Manuscript update: Buried in query letter and synopsis writing hell.
Yesterday, I promised more on synopsis writing today, so here goes.
I went through this already with my first novel, but when I sat down to write the synopsis for my second, I felt like a toddler on uneasy legs. So, I did my favorite procrastination activity: Research. (Just kidding about the procrastination activity. Research is incredibly important and useful and helpful, but I will admit that sometimes I can be a little more meticulous than I need to be when I’m avoiding the writing I should be doing.)
In my research, I found some cool links on synopsis writing, ones I hadn’t found in my original research. Share time:
- How to Write a Synopsis: Marg Gilks explains why working hard to write the best synopsis possible is necessary (because it’ll be used as a sales tool by your agent and editor) and offers up some good tips on how to write a brilliant one, such as starting while you’re doing the final read of your manuscript.
- Writing a Synopsis From the Ground Up: Dee-Ann Latona LeBlanc goes through different types of synopses, including a single sentence, single paragraph, one-pager and larger.
- Workshop: Writing the Novel Synopsis: Sheila Kelly writes a kind of synopsis 101, including her secret weapons.
- How I Write a Fiction Synopsis: Diana Peterfreund, an admitted lover of synopsis writing (she has to be in a minority there), details how she writes a synopsis—before the book. And she defends herself against all the writers who gasp and think she’s crazy. It’s a fun and thought-provoking read.
- Writing the Fiction Synopsis: Diana Peterfreund points readers to Kathy Carmichael’s online synopsis workshop, which has some very useful tips too.
- Synopsis Samples: Charlotte Dillon provides a huge number of sample synopses, most for romance books, but the great thing is, these are synopses that got the said books sold, so they’re priceless no matter the genre.
- Seven Deadly Sins of Synopsis Writing: Mary Buckham details the don’ts of synopsis writing.
Got any others you want to share? Paste them into the comments.
And now onto the big news of the week, Apple’s iPad. Sure it sounds all ooh and ahh, but, call me sentimental, I’ve got a special place in my heart for Amazon’s Kindle because it came first. (Not that I own one. I’m still in love with paper and ink.)
Also, I’m not big on the idea of one device taking over the world. I have an iPod — like everyone &
By: Anastasia Goodstein,
on 5/5/2009
Blog: Ypulse (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: where the wild things are, hannah montana, Ypulse Essentials, Bristol Palin, Amazon's Kindle, candie's foundation, mr.youth Jonas Brothers, WTF Moment, Add a tag
Candie's Foundation appoints Bristol Palin teen ambassador (for the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. To promote the effort, Palin will attend a town hall meeting. Meanwhile, today Anastasia is attending a panel in D.C. on the rise in the teen... Read the rest of this post
Wow, Thanks for this post! I’m going to speak about synopses at the NJ SCBWI conference in June and was just about to start researching the topic. you gave me a good start.
anita
That’s great! Glad this helps, Anita. I’ll be working on my synopsis for the next couple weeks probably, so look out for more posts on the subject. Hope you find some good stuff in these links. I did.
Love that quote at the end. So true.
I’m pretty excited about the iPad, but unsure of whether it’s worth the price. We’ll see…
Also: I’m with you, I really like the Diana Peterfreund info on synopsis writing.
[...] I noticed that Day by Day Writer has a nice list of sources for synopsis information, (Synopsis Helpful Links) and wondered if anyone else had other sources on the topic. I like to hand out a list of [...]