Learn to Write A Friggin’ Synopsis
Posted By ron on September 6, 2008
Jeeze Laweeze! Again it’s been forever since anything new has appeared on this page. Why? Is Ron one lazy SOB or what? Nope! Probably the opposite. But being the guy that I am, I’m going to lay the blame specifically on [somebody else]. It’s all about that last post, wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay back on the 30th of May. That darned deadline. That June First Deadline!
So, Ron – I can hear you asking this question – why did you wait until the day before the deadline to get started?
Ha! I have an answer. Because the day of the deadline I had other stuff to do. Like commute 100 miles to work – barefoot – in the snow – uphill both ways. [OK that last part is Bovine Scatological material, it’s only partly uphill both ways.]
Anyway, that day in fourteen hours of hell taught me an important lesson. I’ve got to get faster at making stuff up. [Better yet to take one of Pam McCutcheon’s synopsis classes.]
To top it off, that fourteen-hour exercise showed me that I did indeed have some holes in the story. Nothing major, but the synopsis exercise coupled with a conversation I had at Pikes Peak Writers Conference with a major thriller-writer-guy planted the seed of a new plot line to make the story a lot more interesting. Bottom line is that the entry went in as is and the next morning I began a massive rewrite on the project. [We’ll ignore the fact that I’d told an agent a few weeks earlier “You bet, done and all ready to go.”]
Three hundred rewritten pages later, the manuscript was “in the mail.” [email whew!] I have a new book underway, and ten minutes to update my blog.
ttfn, Ron
Comments
Leave a Reply