help of Shelley Bradley(aka Shayla Black) and L. Swift. Where I usually struggle to pump out five pages, I am working on one that is probably going to sit somewhere between 18-20 pages. Color me surprised. I have to make a few changes because devil woman, er, Shelley, found a plot hole or two. But I am not panicked. For the first time in my writing journey, I am really not having a problem fleshing out the story. Maybe I needed some time off to regroup, recover from 2007, Year of the HOSPITAL. It gave me a new perspective, so I decided to try something that Shelley had been harping on, er, suggesting for awhile.
I worked on a plot board. A simple thing really. Poster board, sticky notes, nothing big. In Feb, Shelley, along with L. Swift and Nikki Duncan, helped me start it up, really get the plot set for the book. I thought it wouldn’t help at all but Shelley can be kind of scary. No, really, I had seen how well she was doing with it, and I thought, hey, why not. I have always been mostly a pantzer, someone who might have an idea of a plot, even have a sucky synopsis, but it is not plotted out.
I am now a convert! I still need a lot of help. I still worry about this little thing and that. And I am sure that no matter what, I will never be completey happy with what I write. But, I am finding a new calm in writing, and I am rediscovering my love of it. Every book I have from now on(excluding really, really short stories) will have a plot board. It has erased a lot of stress from my life, made writing a joy again, and I can only thank Shelley over and over for pushing me to do it.
I am off to bed, and tomorrow I get to work on the sucky synopsis.
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Is it hard to write a synopsis because you’re trying to cram a lot of info about a book into a small paragraph?
That’s part of it. You take a 360 page book and cram it into 20 or so pages. YOu have to make sure you cover all the plot twists and turns, the motivations, the resolution, and do it interesting enough they want to see the book.
I’ve always been of the idea if you are going to read 20 pages of my work, let it be the book, lol.