It's amazing how perspective changes. When one begins to write a book, finishing it is a big concern, making sure there are no plot holes, that characters are appealing etc. Then comes the editing mountain. Making the story as best as it could possibly be - and suddenly, writing feels so much easier. And now, as I attempt to write a synopsis and a query letter, both writing and editing seem walk in the park by comparison. Not literally of course - because those things are still difficult. But whittling down the essence of the story in a query paragraph, or two pages of synopsis - wow, that's taking difficult to a whole new level. Especially because summarising anything is not my strong suit, as my husband finds out every time he asks me what movie or a book is about.
But I'm plodding on. Personally, I'm finding writing a synopsis far more difficult than writing a query letter. What about you? How do you feel about writing synopsis and queries? How do you approach it?
Since I'm self-publishing I don't have to worry about a synopsis, but I did have to come up with the blurb for the back of my book. It felt it took as long to write that as it did the novel itself!
ReplyDeleteI ended up pulling a dozen books off my shelves at random and read the back of each one to get ideas. Of course with a blurb you're trying to hook the reader so you want to make it interesting enough to make them want to read more but without giving too much away. A synopsis is written to hook a publisher or agent - you need to sum up the entire novel in such a way that they'll want to buy it.
Given the choice, I think I'll stick to blurbs. :-)