Thiiiiiiiis close!

The last five days have been harrowing, dreadful, bone-chilling days. With my latest revision complete and polished, and with my Query Letter and Pitch polished for #PitchMadness, I really only had one thing missing from my arsenal: A Synopsis.

Let me define that little eight-letter-word for you as best I can: 

Synopsis [si-nop-sis] (n):

1. A brief or condensed statement giving a general view of some subject.
2. An evil  creation of agents and editors for the express purpose of torturing writers.
3. A soul-sucking vampire in word form.

There's no perfect consensus in the writing world on what exactly a synopsis is but this is what I've found to be most often repeated:

• 1-5 single-spaced pages
• Block formatted paragraphs (no indents)
• Double-space between paragraphs (a single blank line)
• No smaller than 10pt font
• Outline ONLY the main plot of your book

From what I've seen, 2 pages is the standard length for an agent (at least with the agents I intend to query in my first round that require them).

Sounds easy enough right? Just take your ~60,000 - ~115,000 word (240 - 460 page) book and boil it down to ~1,000 words. Oh, and keep it interesting! Remember: You're selling your idea here!

Simple right?

ARGH!!!

So here's what I did: 

I went through my manuscript, skimming chapter by chapter, and making notes of the major points of that chapter. I tried to keep it short and ended up with around 2,900 words.

Then I went through and mercilessly cut anything that didn't directly have anything to do with the main plot. 1,900 words.

I pared, whittled, reworded, and tweaked every sentence, revising from my quickly written notes to the most sparse text I could get while still maintaining clarity and some semblance of flow. 1,300 words.

I did that two more times, ending at just over 1,000 words, which fit nicely within 2 pages at 10pt Arial and 10pt Times New Roman.

Then I called it a day.

Now, that ordeal is done until I've had someone other than me, who's read the last revision, go over it and tell me what I've done wrong.

I have to apologize and thank my wife and children for bearing with me and giving me the time to work on this and a sounding board for my complaints, and my friends and followers on Twitter who have had to deal with me exploding/ranting/whining/begging over the past five days. I'm sorry if I've gotten on any of your nerves.

- Alex

So... Yeah. This writing stuff is work!

See the progress meter down to the right? That's right: Revision 4 is complete!

It took very near two full months to go through this revision, and that's with someone else's notes guiding me and helping me along. A big THANK YOU (again) to my Critique Partners  Colton Hibbs, Clare Mitchell, and Rachel Russell! Rev 4 would have been a whole lot faster, and mostly useless without you. I can only hope I've lived up to your notes, direction, and help.

That said, I didn't cave on everything suggested, and not just because there were conflicted opinions between my CP's. Rather because I didn't necessarily agree and writing isn't a democracy!

I've also posted a few things here and there for critique: A 35 word pitch and the first 250 words of the manuscript for #PitchMadness. You have NO idea how hard it is to fit the concept of an entire book into 35 words while keeping it compelling and interesting! NO IDEA!!! (unless you've done it with your own).

In undertaking these public critiques I kept getting one piece of feedback over and over. You see, CROW'S BLOOD is a book about...

WAITAMINUTE!! I have a 35 word summary to tell you what it's about. What am I doing writing it from scratch?

A noblewoman is murdered and Flynn, a talented thief, is being framed. Hunted by monstrous Inquisitors and Royal Guards, Flynn needs to pull one last daring heist to catch the killer and clear his name.

Do you see the problem? I do... now. How could I not.  

Here's a hint:

ARGH!!!!

So, back to an old problem that I've covered before, names! There is no part of writing that induces panic in me faster than coming up with a name for a character. It has to fit! Worse still, this is my Main Character we're talking about!!! CRISIS!!!!!!

So I've wrestled, and whined, and annoyed my friends and loved ones to the point where they want me to go lock myself in a room for hours on end (so I have!).  I've come up with a new name for my MC. Everyone, say hello to my new MC, he's identical to the old MC with a different name: Ren! It's short, simple, mono-syllabic (which I like for this character). In Old English it means Raven. In Welsh it means Ruler. And in Japanese it means Lily (and is a boy's name).

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F###!

FYI: For those not in the know about the character Flynn in Disney's Tangled: HIS REAL NAME IS EUGENE!!!