More ‘Writing a Novel Tips’

The apple is my reward for finally doing it! I’ve finally succeeded in submitting my three chapters and synopsis to a literary agent in London. My apologies to any readers who might have construed my recent lack of activity on Beyond 1984 as abandonment. Far from it. I have spent the last three weeks working solidly, putting the three chapters in to satisfactory shape, and I’ve learned a couple of lessons in doing so, as follows:

The Synopsis – I don’t want to seem to be ‘teaching grandmother to suck eggs’, but as a new writer, I have found that creating a synopsis is not as easy as one would think. In fact, I have just discovered that it is by far the most difficult part of the submission package. Unfortunately, as far as I am aware, there’s no easy answer. You just have to get stuck in and do it! One thing I am going to do in future though, is draft it right from the outset, before I write a single line of prose. It’s obvious really I suppose, so forgive me for saying so, but from the start, all that is required is a brief outline of:
– Who is the main protagonist? (and maybe describe other key characters)
– What is his/her objective? (he/she starts here – and needs to go there)
– What are the obstacles to be overcome in achieving it? (the key to a gripping tale)
From that initial start, it can be built upon and modified as writing progresses, but don’t allow it to become more than a couple of sides of A4. I can say with certainty, that this will be much easier than trying, after the fact, to condense three hundred pages of novel into just a thousand words. What a nightmare it has been – doing it that way. Never again!

Proof Reading – I have written about the need for careful proofreading in previous posts. Well, I’ll say it again. Don’t leave anything to chance. Print it out double-spaced and read every single line at least twice, and in addition, get someone else to proof read it as well. In fact, get as many people as time allows. The reason I’m emphasising this is because, even after repeated scrutiny of my three chapters before sending them, I noticed several small errors today (missing quotation marks, missing question marks) that may not be disastrous in the whole scheme of things, but are avoidable, and confirm that no amount of proof reading is enough.

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but I just want to help other new writers.

IR 23/02/11