Day 4 of 90: Swimming in synopsis – it’s not that deep

Assignment:  Compose a 250-word synopsis of my current novel idea.

START 6:15 PM - END 8:08 PM  Word count:  298

 

Regarding Day 3 assignment:  I haven’t finished my Character Bio Worksheet it’s going to be one of those works in progress as my mind reveals more about characters as I am writing.  But as I was writing the synopsis much was revealed by what came out of me.

But first things first…don’t think I’m a genius or a master for whipping out 298 words in just under two hours.

There’s a trick I learned back in journalism school. 

1.  Don’t start with an empty page.  You will get blank-page syndrome and that could lead to procrastination or worse…cleaning your home.

2. Find a book you love that has a really tempting back cover synopsis.

3. Type it word-for-word on your empty page; then separate each sentence out with spaces in between. 

4. Underneath the first sentence type your idea in a similar fashion.

Here’s an example from the inside cover of “A Beautiful Mind” A Biography by Sylvia Nasar.

In this dramatic and moving biography, Sylvia Nasar re-creates the life of a mathematical genius whose brilliant career was cut short by schizophrenia and who, after three decades of devastating mental illness, miraculously recover and was honored with a Nobel Prize.

So with the above, that:

In this dramatic and moving biography, Sylvia Nasar re-creates the life of a mathematical genius

In this comical and touching life story, Andrea A. Ayers creates the life of a writer who’s shining

whose brilliant career was cut short by schizophrenia and who, after three decades of

writing career was derailed by her own procrastination and who, after seven years of distressing

devastating mental illness, miraculously recover and was honored with a Nobel Prize.

stopping and starting, incredibly placed herself in a 90-day challenge to write her novel.

Can become this:

In this comical and touching life story, Andrea A. Ayers creates the life of a writer whose shining writing career was derailed by her own procrastination and who, after seven years of distressing stopping and starting, incredibly placed herself in a 90-day challenge to write her novel.

Is it considered cheating?  No.  As long as you are using your ideas, secrets, fashion then there is nothing wrong from copying really good sentence structure.

We stand on the shoulders of giants and we’re expected to create from scratch?

Don’t reinvent the wheel.  Get the wheels turning!

Personal note:  Today was awesome!