Synopsis Love

I know, you wondering how that's even possible. Because there is NO FREAKING WAY to love writing a synopsis. And actually, it's not that I love writing synopses (I don't, I hate 'em) or that I'm any good at writing them (Nup, not that either) it's just the past two synopses I've written have been the easiest ever. They weren't even two pages!

So what's my secret? Well, I kind of don't want to say in case it proves that I am wrong, wrong, wrong. And also there really isn't a secret (except some good advice from Maisey Yates). It's a case of learning to let go the details of the story and focus on what is really important - the development of the romance and the character arc. I know, it's hard to figure out what are 'details' and what aren't. If you include this bit, then that means you have to include that and before you know it, you've got one page just on the first chapter! (my hint is if you think it's a detail, it probably is. So leave it out!).

In fact, in many ways, for me it's easier to write a synopsis for a story I haven't written yet. Because that way, there are no details to bog me down, plus it's great for figuring out whether your conflict works or not. Nothing like getting halfway through a synopsis and realising that your characters don't have enough conflict. Or that what you thought was the conflict, isn't what they thought.

But anyway, why were these ones so easy to write? Because I did totally leave out any extraneous details apart from the external conflict that brings them together. The rest is just how broadly the romance develops - their first impressions of each other. How that makes it worse for them. How they find connection. How that connection makes it worse. What they do about that. Why that doesn't work. And then the change they have to make in order to be together (the resolution of the conflict). The turning points of the story, etc, etc.

Now this could all be entirely wrong of course and in fact my synopses are crap! But at this point, taking an hour or two to write one instead of the usual three days, with another two for hair pulling and complaining, is AOK with me.

And just to show you I'm not all about how wonderful my synopses are (not), I am also going to include this little linky thing here (Sonny Bill Williams and his ripped shirt). I am not a rugby fan but since the Rugby World Cup is happening in my neck of the woods (American visitors, please visit this link hehe), I thought it pertinent to gift to the world a small incident that actually made me watch part of a game. I think the person behind the camera must have been a woman...:-)

Synopsophobia

The ed has let me know that she'll get to my chapters by the end of the week. Big yays! However, when I let her know that my synopsis is now no longer quite so correct, she requested an updated one. Not so big yays. Was this a stupid move on my part? At the moment, currently wrestling with giving her an updated one, I'm thinking that's a resounding yes! Sigh.

The main problem is that it seems to be the general consensus that the partial is more important than the synopsis. Naturally the eds want to know you have a decent story but everyone says that eds understand it can change and are a little bit willing to let things go in this area. Maybe I'm wrong but after having my previous synopsis picked to shreds, I can say that some eds pay more attention to synopses than others. And since that appears to be the case here, I need to make sure my synopsis is as good as I can get it - can't risk her not wanting to see the rest due to doing a crappy job.

Which brings me to my other main problem - I'm not very good at them. A while ago I thought I had the knack - until the ed picked it apart and I realised I didn't. It's so annoying. I know the story so well that I keep trying to include every emotional permutation, overcomplicating things, focussing on the wrong reactions, all sorts of irritating stuff. I know what you need to have in them, I'm just so paranoid about not doing a good enough job that I'm probably over compensating. Definitely a huge case of synopsophobia. I'm telling myself that the pain I'm suffering now will be worth it in the long run and that it will only benefit my story, but sadly that's not much help now.

Anyway, in much happier news, the release date of MaiseyYates' fabulous debut book for Presents/Modern is imminent and the Sisters are having a party. So do pop over for some champagne. In fact, if you love ebooks then His Virgin Acquisition will be available on the M&B site from Thursday, a whole month early! Super big yays for Maisey! You rock girl. Want to write my synopsis for me?? :-)

Hi, My Name's Jackie and I am a Writerholic

Just got back from an Easter break and am feeling very writing deprived. Apparently it's good to have a rest but I tell you five days without writing anything feels like torture to me. Luckily I wasn't in the middle of a wip otherwise it would have been hell. Still, the one good thing about being away is that there was lots of opportunity for thinking time.

