#75 - I Did What I Never Thought I Could Do

I never would have thought I could write a synopsis for a book I hadn't written yet, in addition to the first 10 pages of the book, in less than 2 days.

I'd like a raise of hands from anyone who thinks they could do that, no sweat. :)

I do have to confess that I didn't start just totally from scratch. When I was going through my hard drive recently (see Confession #74), I came across a little story idea I'd written up. I had a premise written down, and a 2 1/2 - page prologue.

Another added challenge - I've never written a synopsis before. That's something you do /after/ you write a book. Right? And I've never finished a book. So, there you go.

So, I'm going along with life, thinking I'm doing pretty well. I have a meeting with an editor in a month and I'm supposed to send her the first 10 pages and a synopsis. Time goes by and I think I just need to do some polishing because I'm going to send her this fairy tale I wrote years ago that has been revised so many times, I don't think a single sentence is the same as it was in the beginning. So, in other words, it's ready. And there's no need for a synopsis because it's only 9 pages long.

But, I thought I should email the event coordinator and ask if I need to send something in place of the synopsis and she emails me back and tells me the editor doesn't do picture books.

*crickets can be heard chirping for several minutes*

I have lots of books I'm working on. All of them are farther along than the one I chose. But I chose it because this particular editor does sci-fi / fantasy, and this is the only book I even had a concept of that fits in that category. (Or so I thought at the time. See below...)

So . . . I did it. I wrote the synopsis with some help from a couple seasoned sci-fi / fantasy writing friends of mine. And I wrote the first 7 pages of Chapter One. In a day and a half.

I had time to read it all over a couple times, and then I had to hit 'send.'

Cross all your fingers and toes and eyeballs, and anything else that can be crossed, for me. Or, rather, say a little prayer. With your arms crossed. :)

The hardest part for me was writing the synopsis. In order to write it, I had to figure out how to get my character in a big mess, and then OUT of it. That's part of why I don't finish the books I start. Because I don't know what's supposed to HAPPEN.

Maybe I need to write synopses for all the books I'm working on. :)

So, for all you interested fans out there, here is a list of the books I'm currently writing:

- LDS Women's Fiction
Approx. 62,000 words

- Fantasy
Approx. 13,500 words

- Historical Fiction
Approx. 3,400 words

- Humorous Contemporary
Approx. 1,000 words

- Women's Fiction
Approx. 14,000 words

- Futuristic Sci-Fi
Approx. 2,600 words

My daughter told someone a couple days ago that she's writing two books. Then she said, "My mom's writing six books. I don't think I would want to write six books at once. I think I'd get confused." She's very wise.

Some of you may have noticed I have a fantasy I've been working on that's over 13,000 words. This editor does fantasy, so I could have sent that to the editor. I could have. Really. If I'd thought about it. Like I said, my daughter is very wise.

But I console myself with the fact that I'm really bored with that story right now and I'm really excited about the new one I just wrote this week.

So, am I completely insane???

(Don't answer that question.) :)