Synopsisizing

Yup. That’s what I’ve been doing today. I have a very rough draft of a 1300 word synopsis written. I referred to my scene outline a few times to make sure I had the sequence of events correct, but mostly I just wrote it. It took a solid couple of hours, but now that something is actually saved in a file, I can start revising it tomorrow. I also need to do a mega condensed version of about 500 words. Staring at the longer one, I’m not sure what can be left out and still give a reasonable feel of the novel. Be that as it may, that is one of my goals for the week.

Over a year ago, PaperBack Writer, known at FM as StarDoc, began a thread at FM about writing a hot premise to use as a quickie pitch for a novel. The idea was to get the kernel of the story in fifteen words or less. (And I had trouble today with 1300!!) I wrote one for False Perceptions at that time, as I was doing the prep work for the novel. I was hoping to just dust it off today, but it is a flawed little hot premise. Why is it so very difficult to boil down what a story is really ABOUT? Enquiring minds want to know.

I updated the link for my novels in progress on the side bar, in case anyone cares!

What else? Yesterday I read The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks. I wanted to see what kind of romance a guy would write, and I found out! The male main character is trying to re-ignite the flame of his marriage of thirty years. (See, that’s almost a hot premise; why can’t I do it with my own?) I hesitate to tell you that there is a twist at the end of the story, because if someone had told me that, I might’ve figured it out ahead of time. But as it was, I went my merry reading way and got a pleasant surprise. It’s well done, and a quick read. Recommended.

Bedroom, rearranged. Jim’s been home for two days, got our hay baled but it’s still in the field till his next days off. He heads back out this evening. I’ll need another project now. The yard could use some work (like a LOT of work…) but the mosquitoes are out in full force these evenings, so the weeds can just keep growing. More power to them.