I'm currently writing a synopsis for a competition entry and it's giving me gyp. Of course, synopses are the devil's own work and this was annoying me in particular because it's a rewritten version of my Feel the Heat story. Now rewriting previously rejected stories is HORRIBLE. Especially when they only have a passing acquaintance with conflict. Actually, scrub that, this story wouldn't have known conflict if it leapt up and bit said story on the backside. Hence the complete rewrite. In fact, nothing remains of the original apart from the character names, the hero's profession and that there is a protest involved. The rest of it has been totally done-over. Sounds good right? Well, it would be if I could get the conflict sorted. For nearly a year and a half I've been trying to get the conflict on this story okay. Yep, that's right, a year and a half. You'd think it would be easy. Nope. Problem has been not knowing what the hey I'm doing. I mean, here's the thing, you've got to make each character the worst possible person for their counterpart, and yet the best. They each have to learn something from the other which means they both have to lack something that the other has. But they both have to have qualities that the other admires and yet also something that keeps them apart.

Think I've mentioned jigsaw puzzles haven't I?

Groan. Anyway, think the last part of the puzzle slotted in over the weekend. Bout bloody time. Now, the reason it's taken me so long is that I never really had a good enough idea about what I was doing with conflict until now. Of course, the editor could disagree with that but at least it's more right than it's ever been (famous last words!). And the answer - as it was in the beginning - is in the characters. Their lives up until this point, the kind of people they are, what they admire, what they dislike, what they're secretly afraid of, and what they're currently doing in order to mask this secret fear. I think I've done it and then I realise that I've neglected to ask myself what my heroine's relationship with her mother was, or how she viewed her father or her siblings or whatever.

I have to say, the friends we went on holiday with were rather puzzled by my conversations with Dr Jax. "You know Kate? What's she afraid of?" I would ask him as we were walking along the beach. Or, "Remember Kate? I need her to do something that teaches him this thing but I don't know what she does," as we were in the middle of a card game. Or "I think I'm getting rid of the baby. It doesn't add anything," as we were watching one of the kids having a tantrum. ;-)

Yes, even on holiday I do not have a holiday from writing. One of my friends asked me how many hours I put into this 'job' and I couldn't put a number on it. Suffice to say that if I was actually paid for every hour that I put into it, then I'd be rich!

Anyway, now I have my conflict sorted, I can write my synopsis and send away my competition entry. Woohoo. In the meantime I am reading Mira Lynn Kelly's debut Modern Heat and loving it. Gosh those Modern Heat gals are good eh? Tough acts to follow. WTG and congrats on yor release Mira!

Romance Writer, Amateur Psychologist

Why psychology? Because I got feedback about my synopsis and, yes, there were problems. Guess where my problems were? Yup, the evil heroine strikes again! Hero had potential, heroine...childish and immature.

Groan! I'll be honest here, I did wonder when I was writing this story, whether her conflict was right. Halfway through the book I was going um...not sure about this...but I persevered hoping it would fix itself. But it didn't. So Jackie's number one rule is going to be: Go with your gut! If it's not working for you then it's not working full stop!

Right, so where to from here? Well, I'm going to go with fixing this one because in spite of evidence to the contrary, I do feel like I'm getting there with fully backgrounding my characters. Kate, for a start, is much more fully realised than Cat is. And that's mainly due to me thinking long and hard about Kate before I started writing. Plus, I like this story.

What I should be doing is taking advice from all you people who do character sketches before writing. Either that or I do what I usually do which is to write my way into my characters, finish the ms, and then write the synopsis. Impatience is my besetting sin and does not help in my writing!

The one thing that does console me is that the editor did tell me that writing romance with psychologically compelling, believable characters is very, very difficult. Hear that everyone? This is HARD stuff we're doing. We have to have strong conflict but it has to be light and flirty. It has to extend to 50k but you can't have any external conflict. It has to be sympathetic but not too specific. It has to have the fantasy factor. These are not easy things to accomplish. In fact, I was having a moan to a good friend of mine who is very, very literary and she said, 'Actually, what you're writing is very difficult isn't it?' And I thought, no kidding! Category romance is a tough beast.

Anyway, the other thing that keeps me going is this: the ed told me that my writing was all there and that once I got the characterisation right, I'll be away.

So, you see, I simply have to keep going. :-)

Synopsis Sent

After two weeks of fiddling and rewriting, synopsis version 6 is on its way. Thanks to the wonderful Michelle Styles, I now have a story with potential, rather than severe flaws. Of course the editors at Mills and Boon may not agree but even if they don't, I have learned SO much about conflict and action/reaction in the course of the past two weeks that the next sub will be even better. And I like my story a whole lot more than the last one which is a good sign I hope.

