Crunching Letters to Synopsis Satisfaction

 I'm continually surprised that editors and agents in the publishing industry expect novelists to write short stuff, like query letters, outlines, and synopsis ... synopsis's ... synopsi? Just a sec.

(Huh. It's synopses. Who knew?)

Asking a novelist to write short is like asking a politician to spend less money; asking the Wicked Witch to be less cackle, um, cackle-y; asking me to skip dessert. My novel manuscripts tend to be short, but that doesn't make me freak out any less when I have to reduce it to a 1,000 word synopsis. My latest manuscript is 82,000 words: It's like taking a full size pickup truck and reducing it to Matchbox size with your bare hands.

Hey, I have this one! Wouldn't want to build the real thing from scratch.

Now imagine someone trying to write a synopsis for one of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books, which are so big they're registered as lethal weapons. Seriously, even putting it on your Kindle adds two pounds. When I tried to read the newest one on the couch, I broke my hip. And the couch. Of course, no one would ask him to write a synopsis. In fact, he probably has an assistant that does nothing but write synopses ... seses ....

In theory the best way to write a synopsis is to write one paragraph for each chapter, then trim where necessary, as if it isn't going to be necessary. I tried other tactics. For instance, removing every "the"; putting into the synopsis only the third and fifteenth word of every page; and hiring George R.R. Martin's synopsis writer. None worked. (You wouldn't believe what that guy charges.)

So I looked the manuscript over again. While Martin's books are high fantasy, my newest story is apparently low fantasy, and yes, I'm aware of the possible jokes. That means it's set in our real world, but magical elements intrude into it; the best known example would probably by the Harry Potter series.

How low can you go? Well, you could have an entire school full of kids who could turn their parents into warthogs, for instance.

 

My story, The Source Emerald, is about a young FBI agent on her first assignment, who tries to track down possible gem smugglers in upstate New York. Magic ... intrudes.

All I had to do is boil down her personality, the plot, the stakes, and the major supporting characters into 800-1000 words, or less than two pages. Or shorter, depending on who you ask. Oh, and in your own unique voice ... with plot twists ... and the ending ... I'm going to go lay down, now.

Okay, I'm back. Almost all authors hate writing a synopsis, and those who like it almost always turn out to be heavily addicted to something and/or certifiably insane. I don't have the exact statistics on that. All I know is that on my first whack at it, I spent half a page describing why my main character, Lilly, absolutely doesn't believe the little girl she encounters is Dorothy Gale, made famous in the Oz books. I had to reduce that to, like, four words.

"Dorothy is brunette, and a teenager, and not a princess, and it was all a dream, anyway. Stop pulling my leg--I've seen the movie."

In the final version the whole thing boiled down to: "Lilly doubts Dorothy's story."

It took me three days to come up with that sentence.

In reality I got the whole synopsis done in "just" a few days, not counting my nightmares of being chased by an editor with a sharp red pen. My first version was about 3,500 words, which really wasn't too shabby. My second was around 1,500--I was slashing words like a horror movie villain.

And then--finally--920 beautiful, short, on-point words. That's it. If you want a shorter synopsis from me, I'll just cut from the bottom and you'll never know the ending, pal! (Or lady, since most of the agents and editors I've queried have been female.)

But I did it. I'm relieved, and proud, and surprised, but mostly relieved.

Now I have to write a query letter.

Hm ... or maybe I should tackle a short story. What do you think?

Find all our books here:

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

 

Beta Readers Needed

This is something I should have done, and planned to do, years ago. Because if you're going to procrastinate, procrastinate like a boss! Eventually.

I'm looking for beta readers for my unpublished novels. Now, many of your know what this means, but since I've never been completely clear on it myself, here's my definition:

An alpha reader is that first person (or people) who go over an author's work. For me that's my wife, who's a talented editor and also doesn't put up with my crap. A beta reader is reading not as an editor, but as a reader--for fun, which is good, because they don't get paid. (Neither does my alpha reader, although I do bribe her from time to time.)

The beta reader is just looking at the big picture: What works for them, what doesn't, what's confusing, why a cat is mentioned in chapter one but never appears again. That last one actually happened to me. Their reward is getting to read a new book before almost anyone else does, without paying for it. Or possibly, depending on how much the author has his crap together, it's their punishment.

 

Believe it or not, in addition to my eleven published works I have four "finished" manuscripts being shipped around to editors or agents, two more in the final stages, and another that's going to be finished up this fall (I hope). It's the four done ones that I'd like to get fresh eyes on, so if anyone would like to volunteer to read one, I'd be extremely grateful. They include:

Summer Jobs Are Murder, a young adult mystery:

Cassidy Quinn’s summer vacation wasn’t supposed to include witnessing a murder—or being the main suspect. Now she and her oddball family have to find out where her best friend has disappeared to, why the dead man looks just like her friend’s father, and how she can afford to buy a car on minimum page. Oh, and who’s stalking her. 

 

Beowulf: In Harm's Way, a science fiction space opera:

Paul Gage and Sachiko Endo almost single-handedly won the first battle of an interstellar conflict--but no one seems to know how they did it. To protect their war heroes, the Space Fleet sends them far from action, with a tiny, untested patrol ship and a green crew. As long as they can keep the engines running everything should be fine, but Gage is convinced the Beowulf is headed for trouble. By the time they finish dealing with an invisible spy vessel, an invading ship full of children, and a psychiatrist with her own agenda, the crew starts to believe him … and that’s before an enemy fleet shows up where it can’t be.

  

We Love Trouble, a humorous mystery with supernatural elements:

Wulfgar the dog sees ghosts—but never the ones he wants to see, like murder victims who could identify their killers. That's a problem when his humans find a dead man and an injured teen in an Indiana State Park. Nothing is ever an accident for Travis and Victoria Noble, who are so often suspects themselves they have bond money on speed dial--soon they're surrounded by bodies, suspects, horses, and the odd conspiracy or two. It's all Wulfgar can do to keep his adventure-loving humans out of jail themselves … or worse, he could soon be seeing their ghosts, too.

The Source Emerald, a modern fantasy (apparently this kind are described as "low fantasy"):

Rookie FBI Agent Lilly McCray’s first assignment is easy: Follow up on the sudden appearance of valuable emeralds across the country. The odd part is that the gems keep popping up in locations related to L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz.

Lilly doesn’t give that coincidence much thought, until she confronts a little blonde girl who might be a smuggling ringleader—but who claims to be Dorothy Gale, Princess of Oz. Before Lilly knows it inanimate objects talk, people disappear into thin air, and she and Dorothy must go on the run from evil magics that threaten to tear two worlds apart … and it’s not a dream.

 

So, if anyone's interested in reviewing a new novel, let me know, and I'll e-mail the manuscript to you. All I ask for is an honest opinion, no line editing necessary, although I certainly appreciate being told when I mispell mispell.

 

Have a read and a drink.

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"