MOODY WRITING

Content Of Your Character

2013-05-16T18:00:00.000+01:00

There’s no point having a story by the end of which the reader will know who your main character is and what he’s about.

You may think that the purpose of the story is to reveal this and that’s it’s intriguing for the reader not to be too sure where a character’s loyalties lie. That would be wrong.

Did you have a good idea of what kind of person Harry was before he got to Hogwart’s? Did you have a reasonable idea about Katniss before she got to the games?

The initial part of a story is to tell the reader the character’s values and beliefs. Once things kick off, then it’s time to test those values and beliefs.

In some cases both of these can be conflated into one. Thrillers and other stories where we start in the middle of things. Or the character may be of a type that is easy to recognise and understand (the obsessed cop, the woman who really wants a baby).

In the Jack Reacher novels we are often given a list of the main’s character’s achievements and awards while he was in the army, and this gives you a pretty good idea of who he is in a very short space, but mostly it helps slot him into a particular pigeonhole.

Some genres actively welcome this sort of clichéd characterisation (although 'archetypes' might be a kinder way of putting it), but a little more complexity is also a good thing.

Whatever it is you tell the reader about your character in the early part of the book, it’s important that it directly plays a part in the story that unfolds. There’s no point having a woman who’s afraid of the dark and rescues abandoned cats if the story is about her deciding to become a race car driver.

It may seem like a way of making a character feel more than just two dimensional to give them diverse interests and an unclear, more ‘realistic’ narrative. That would be wrong, too.

A contrived as it might feel, the whole point of giving a character a particular viewpoint is to bend it to breaking point. Creating a vague, wishy-washy feeling (life-like as it may appear) is annoying to read. But much easier to write, which is why it often appeals.

In Rosemary’s Baby, we start with Rosemary and her husband house hunting. What we get is an indication of how much Rosemary wants to settle down and start a family. Her desire for that will be put to the test when she gets her wish, a baby. Meanwhile, her husband, an actor, is shown as a consummate liar as he wangles them out of a contract for one place so they can move into their dream home. This trait of her husband’s is also used to test her (worth noting that since she’s the MC, it’s her testing that interests us, not his).

What do your characters stand for? What are their values and guiding principles? What do they believe in?

And more importantly, when is it clear to the reader.

Your first chapter, your first scene, should be about this. No matter what the actual events, how the character handles things should give the reader a strong indication of what they’re about, and those same core beliefs and behaviour should be brought into play throughout the rest of the book.

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Synopsis Support Pt 2

2013-05-13T18:00:00.000+01:00

A synopsis for a novel comes in two different forms.

The first is a very dry, play-by play outline of what happens without any frills or attempts to impress the reader.

The other is more of a selling document intended to get the reader to read the full manuscript.

The first type is useful for a writer working with an agent/pubisher/editor where the relationship has already been established. It’s a bit like an architect and a builder going over blueprints. There’s no need for embellishments or trying to capture the style of the book.

In this case it’s already a done deal, and the reason for the synopsis is that it’s easier to discuss changes and cuts in a shorter document than a longer one.

Although, there’s no specific set length for this sort of synopsis, it’s as long as it needs to be (I’ve seen some that are 50 pages).

The only thing that I would say about this kind of synopsis is that even though it can be very dry and functional it still won’t be: This, then this, then this.

It will be more like: Because of this, then this. And because of that, then this.

Showing cause and effect is necessary in both types of synopsis, as it is in all types of story.

The other type of synopsis—the kind most people reading this will be working on—is where you’re providing a busy agent/publisher with a way to tell if it’s going to be worth reading the full manuscript without having to actually read it.

It isn’t to tell them the story or show them how the story develops or whether you have an understanding of the genre. It’s to give them a good enough to reason to wade through the damn thing. Or, more commonly, a reason not to.

The first hurdle is whether it’s written in a readable manner. If the synopsis is convoluted or hard to understand or goes off in various directions, that indicates the full manuscript may also have those problems. That may not be the case, but the possibility will most times be enough to put an agent off.