So what have I learned?

1. The conflict and thus the story plays out in the action and reaction of the characters.
2. The conflict happens in the present.
3. Internal conflict need not be based on tragedy.
4. Internal conflict can be simple.
5. That action is not talking. Talking is talking.
6. That rewriting one's synopsis completely six times can be a good thing.
7. That one can have too many dinners in one's synopsis.
8. That chocolate is a vital ingredient to synopsis writing.
9. That banging one's head on the table after version 4 hurts.
10. That you still feel sick when you press send no matter how many times you have subbed.

Right, so now all I need to do is write the thing! And thanks to Janette, I have a title: The Art of Attraction. Not a millionaire or a defiant mistress in sight.

Now, on with the NTAI.

The Joy of the One Page Synopsis - Part Two

Righto, now I shall reveal all my secrets... :-)

Seriously, I am not setting myself up as an expert in this so please take my advice with a fairly hefty grain of salt. The final judge will always be the editor. However, I have learned a few things in the past year and doing it this way does make a lot of logical sense to me. Whether you feel the same though is up to you! :-)

Okay, so I've rewritten my Kate and Alex synopsis the way I would do it now, given what I've learned.

You start with the internal conflicts:
The sole survivor of a car accident that left the rest of her family dead, environmentalist Kate Weaver is used to taking care of herself. But the loss of her family has left her with a desperate need to protect herself from emotional harm: falling in love is far too emotionally risky for Kate.

Millionaire property developer Alex Woolf lost his parents young and a series of violent foster homes ensured a lesson he never forgot: only the strong survive, never admit weakness. Love is definitely a weakness and one he will never fall prey to.

Then you have the story opening:
Kate and Alex meet at a protest that Kate has organised against a development by Alex's company in an Auckland mangrove swamp. Sparks fly and the chemistry between them is red hot. When Alex suggests a weekend together, Kate cannot resist: she doesn't want love but surely a little sex is okay?

Then there is the growing attraction (why do they fall for each other?):
Their weekend together is unexpected. The sex is sensational but there's more to it than that. Alex, used to control and not showing weakness, is drawn to Kate's uninhibited passion and her blunt honesty, while Kate is attracted to his intellect, the way he makes her laugh and by the vulnerability she senses, something he is trying to hide.

Then you have the emotional turning points of the story, such as the moment when each falls in love, why they fall in love, and the black moment. These points should be active - the characters make decisions and choices based on their internal conflicts.
After the weekend, they agree to keep seeing each other. Alex tells her not to expect any more than a fling but Kate is happy with that, it's what she wants as well. But an incident at a party forces her to revaluate this: Alex defends her from an over-amorous suitor and it's the first time anyone has taken care of her. It tips her liking for him into love.
Defending Kate felt natural and right to Alex but he doesn't know why he did it. He's only ever looked out for himself, not anyone else, so why does he feel the need to protect now? Deep down he knows the reason but he shies away from it: he must stay strong and admitting feelings for Kate is a weakness.
And then Kate finds out that their weekend has consequences: she's pregnant. Kate wants the baby desperately, wants to have a family again. Since Alex defended her once, maybe he'll have a change of heart when he hears about the baby?
When Kate tells him about the pregnancy, Alex is appalled – a child is the one thing that demands unconditional love, a weakness. And yet latent protective feelings stir in him. His own childhood left him scarred; he would never wish that on a child of his own. So he decides on a compromise: he'll provide for the child in every way, but he will maintain a physical and emotional distance.
But Kate will not settle for half measures. She wants a family and that means Alex in her life and in their child's. She demands to know why he can't provide this so he tells her about his childhood and why he cannot give her anything more. Kate asks him whether her loving him makes any difference and Alex, desperate to protect himself, to be strong, angrily tells her that no, it doesn't. She will have to be satisfied with what he gives her.

Then the resolution (how do they resolve their conflict and why?):
Kate is heartbroken but the need to provide for their baby gives her the will to fight. She involves Alex in the pregnancy every step of the way, setting him an example that being strong has nothing to do with denying love. Alex sees how determined Kate is to be there for their baby and he realises that it's love that makes her strong. It's not a weakness to be fought. The example she sets allows him to finally admit that he loves her, that he wants the family he never had just as much as she does. Together they will make it work.

Easy eh?

