HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: You know what I’m doing, you all? I am trying to write a synopsis. This is the worst possible project for an author. Especially someone like me who doesn’t really plan or outline or look very far ahead when I’m writing a novel. It is horrible. A complete slog.
(How do I know what's going to happen until it happens? And it doesn't happen until I write it in the book. (And this is a photo of me from a million years ago, and from the look on my face, I definitely think I am trying to write a synopsis. Even though I am on obvs on vacation, lookit that tan.)
ANYWAY. But the consensus seems to be that it would be good for me to have a full idea of the story of my next novel. And so be it. I am completely certain that it'll be worth it.
But the journey is arduous.
I have talked to my colleague Sophie Hannah about this, what a genius she is, and she had such a brilliant insight.
She said she used to feel the same way, that she was “the kind of person who could not write a synopsis. " And then at one point she thought "wait-- if I can think that, why don’t I start thinking about myself as a person who can write a synopsis!" And go from there.
Her theory was if she tried to do something that she was not comfortable doing, and it didn’t work perfectly, well, at least she made a start, and was getting experience, and was figuring out how to do it. And certainly she was better off when she started, since she had taken the chance to do something new and different.
And wow, what if it worked?
So there, Reds and Readers, is where I am now. I am pushing pushing and pushing. And I have to tell you that every day I tell myself: all I need is one more good idea. Just one idea.
I am telling myself--I can write a synopsis.
I have tried all kinds of things to make myself do this. What seems to be the most successful is I make an appointment with myself. Like: "At 1 PM, I will work for one hour, and come up with one good idea." That’s all I need. And so far, that’s kind of working. I have to be finished by this time next week.
And what this does, interestingly, is making me think about things I don’t want to put in my novel.
For instance, my husband – – who has recently come to understand that if you don’t like a book you don’t have to finish it, this is my tutelage, and I wonder what you all think about that? But anyway, he closed a book after a few chapters and said "There are way too many characters in this novel, and I can’t keep them straight."
Good point! I said. That's always annoying.
I remember in my first book, PRIME TIME, in the first draft I had a TV news photographer named Walt, and another news photographer named, I don’t know, let’s say Jimmy, and a third news photographer named let’s say Stan.
My editor said why do you need three different photographers? Why don’t you make them all one person? That will make that one character bigger and more solid and more important. And wow, she was right. And Walt the photographer became a pivotal main character for the entire series.
And, Jonathan went on to say, there are too many points of view. And multiple timelines. It was all way too complicated.
Yes, that's another synopsis question that must be faced. A single point of view? Multiple point of view? One timeline, or a dual timeline? I think about the books I love, and there’s no real pattern – – a well-written book with multiple timelines and multiple points of view can be absolutely fabulous!
As I tell my student students, “Anything can work. You just have to do it well. "
Which sounds really great, and empowering, until you are the one writing the synopsis.
So while I claw my way through this synopsis, what are your pet peeves? What are the things that will make you put a book down? Or do you slog through to the end no matter what?
For instance--I know, anything can work. But a prologue all in italics kind of stops me.
Or a prologue that is completely different in every way from Chapter 1.
Or when the person I assume is the main character because it is written in their point of view dies at the end of the prologue or chapter one. What a ripoff.
Or when a character does not ask the question that ANY reasonable person would ask. (Clearly because the author thinks that's suspenseful. It isn't.)
Pages and pages in italics, my brain wants to skip them.
How about you, Reds and Readers? What are your pet peeves? What would make you put a book down?