So, write it simple and clear.

But what if that doesn’t reflect the style of the novel? Shouldn’t the synopsis give a flavour of the book?

No.

If the book is in a very specific style, then the agent will most likely read the first page or so and either hate it or love it and it won’t really matter what style the synopsis is in.

My advice is just an opinion, of course, but it’s this: Keep it simple.

Next, the thing I mentioned earlier about cause and effect needs to be present. As well as what happens, the job of the synopsis is to tell us why it happens. Not an explanation, a logical progression.

Because of this, then this.

When the bad guys start shooting, Mary crawls under her desk and closes her eyes.

You have to be careful not to make assumptions. If Diane gets a phone call that her daughter’s been murdered and she books the first flight to Malawi, it may seem obvious to you that her daughter was working abroad. But while it certainly won’t be a surprise to discover that’s the case, the synopsis isn't the place for the reader to figure things out.

You need to include the minimum amount of information for things to make sense in a clear an obvious way. It's a matter of judgement on the part of the writer, but in a synopsis you want to present the situation as clearly as possible. If in doubt, clarify.

In this case, you could let the reader know the daughter was a senior executive at an international bank, or a student on a gap year, or teaching English as a foreign language. A simple statement like that won’t explain all the details, but it will ground the situation in an easy to understand context. That’s all you need.

So, you have this short document telling the reader how events go from one to the next—how does this get anyone to read the full manuscript?

Apart from this basic framework there also needs to be something in the synopsis that catches the reader’s attention.

That could be an unexpected turn of events, a shock, something funny, something moving, some kind of memorable happening.

A lot of this depends on the kind of book you’ve written, but the point is you've already written it and in there somewhere should be something that fits the bill. There may be quite a few. You don’t need to include all of them (although more than one would be good, especially if one builds on the next).

But shouldn’t you try to match the pacing and structure of the synopsis to that of the novel?

If you can manage it, sure. But the eye-catching moment is far, far, far more important.

The easiest to write is the unexpected. You just need to write it down and if you’ve included the necessary set up then it will speak for itself.

Mrs Braithwaite takes off her wig to reveal she is...

However, your story may not be the type that contains shocking twists and revelations, or they might be of a more subtle nature.

That’s fine in a book, but it won’t be of much use in a synopsis. It just won’t have the effect we’re looking for.

The other way to hook the reader is to use emotion. Obviously there are a lot of emotions to choose from, and your book will dictate what you want the reader to feel, but how do you get the emotion across in so few words?

In much the same way you would in a novel.

There are three ways to convey emotion to a reader. You can just tell them (Violet feels sad).

You can show the effect of the emotion (Tears roll down Michael’s face).

Or you can show the cause of the emotion (Etta holds on to Jane’s finger with her tiny hand and whispers, “Bye, Mommy,” before closing her eyes for the last time).

In practice you will probably find you need to use all three methods to get across everything you need to get across. If you try to make it all like the third approach you will quickly run out of space.

Even then it will be space consuming, but this is why it’s necessary to sacrifice some of the more intricate methods of writing a synopsis. You make the framework simple so you have room for the one or two moments that will make an impression.

Jason sees that it’s Megan calling. He rejects the call. It’s time to start the rest of his life.

So this is the end to a story where, apparently, Jason has had enough of Megan. It’s succinct and tells you what you need to know (obviously you will have read the rest of the synopsis so know the context), but it doesn’t carry much of a wallop, emotionally speaking.

Jason finishes his coffee but remains seated, collecting his thoughts, his heart pounding in his chest. Innocent, he thinks. I’m innocent. Like he wasn't sure himself until he heard the verdict. His mobile rings, startling him. Megan—no doubt to insist she never doubted him, that she wanted him back, wanted things to go back to the way they were. He stares at the phone, and then he walks out of the coffee shop and drops the phone down the nearest grating. It falls into the darkness, taking Megan with it, and lands somewhere far below with a plop.