Okay, okay, so not easy. And this is by no means a perfect synopsis. Kate's emotional journey is truncated - why does she fall for Alex, out of all the men in all the world? What does she learn from him and how does she learn it? I'm sure you can spot other things too.
But the focus of the synopsis is solely on the basic internal conflict. And that's the main difference to the previous one - I've actually given Kate and Alex some internal conflict (the loss of their childhoods/parents). Also, there is no external conflict in here apart from the opening set up and the bit with the amorous suitor. Introducing this has Alex having his hero moment but should this come from an outside source? Still, it has him making the decision to defend Kate and her reaction to that defence.
There is no secondary characters included, and there is no 'voice'. The voice is for the partial - nothing but cold, unadorned facts in the synopsis. What I've done is shown the editor how their romance will play out and how it will eventually be resolved, via the main emotional turning points - initial attraction, why they fall for each other, Alex's hero moment (Kate falling in love), pregnancy and reaction, black moment, resolution. It'll be up to the editor to decide whether this makes enough sense and whether the story is strong enough for her to want to see the rest of it.
The formatting is a little off (thanks Blogger) but this synop, in Word, is one page with a blank line between each paragraph.

And if you're wondering, this synopsis isn't actually the way I've written this story. Not sure of the ethics of posting an unpublished synopsis that I'm hoping to submit (one day!) so this is one I based on my original story, which was eventually rejected. :-) Anyway I hope it gives you a bit of an idea on how to proceed. Feel free to ask questions or anything, or even let me know if there's a better way to do it! Like I said, I'm no expert...

The Joy of the One Page Synopsis

This is a killer, right? You're not wrong. How do you get everything you want into one page? Well, it's not easy but it's entirely possible. After Michelle S gave me her critique of my sorry synopses, she suggested that I try doing them in one page. This was really hard but in doing so, I had a bit of an inkling about how an editor might read it and why certain things were important.

Now, obviously I am no expert in this but I thought I'd share my insights just in case they're helpful.

To help illustrate points, I'm going to use the synopsis I subbed for the FTH contest. This was two pages double-spaced and quite frankly, not very good. See if you can spot why.

When Alex Woolf, Auckland millionaire property developer, discovers eco-activist Kate Weaver protesting at one of his constructions sites, his self-contained world is suddenly thrown into chaos by a sudden attack of the lustful kind. But Kate is wary: he's the very antithesis of her green ideals and is also, unfortunately, incredibly attractive. Unfortunate because she's susceptible to physical chemistry and has learned from past mistakes that it means nothing in the end.
Incensed by the blatant way Alex shows his interest, Kate organises a protest outside his offices but this turns nasty and she ends up being rescued by him. Naturally she tells him exactly what she thinks of him. His response? A kiss to her palm that leaves her trembling. Alex is hooked on the chase. He tracks Kate down with a demand: dinner at her house or he presses charges regarding her protest: Kate has no choice but to agree.
At dinner, Kate tries to scare him off with her blunt opinions but Alex is even more attracted. The evening ends with him pulling her into his arms and kissing her senseless. Then he goes further by manipulating her into having lunch with him at his Waiheke Island home.
Kate, hating to be manipulated, fears the worst but over the course of the afternoon, realises that her initial impressions about him are misplaced. There is a vulnerability to him that she, champion of the vulnerable, finds very intriguing. But, worse than that, he makes her laugh.
That night, finally unable to resist her own sensual nature, a side of herself she's always mistrusted, it's Kate who does the seducing. Their lovemaking is a transcendent experience, a true meeting of both bodies and spirits, and it changes everything between them.
The next day circumstances force Kate into staying on the island but after the night she spent with Alex, she feels she knows him, is sure he would never hurt her. He brings out her humour, her sense of fun. Things she'd hadn't even known she'd lost. She soon doesn't want to leave. Alex too is changed by the experience. A lonely childhood has led to a life of emotional self-sufficiency but passionate Kate has opened a door in his heart. A door that leads to a world where caring about someone does not lead to dependency but emotional fulfilment.
But the spell breaks when they return to the mainland. Attending a party with Alex, Kate is served with a reminder about how out of place she is in his world: a chance meeting with her ex leads to bitter humiliation and it's enough for Kate to decide that it can never work between her and Alex. They're too different and she's too afraid of being hurt again.
Alex feels betrayed at Kate's rejection after the party. He defended her – stepping in to help someone else was a huge step for him in the first place – so why did she throw it back in his face? He wants what they had on the island but he still can't reconcile these feelings with what he's been brought up to believe: that being dependent on someone else for your happiness makes you weak. Way out of his comfort zone, he decides that perhaps his parents were right after all, that looking after number one is the most important thing.
But then they discover that their island tryst has had consequences: Kate is pregnant. She's appalled. Not only is she in love with someone she doesn't want to be in love with, she's also having his baby! Alex is horrified too – the ultimate in dependency requires the ultimate in unselfishness. But now it's happened, he realises he wants it more than anything in the world. So he challenges her: she must get over her fear of not being good enough for him and understand that their differences need not divide them. Kate answers with a challenge of her own: if she'll do that for him, can he get over his need for emotional self-sufficiency and commit to her as well as their child? But for Alex, admitting finally that he loves her, there's no need to compromise. He'll do whatever it takes to have her and his child in his life. Permanently.

