I've been working on a longer-than-one-page synopsis today. I am not loving it.
So far, I'm at about four pages, double spaced. (And not yet finished.) I've been using content from my original synopsis and my scene-by-scene outline.
Just now, I was thinking, Well, jeez. If she wants a synopsis with the full plot, wouldn't she love this 13-page outline? I should just send it over instead!
More is better. Right? Right?
Er, wrong?
*sigh*
As you know, I've been querying agents since March. As you also know, I've had requests, but not many. However, I have put together an impressive collection of rejections. (43 and counting.)
Last week, I decided to finally get around to querying one of the agents I met at the conference I attended in the spring. I've been kind of intimidated by her, but I thought Why not? Why not just get one more rejection? They hardly even sting anymore. (Which is a lie, by the way.)
Imagine my surprise and delight when today -- only a few days after sending the query plus first three pages -- I received a request for the first five chapters along with a complete synopsis to "include the full plot of the book including the conclusion"!
Now, imagine my thought process as I remembered that I have only a one-page synopsis completed.
Ugh. I guess I know what I'm going to be working on tomorrow.
It's been a long, loooong time since I've written a longer-than-one-page synopsis. Over three years, I think. Has anyone put together a good one that you'd be willing to let me read to get my head in the right place for this task? Pretty please? I will so appreciate it!
(My email is mindirochelle@yahoo.com if you are so inclined.)
I was just in the kitchen. Making dinner. And crying.
My husband walked in, looked at me all shocked, and said, "What's wrong?!"
I said, "Oh, you know."
"No. Um. Are you maybe thinking about that Visa commercial again?"
Yes. Yes, I was thinking about that Visa commercial.
This is the commercial in question. (Only 30 seconds in length.) It's narrated by Morgan Freeman and has made me cry about 2.5 million times during the past two weeks.
*shakes fist at Morgan Freeman*
(You know, wherever he is right now.)
In my first chapters, I like to leave out details to make readers wonder about certain things. You know, just sprinkling in a few little hints so they'll wonder, "Hmmm. What's that about?"
But this story I'm starting has many mysteries to come later, so I'm thinking I should just be upfront at the start with what Kae believes to be the truth of her circumstances.
I put this together to introduce the marriage/miscarriage on page three instead of holding it back:
He’s tilting his head a little, trying to make me smile, I think. What he wants to get across is, “See, Kae? We’re married teenagers who have nothing in common except our baby who didn’t even make it past the twelfth week of your pregnancy. But the good news is that I know you well enough to know you hate gross kitchens. In conclusion, we’re going to be okay.”
Of course, I could be giving him too much credit with all that.
I intended that there be an implied wink to readers there. I mean, she's imagining him saying something he would never say outright, obviously. It's supposed to be kind of funny, kind of sad, as well as a very straighforward device to sum up how she sees their relationship. But now I'm wondering if it's just sloppy and if the narrative would be better served to hold back the details until page six or seven and surprise readers right along with Brother-In-Law.
I know. No one can really have an answer for me, not having read it in context. I'm just wasting time pondering like I always do!
I'm trying to decide on a title for my current WIP. (I promise, I'm not obsessing here. I am getting a lot done with it. But I think it's time to narrow a title down, so I don't keep saying "The project I might call [one thing], [one other thing], or [one other other thing]." I'm leaning a particular way right now, but I'm curious what you all think. And, okay - I admit it! - I also just really like making polls.)
Here's a condensed-ish pitch:
Kae Roberts is only sixteen, but she feels about one hundred. During the past few months, she’s hooked up with prep-school guy Jason Gunnar, become pregnant, had a falling out with her best friend and her mother, gotten married, and suffered a miscarriage.
Now, six weeks before the start of Kae’s senior year—if she can get up the nerve to go back, that is—Jason’s younger brother shows up for a surprise visit. And that's when Kae learns that Jason didn’t tell anyone in his family about the baby, their marriage, or even of her existence. She probes for a reason, but Jason refuses to explain. So, while Kae’s easy-going brother-in-law enlists her participation in a 17 Before 17 challenge—seventeen life-changing activities to complete before their seventeenth birthdays next month—Kae decides the one thing she needs to do above anything else this summer is find out what else Jason is hiding… and why.
