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Synopsisize Me

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Morning Folks,

Do you find yourself wondering how an author writes his or her synopsis? Do you sit there and think "Wow, this synopsis is so cool, I wish I could do that!" (Incidentally that line of thinking ties into Stephanie's post about Writer's Guilt)

Next year the chapter I'm joining of RWA is planning to have a published author from the group talk about synopsises, so until I have more to add regarding that, I'm just gonna go by what I DO know.

I touched on this a little bit in talking about Todd Stone's BIC (Book On An Index Card). (I like this idea because it helps you organize things to write the synopsis).

But it's not just about summarizing the story in a short paragraph, it's also about making your story sound so exciting that a reader just HAS to pick it up and examine it further...then read it.

Speaking from the point of view of a reader AND writer I can't help feeling that it's not about saying too little or too much, but about saying the RIGHT things.

For instance...

Have you ever watched a book preview?

Published author, Kerrelyn Sparks has several of these (in fact, a couple on her website). You can also look here, here, and here.

The great thing about book previews is that they synopsize the story and give some visuals (even if you come up with your own ideas about what characters look like, they can still be fun to watch just for the sake of getting a feel for the story).

NWHRWA member, Jen, has a book preview on her website. (She's not yet published).

So, what you put on your book preview you could use to help you write a synopsis.

I've done up a book preview for Surreal and Conjure A Man but I don't have them up on the web, yet. There's still a few things I want to iron out (like thinking of adding images and/or music, but I haven't figured out how to do that, yet--I'll probably see if one of my brothers can help me).

I have to revise my synopsis for Surreal and write one for Conjure A Man but using these tools and whatever I learn as I go along (and attend RWA chapter meetings) I think will help.

So, how do you go about writing your synopsises? Do you have any book previews up?

Have A Top-Notch Tuesday!
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