While I have no idea what happened between Jason and Megan, the point of the example is to show that I don't mean you have to create a huge melodramatic moment filled with strang and durm (unless that's what's in the novel). The idea is to be true to your story. But you can see the sort of difference in the amount of space you'll need, which is why you need to strip down other parts of the synopsis.

Select two or three key moments in your story that you think will have an effect and focus on getting the emotion across. Don’t be mysterious or try to raise curiosity. Make the reader feel that specific moment.

And if it feels like you haven’t captured the full story, don’t worry, you wouldn’t have anyway. But this way you will leave the reader with something that will make your story stick in their mind.

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Synopsis Support

2013-05-09T18:02:00.000+01:00

Here’s what I want you to do: take your novel of 300 or so pages and rewrite it as a 500 word flash fiction piece, keeping all the major events and give me the same tone and the same pacing.

This is what it feels like for most of us when faced with having to do the synopsis.

Clearly, this is a ridiculous thing to attempt. Even if you could do it (and I’m guessing some people can—maybe one day I’ll meet one of them), the time and energy it would take hardly seems worth it.

You would think if someone really wanted to know if a book’s any good, they would look at the premise, read a few pages and if it caught their interest, keep reading. You know, like someone who reads books.

So why don’t agents and publishers do that? In fact, what is it they’re actually looking for when they ask for a 1, 3, 5 or 10 page synopsis?

Firstly, there’s no way to genuinely condense a whole book down to one page. Think of how much is lost when a novel gets adapted into a movie, and that takes a great deal of skill to reduce a 400 page manuscript down to 120 pages.

If you shorten and summarise, you will have to leave out stuff. Assuming your book isn’t 80% padding, that’s going to have an effect.

But people who work in the industry know that. They aren’t going to expect the full experience in a side of A4. What they will be able to tell is if the story DOESN’T work. Which is very useful and a great time saver.

If you like the idea of a story and the writing sample seems competent, then the only way to know if it works as a story is to read it. But a synopsis will tell you if it goes off the rails at some point , or if the last act doesn’t make sense, or any kind of weirdness the writers goes off on.

So structurally you want to show your story has a beginning, middle and end, and that one thing leads to another.

But even if you cross that hurdle, all you’ve proven is that you aren’t entirely incompetent. It still doesn’t mean the book is any more than fair to middling.

That’s not to a synopsis won’t impress an agent into wanting to read the full manuscript, perhaps even with some eagerness. But that won’t be because the synopsis confirmed the quality of the story, it will be more likely because there were one or two things in the synopsis—a scene, a twist, an idea—that appealed to them.

You like the premise, the first chapter seems well written, look at the synopsis, this bit about the zombies forming a dance troop and going on America’s Got Talent sounds interesting, you give the rest of the manuscript a read.

My point being you don’t need to worry about making the synopsis a perfect version of your novel written on the head of a pin in order to impress the agent. You just need to show it goes to interesting places or contains moments of emotion.

The synopsis should show the story progresses in a way that makes sense, and contains scenes that sound interesting. Everything else is garnish.

Most people manage to do the first part. There are plenty of articles telling you which pieces of information you need to relate key events to the reader. And that can stop you getting thrown out immediately, and in some cases get you a full read (if for example the agent is looking a particular type of story and your story is of that type).

But in order to create a synopsis that’s an effective selling tool, it’s the second part that will most times catch an agent’s, or any reader’s, interest. Hopefully your book contains these sorts of moments already. Either something unusual or unexpected happens, or some kind of emotion comes off the page.

This is the key to a good synopsis. Not an accurate representation of your novel from beginning to end, but to get the reader to feel something in those 500 words. Because if you can get them out of scanning mode into feeling mode, then even if the synopsised story is basically this then this then this, that emotion will make them want to check out the full version.

The emotion I’m talking about can be surprise at a turn of events, laughter, or something more heartfelt. But even one instance of that will make your story stand out in a way a perfectly sculpted miniaturisation of your book won’t.

So how do you create emotion in such a short space, and at the same time fulfil all the other requirements of a synopsis? Come back for the second part of this post on Monday and I’ll tell you.

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