I think I put everything but the kitchen sink into that synopsis but anyway, here's what's wrong with it:
Firstly and most importantly, where are Kate and Alex's conflicts? They're not in the first couple of paragraphs and because they're not, nothing the characters do or feel really makes any sense. When an editor reads a synopsis (this is just a guess here folks 'cause I've actually got no idea. It's more how I would read a synopsis) she'll want to know immediately why these two feel they can't be together. If she knows straight up, then she'll be able to see why/how the characters make the decisions they do and if they make sense.
If not, she'll be left asking herself questions like these:
What were Kate's past mistakes? Why does Alex's interest incense Kate? Why is he vulnerable? Why is that attractive to her? What made her lose her sense of fun? What does being not of his world have anything to do with their romance? Why are they too different? Why will it never work? Why was it a huge step for him to defend her? Why did he learn this lesson from his parents?

You see? I'm sure you can spot the other questions in the subsequent paragraphs too. But all these questions pretty much stem from the same reason - what are the conflicts here? And the short answer to that is: there aren't any. Not anything internal anyway. All the baby stuff etc, scene with the ex, is all just me trying to cover the fact that there was nothing to keep Kate and Alex apart. There's hints - Kate's past mistakes, Alex's parents, but nothing concrete.

So if that's not a very good synopsis, what's a good one? I'm not the world's greatest synopsis writer and I'm certainly not setting myself up as one, but I can do better than the above these days. Next post I'll redo the synopsis the way it probably should have been done the first time and you can see if it's better or not.

The Fine Art of Synopsis Writing

Right, forget flowery phrases. Sentences that scream 'look at me!'. Paragraphs that read well but don't actually tell you anything about the story. Throw them out of the window. Why? Because all your synopsis needs is the setting, the internal/external conflict, the evidence of growing attraction, the black moment and the resolution.

Yes, I have been thinking more about Michelle's advice, especially when it comes to writing the synopsis. The first one I did was full of the flowery phrases. It said nothing about how the characters grow and what they learn. It was full of 'he realises' and 'she realises' but nothing about why they realise that. So I wrote another one, and this was full of the 'why's, the internal conflict, what the heroine liked about the hero, what he liked about her, what they learned from each other, why they fell in love, why they couldn't be together and why, in the end, they were. But this one missed the turning points in the story, how it actually unfolded. Wrong again.

So this time I've done a third. And this time - I hope - I've done it right. This time I've actually included the 'hows'. Like instead of just saying ' he shows her that a little risk isn't a bad thing'. I've said how he does this by taking her bungy jumping and rock climbing. And when he comes to realise he needs the heroine in his life, instead of saying 'he suddenly realises....' I've given him some bad news about his father that the heroine is able to help him through, thus showing him what it's like to have support when he needs it.

Okay, it's not perfect, and until I get the okay from the editors, it may not be right, but it's SO much better than my previous effort. And this is a typical two page deal. Michelle said I should be able to write a synopsis in one page and let me tell you, it was difficult exercise. But I managed it! I would actually recommend everyone give this a go. It certainly boils your story down to the most basic nuts and bolts, and it's a great way to see if there are any plot/conflict holes. In much the same way as writing a synopsis centered just on the conflict can be useful too.

Anyway, that's my two cents worth today. This may be self evident to others but it was certainly a big step forward to me. As a pantser extraordinaire, doing a synopsis before I actually start writing is a huge acheivement. Who'd have thought it would help? :-) And it's given me a great start for writing the rest of the story - two chapters down and one to go before spit, polish and send. :-)