I believe I’ve mentioned that this isn’t my favorite kind of writing. In fact, I don’t think I know anybody who’d say it was. But it is necessary. So, I’m back at it–doubled this time because I’m doing new queries and revised synopses for two books–MAGE STORM and BLOOD WILL TELL–at the same time.
I think I’ve just about completed the MAGE STORM (MG Fantasy) set and will be ready to start sending that back out into the world of agents next week. Now I’ve got to work on the query and synopsis for BLOOD WILL TELL (paranormal romance). This time around with BWT, I’m emphasizing the paranormal romance aspect, rather than the urban fantasy. It’s a somewhat different set of agents. Maybe it’ll play better, since the story really doesn’t have the hard edges often associated with urban fantasy.
Queries are bad enough. At least they’re only about 250 words. Of course, I agonize over every one of those words. The hardest part for me is to get some semblance of the story voice into the query. Too many years of practice writing bland business letters, I guess.
Synopses: that’s a whole new level of torture. I didn’t have to do too much to the MAGE STORM synopsis. Just reflect the changes in the latest revisions. Not that I’m thrilled with it. There’s no way I’ll ever be thrilled with trying to tell a 50,000 word story in 1,000 words. Just not going to happen.
I’ll probably have to do more to the BLOOD WILL TELL synopsis, since I’ve changed the focus of the query.
After this, I need to do a serious round of revision on my Writers of the Future entry for this quarter. Then it’s back to MAGIC’S FOOL. I’ll be really glad to get back to original writing by then, I’m sure.
Argh! Synopses! We hates them, precious! (Mostly because, as you well know, I’m NO GOOD at them!!)
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Yess! We hates them forever! But we have to do them, whether we’re any good at it or not.
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Or we could just avoid querying any agents that require them…. 😀
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Tempting, but probably not very practical.
Besides, how can you tell if an agent who doesn’t request a synopsis with the query won’t want one along with a partial?
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Yeah, they are torturous. I hated them in school and I hate them more now even with a novel I wrote. Maybe Especially with a novel I wrote because now more than a grade depends on it being good.
And I don’t do good… or at least that’s the way I feel about synopses.
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I’ve yet to meet anyone who likes them.
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