Posts Tagged "The End Credits"

More synopsis joy

Posted by The Author on 21 Feb, 2009 in Stuff That Happens | Comments Off

I seem to post here a lot about the synopsis. There’s good reason for this.

Authors are frequently called upon to reduce their 60,000-odd word novel to a page, a paragraph, even a pithy statement.

My pithy statement for this book? Bad TV talent shows and narcolepsy, together at last.

So it is I’ve been asked to write yet another synopsis for my novel None of the Other Flies Follow My Crooked Lines. It’s probably my third or fourth attempt at this and it’s never an easy task. Hell, it took me nine words to title the damn thing.

On the synopsis

Posted by The Author on 1 Aug, 2008 in Stuff That Happens | Comments Off

Well, there it is. The synopsis is now out ‘in the wild’, as they say. It seems strange to put out so much information about a novel that exists only as a manuscript on someone’s desk (not mine).

I wanted to put it up on the web site though, partly to prove to myself that I actually complete it, but also to show how the synopsis will change over time. I recently dusted off the synopsis of my first novel, which is itself making a few rounds of prospective tree killers. It astounded me how ordinary and clunky the synopsis now sounded to my ears. I promptly hacked it to pieces and came up with something snappier. I’ll post up examples of those in coming days too.

The synopsis is a difficult piece of writing. How do you summarise 60,000 words of your blood and sweat into a few pithy paragraphs that prompt the reader to want more? Which bits of the story do you emphasise over others? Do you attempt to tie it all together and hint at the conclusion or do you leave the reader hanging? Will that piss them off?

The one essential requirement for writing a good synopsis is the one thing that the author has absolutely none of: perspective. Given time and some distance from the manuscript, it is possible for the author to approximate perspective and use such approximation to good effect. But I suspect that the publisher’s requirement of an author-penned synopsis is one final joke from the industry. You’re stupid enough to write a novel? Now summarise it!

Synopsis: NOTOFFMCL

Posted by The Author on 31 Jul, 2008 in Stuff That Happens | 1 comment

Liberty Star Jones was a shoo-in to take out the grand finale of the MusiClash, the television talent quest that pitches itself as the only show that matters. With a truckload of talent and the singular viciousness of her uber-stage-Mum, Bunny behind the scenes, Liberty was set to coast her way into this Christmas’s number one single. America beckoned.

How did it all go so wrong?

The competitive edge

Posted by The Author on 26 Jun, 2008 in Stuff That Happens | 2 comments

After a few mad last-minute tweaks, the new novel is now dispatched for competition. I would have liked to get an appraisal (and the associated editorial raking over hot coals) before doing this, but you never know when you might fluke a win.

This brings me to the point of this post. Competitions are strange beasts. As I writer I often find myself busting my arse to complete a work for the deadline only to watch the piece (and the entry fee) sail off into the sunset never to be heard from again.

For me, competitions are purely a shot in the dark on the off chance that you might have written a freaking masterpiece without realising it.

While I’ve had my successes (and I’m in no way complaining about them), I don’t consider myself a “lucky” writer. I’ve been shortlisted, runner-upped, and notably mentioned, but nothing I’ve ever written has actually taken out an award. When I submit a manuscript for competition, the most I ever hope to achieve is making it past the first round.

So why bother?

The joy of tense

Posted by The Author on 22 Feb, 2008 in Stuff That Happens | 3 comments

So the third draft is on. I’ve done a re-jig of the text which requires (gulp) a change of tense in great big chunks of the story.

I’ve always thought writers, like drummers, have a natural rhythm. If you’re talking music my natural rhythm is a slightly skewed 5/4. Read into that what you will.

As far as writing is concerned my natural rhythm is first person, present tense.

I may deal with point of view later, but tense is definitely a sticking point for me. Most literature is written in past tense. It works pretty well, the idea that someone is telling you a story that happen some point in the past seems plausible to any audience.

Present tense though shoves the story right in a reader’s face. When you read present tense you tend to perceive an urgency to the story. Everything that happens is right here, right now. Maybe that’s why I like it. As a reader, you experience it like an observer.

Anyway, i find even when I try to write in past tense, present tense slips out at every opportunity, which makes for an uphill battle to edit.

All of which brings me to the case in point. Early drafts are usually in present tense, so if I decide that the story needs to change it inevitably involves detailed investigation of every sentence with painstaking edits galore.

There is an upside, however. By the third draft, writers have a tendency to skim, rather than read properly, which means editing can be a little less than thorough. Changing tense has a tendency to sharpen your eye though.

Hi ho.