No, there is only the need to write a synopsis.
I knew I was going to send the work in progress to Will, my editor, once I reached the hundred MS pages mark but I - foolishly - hadn't bargained on him wanting a synopsis as well.
Can I just say that I HATE WRITING SYNOPSES?
I know this puts me in the same category of intransigent moody teenagerishness as most other novelists when it comes to having to do this task but that knowledge doesn't make it any easier.
I know all the standard lines: If you can't explain what your book is about simply and economically then you don't really know. A synopsis helps you bring things into focus. It's a skill you need to develop so that you can talk cogently to editors, publishers, agents etc etc. I've heard them so often I don't even know whether they're true or a load of baloney any more. All I know is that I'd rather write a whole 120 000 word book than a measly 1 000 word synopsis.
How do you make your book sound literate, unputdownable and deeply satisfying in workaday prose that bears no resemblance to the 'voice' of the book? How do you convey themes and layers without sounding like somebody who needs to get out in the fresh air a bit more?
I know I have to do it. I know I'll have to do it for every book I write. That doesn't mean I have to like it.
8 comments:
Wholly with you on this one, Alis.
I love to write, but I hate to write synopses.
Hear hear! Me too, Alis (and Tim). But - could you imagine you're at a party, very slightly (but not too) drunk, and you've met this person you really want to impress, and they ask the (dreaded) question; "what's your book about?" In ten minutes, your coach is going to turn back into a pumpkin, so that's all the time you've got.
Try it and see.
Nice idea Frances but I think there'd be lots of umming and ahhing and, 'but that's not really what it's about-ing'!!
I'd be interested to know whether there are any writers who like writing the poxy things. Everyone I've spoken to thinks they're the publishing equivalent of cleaning the toilet.
Oh, give me toilets any day...
It so much depends on the type of novel, doesn't it. If it's full of hilarious one-liners, then a synopsis is useless. But I should think Agatha Christie's (for example) would have been quite easy to write, even if the surprise at the end is lost. What's always lost is style, unless you maange to pack enough of it into the requisite opening chapters. Anyway - good luck, Alis. (I've just sent opening of new novel to Will, and he hasn't asked for a synopsis. Is that a bad sign?).
I hope not, Frances. I'm guessing it's because my plans have changed since he and I spoke about the book in the summer and he wants to see just how much they've changed!
Glad the cold's feeling better (I think I'm coming down with one) and I'm with you on the synopsis. I keep it very short, but that doesn't make it any easier!
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