With my query process over, now I have to focus my attention on my synopsis. At first when I went through, chapter by chapter, I thought “Holy muffins, this is going to be daunting.” Then I opened the synopsis and thought, “Wow, this might actually be fun! You know revisiting my friends in Mandor.” Now that I am on page 7 of 22… I am saying, “Holy muffins…” again.

*headdesk*

When I mentioned I was writing my synopsis on twitter, I had a fellow aspiring author ask me the difference between a synopsis and a query.

Do you know? My answer: The kitchen sink.

Explain: While a query is suppose to be similar to the back of a book, the pitch, the teaser… the synopsis needs to include all the little nuggets which include but is not limited to, the kitchen sink. But really only if the kitchen sink is important to the story… but in some, it could. Because maybe it’s the phantom sink or something. Go with it.

The perfect query should take the reader by the collar, shake them around and make them desire to read your book.

The perfect synopsis should show you why you snatched the collar, how you will shake them around and give you all the nuggets so you won’t have to read the book, the synopsis will do.

See the difference?

The length of a query should be no longer then 200-400 words… MAX! That is including your signature line and everything… and even at 400 words you are pushing the TOO LONG envelope. More like 200-300 is ideal. Just keep it in one page

The length of a synopsis needs to be around 3-5,000 words or 4-6 pages… double spaced. Which is why I referred to the kitchen sink.

There is vast difference between the two.

Do you need a synopsis? It can’t hurt to have one handy for conferences and when an agent asks. Because about half will ask and if you don’t have it ready when you query, you could be in for a couple all nighters as you write it. Just saying…

Related posts:

1. Query Facts… By Eisley Whoa, if you thought writing a novel was hard, try...
2. Query… again… What do you do with a query letter that has...
3. Walk-thru complete… Phew! What a pain in my tookus! For the past...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

For the past couple days I have been walking through, The Rings of Time… Chapter by Chapter. Only mildly distracted by twitter (hahaha) I finally finished last night around 10:00pm. What a relief.

My purpose behind running through each chapter (all 37 of them) was simple… I needed to extract a detailed chapter outline so I could work on my synopsis. I have been told a “long synopsis” is 5-6 pages. Ahem, I have 17 outlined. Now granted these pages are just one or two words per line, with the action/what’s going on. But still… 17 pages.

I noticed at the end of my efforts… the latter chapters got far more words then the first ones. Which I suppose is good. But now comes the difficult part… well it’s really in the eye of the beholder… I have to write the synopsis.

Which now means I get to do some research and find out exactly what agents/publishers want in a synopsis. I know they want a detailed character list of the mains, but do they really want everything that happens in the story…? I really don’t know, because this is my first try.

Yes, yes… I am still working on my query for Rings of Time but I am still not happy with it. I want to go short, sweet and dynamic… but my story is a complexed one full of action, which means I think I am trying to turn water into wine! And I don’t know about you, but only one guy has ever attempted that and succeeded and I am NOT HIM.

So, if you need me. I will be here, googling my day away to find a good agent/publisher synopsis submission to base my first efforts off of.

On the positive side of things (not that this was negative in any way, just a lot of work), I received another beta read back and they said nothing but good things about the novel. I asked the reader if they could critique it at all and their response, “I don’t have anything to add or suggest! I just want the second book.” To which I responded, “It’s on the editors desk, would you like his email?”

Hehehe…

Related posts:

1. Unseen Inspiration… As some of you know, I am looking for some...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.