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Sunday, June 12, 2016

Golden Donut and Help for the Dreaded Synopsis

cj Sez: Check it out . . .Lee Lofland’s Graveyard Shift has posted a news item:

“BREAKING NEWS!! Zombie Invasion
Earn FREE Registration to Writers' Police Academy”

Yes, use your imaginations to write a KILLER story about the photograph opposite, using
exactly 200 words
and you could win a FREE registration to the 2017 Writers’ Police Academy, along with the Golden Donut Award!

Superstar author Tami Hoag is our contest judge!

Hurry, the contest deadline is July 1st

The Golden Donut contest is open to everyone of all genres, and you do not have to be
present at the 2016 Writers’ Police Academy to win.

Click the link below to enter and for contest details and submission requirements!


***

One thing writers hate doing but most certainly will have to do at some time is the Dreaded Synopsis. An agent may request it in the submission materials, or an editor might want it, and publishers who accept submissions without an agent will also request it.

In other words, writers have to squeeze the heart and soul of their 300- or 400-page literary masterpiece into about 500 words. Self-published or traditionally published, you will need that one- or two-page synopsis before you’re published, and you’ll certainly need it afterwards. With exception of the tell-all ending (necessary in a synopsis), it feeds into many marketing blurbs. 

I’ve spent hours and hours running down a few of Google’s rabbit holes searching out hints and clues and studying methods on how to accomplish the task. Then this wonderful site dropped into my inbox when I was recently recruited to critique an aspiring writer’s work. One of the requirements for the thirty-page submission was to include a synopsis, and the project coordinator forwarded a url to help. The post is from 2012 but was new to me. If you've read it before, maybe this is the time for a fresh look. There are eleven “fill-in-the-blanks” steps to ease you on down the road—each step is followed by relevant examples, using a familiar movie—and then there’s a final example of how it would look, all put together.
 
1.   Opening image
2.   Protagonist Intro
3.   Inciting incident
4.   Plot point 1
5.   Conflicts & character encounters
6.   Midpoint
7.   Winning seems imminent, but…
8.   Black moment
9.   Climax
10. Resolution
11. Final image
      Putting It All Together

I highly recommend a visit to this site if you’re in need of some help on creating the synopsis for your latest work. I have it bookmarked, because I KNOW I will be using it in the future.


What about you? How do you write a synopsis? Was this method helpful?

Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj
PS: The ‘toons are from Facebook.  
cjpetterson@gmail.com
Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook
Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo

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