Writing a synopsis sucks!

<>

Have you ever tried to sum up a novel that is 150,000 words in less than a page (about 500 words)? Well, it's awful. Apparently I've cut so much out (including even mentioning 3 POV characters) that there doesn't appear to be enough conflict to keep a novel going! That comment made me laugh in a kind of despairing way. There is certainly enough conflict to last for a whole novel (I wouldn't have been able to write the whole thing if there hadn't been, the problem is conveying that in such a limited space without overwhelming the reader (i.e. agent) with a list of confusing events.

Of course i could make the synopsis longer, but I really wanted to keep it below a page. And I'm entering a novel contest that requires a double-spaced synopsis of a page or less. Are they INSANE? That's more like jacket cover copy. sigh.

So maybe I should readjust my thinking a allow myself two pages, at least for the synopsis that I'll be sending out to agents. I have to get into more of Tavin's motivation, and even some more of Mavelle's, or otherwise the events don't matter, right? But I also have to get in more about all the obstacles they face, which are plenty and I still have to keep at least information about the world. One person wanted more about the gods. And the Mother and the Destroyer are so hard to explain, especially since I don't even know if I'm doing it well in the book!

It's IMPOSSIBLE!!!

< /vent >

On a better note: i did start reading my manuscript over last night during and after the opening ceremonies to the Olympics. I'm just trying to refresh everything in my mind and spot major structural and/or tension problems. The good news is that the first part of the book still reads well to me (this is the part that was included in my book for school and has been gone over a lot) but since that's the part I'm most familiar with, I may not be distant enough from it. But on the whole I think it's tight and polished.

The second part is more troublesome. I have to rewrite the early Amaris scenes to reflect the change in the character. And there is a huge drop in tension between when Mavelle leaves Felice and when she gets to the next place she sings. HUGE HUGE drop in tension. So that obviously needs to be fixed. And that is where the two preti I may be including into one character are introduced so that all might need to be worked out as well. And that's as far as I got. About 150 pages into the ms. Not bad.

We might get lots of snow here, so there is a slight possibility that I might get a day off on Monday, but that's probably being too hopeful. It would be nice though to have another day to read it.

Maryland bball game today: GO TERPS!!! Show those Dukies they should FEAR THE TURTLE!
Ok, it's a long shot to win, but it would be awesome.