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I was so excited in May when a huge agent requested my full. I was delighted two weeks later when her assistant praised my novel and sent me two pages of editorial notes. I was determined to get to work when she said my take on the underlying issues and possible solutions seemed fine.
I spent the next 3 months revising. I incorporated all the things I’d laid out in my reply to her feedback. I felt so excited. This was the best book I’d ever written. My crit partner loved it. I loved it.
And then I sent it off last week. The waiting began, but I was relieved to have time to devote to chores and finding a part-time job. I was on a mini-break from writing. Three days later, the agent wrote me back.
I saw her email in my inbox and thought OMG, 3 days–she must like it.
WRONG.
She didn’t like it.
In fact, she listed new issues she never touched on in her previous letter and made it sound like I ignored them. No. This was the first time she ever broached the topic.
All her previous emails had exclamation points and were so positive. This one was business-like and cold.
Like I was called to the principal’s office. It was humiliating.
All the hope drained out of me.
I reached mile 25 in a marathon and was told to start all over again.
It all feels completely pointless.
Like I will never be a published writer.
Like I’m the stupidest most delusional person in the world.
Like this was the dumbest undertaking of my existence.
My stomach devours itself. My heart aches, like an invisible hand is squeezing all the blood out of it.
I’m scrambling to process this.
I had a plan to start revising my next book, but that has to be delayed. I can’t approach it with anything resembling hope. All hope has fled. And until it returns everything I do is pointless.
The Synopsis is like winning on several lines of slot play. Are you shaking your head at me, wondering how I could ever claim that the dreadworthy synopsis is, gulp, a good thing multiple times over?
Good.
Because I used to hate writing them too.
I waited until the book was finished to try to distill it to a 2 page synopsis and a 1-2 paragraph query hook. I would throw myself on the floor bemoaning the impossibility.
Scraped-skin-across-tar painful? Yup.
And much easier to do if you start it in the drafting phase, when you don’t know where the novel will end, but you need a roadmap. I give myself some leeway and let the drafting synopsis reach five, gasp, pages.
That’s what the drafting version of the synopsis does. It lets you know what comes next. Helps you over the hump of Writer’s Block.
It tells you when you’ve veered off on a tangent.
Not that tangents are bad. Sometimes they become the story. But the synopsis is your map. It reminds you that you’re changing your book as you go and that changes have ripple effects.
Writing a synopsis during the drafting phase forces you to plot out your book. And also draws attention to gaps in the plot before the book is done.
Plus the practice of writing one helps.
When you get to revision, you know what you thought was important in drafting. And now might not be. You get to hack away at the drafting synopsis, sculpting it to a lean, soon-to-be-querying machine.
Revision is a time when the story changes so the synopsis must conform to all plot shifts. The synopsis’ brevity forces you to isolate your one main plot.
The synopsis is an essential querying tool (read agent-requested material for evaluating a book). It helps sell your book at the querying stage.
It also helps crystallize in your mind what the central plot is and how to succinctly describe it. The synopsis will help you determine genre and impact your pitch too.
For me, having a synopsis during each of these three phases streamlined my work time and created a better manuscript.
Do you still hate synopses?
Maybe.
But do you see their inherent value?
Finally starting to feel the antibiotics working. Thank you modern medicine!
But I decided today, I’m going to be a ghost town.
I’m going to stay in my pjs all day. I’m not going on FB or Twitter. I’m going to check email, write my blog, and revise my novel. What I consider the bare minimum.
Play with the dog.
I’m not going to invite anyone over or attract any attention. Just going to hole up here in my kour cave.
Unplugging from the frenzied world and be my own little ghost town.
I’ve hit a new record. Killed a red pen on one chapter of my work in progress. Chapter 19 turned out to be the worst chapter. To date.
Here’s a sample of the notes I wrote to myself:
- Shorter scenes, get in and get out. FAST
- Don’t over-explain things
- Don’t overanalyze and bore the reader
- Rework this
- Scene breaks?!
- Dullsville. I’m bored.
- Speed up the pacing–it’s Amish-like.
I’ll save you from a line-by-line recap. However, WordPress is all bullet happy so I must continue in this format.
- Then there are the crossouts and dozens of rewritten sentences.
- Eek. This is a bad chapter. I get why everything is on the page. But the page was not where it needed to be.
- Sometimes I was working out the motivation and the character’s inner world. Not the place for that exercise. Mental note: Scratch paper has its uses.
- And then I did the dreaded can’t get out of this scene so I’ll keep writing and then bridge right into the next scene move.
- If my head didn’t throb so much, I’d smack it on my desk.
Oh Chapter 19, what happened when I drafted you? Was my brain on vacay? Was I rushing to increase wordcount? This is going to take a few days and some intense revising to get you back on track.
Just have to share this song…I’ve been revising to it…
When you write “The End” it really is the beginning of the next phase with the manuscript. You aren’t saying goodbye. You’re saying hello to 3-4 months of revising.
And as I wrote “The End” I knew the first 5 chapters would need major revisions. Because the story went in a different direction than I originally pictured. Shit.
I also had agent, editor, and contest feedback on the first 50-80 pages that I now had to incorporate.
I didn’t want to change anything until I knew where the story ended up.
Today had been rough going. Because I had to change a few things, which lead to 1000 new words being drafted. And rearranging of scenes. And earlier revelations of stuff.
I think it’s coming along, but I dreaded it this morning. When I sat down, knowing I had to add a couple new scenes. I cringed. Revising I like, redrafting is more of a challenge. Because new words take so many rounds to revise.
But they were needed. So I’ll probably spend the rest of this week on this chapter. Which has now become two chapters. But I think it’s necessary. I think it helps the story. Lord I hope so.
It’s amazing how a few tweaks can ripple and require new scenes.
Gotta admit, writing is pretty cool. One of the few things where you get to the end and can fix the beginning. 
I hate hate HATE writing setting. I can imagine the scene unfolding in my head. See all the background and the details.
But they always feel like background. Window dressing.
Never the meat and potato of the scene.
And while revising, I’ve giggled at myself. Because I saw the entire scene in my head. Envisioned all the details of the blue sky with shredded cotton scattered across it. Of my protagonist in her seafoam chiffon dress.
And none of that was written down. Because I was focused on capturing the dialogue. the emotion. the moment.
And as usual, setting took a backseat with me.
Thank God for editing and revising. For beta readers. For the opportunity to paint in the setting to bring the scene to life.
Mind you, dialogue used to be the bane of my existence. But after months of practice. Dialogue is my new bff.
Ah setting, you remain my one true nemesis.
