Synopsisilizing

Well, I took a brief break from the agent research to do something actually related to it. I wrote a synopsis. I did this because a lot of the agents submission requirements listed a desire for one. So I did it.

Now for those of you who know very little about writing a synopsis I'll tell you the most basic rule. The shorter, the better (I'll get into formating in a later post). I tried to keep this in mind when I wrote my first draft on Monday, but my synopsis somehow ended up running 12 pages (double spaced)! This was not good. Unfortunately, I lacked the time to tweak it then, and waited until Tuesday. I did, however, think about what I could do the rest of the day.

It soon became obvious to me that I talked about subplots far too much, and talked about stuff directly related to the main plot way too much. When I went back to edit my synopsis on Tuesday I found that it was impossible. The whole thing needed to be rewritten. So I did so. By hand. Not something I enjoy, but it was necessary. Helped me compress my thoughts. When I finished the synopsis it certainly seemed a lot shorter, for it only took up two pages of paper. Today I typed it into the computer, and found that it was in fact a lot shorter. It was 3 pages! That's 75% shorter! Celebrations abound! Now I am fairly confident in my synopsis, and won't be afraid to show it to a prospective agent.

On another side note, I did a review of my word count for VALDEN'S HEIR. Found that 120,000 words seemed like too much. Using some math expertise (ya, I can do math) I discovered that it is more likely around 115,000 words. A major shift that I believe is a very good thing since most say 120,000 words is the maximum length for a first time fantasy novel. Now that I'm below that I'm feeling pretty good.

Taylor