11 Elements of a Successful Synopsis

Another good articles from C. Patrick Schulze.

http://cpatrickschulze.com/authorsblog/2009/12/09/eleven-elements-of-a-successful-synopsis/

Blog Roll-Up: Best of the Week's Writing Blogs

Okay, so I missed a week or two. I’ll make it up to you by including a few posts from those weeks in the roll-up.

Tips, Tips and More Tips

• If I’ve ever helped you edit a piece of writing, C. Patrick Schulze’s Tips for Editing Your Novel won’t come as a surprise to you. He doesn’t nag about “as-ing” construction as much as I do (okay, no one nags about it as much as I do), but he does explain the problem with it, and several other errors you might make in your writing as well.
• Add “Ka-Pow!” to your writing with How to Write Better—5 Quick Tips for Clear, Effective Writing from Quips and Tips for Successful Writers.
• Melissa Donovan at Writing Forward writes, “You can do just about anything in a poem. That’s why poetry is so wild; there are no rules.” So, instead of rules, she brings you 36 Poetry Writing Tips.
• If children’s books are more your thing, stop by the Guide to Literary Agents blog for 10 Tips on Writing Picture Books, a guest post from picture book writer Jean Reidy.
• Also on the Guide to Literary Agents blog, you’ll find Footnotes: 8 Articles on Synopsis Writing. If you scroll down the list of categories on the left hand side and click on “Synopses,” you’ll also find several examples of movie synopses to help.
• Freelance Folder offers Productivity Tips for Freelancers with Toddlers Underfoot. Don’t let the title fool you—there are some great tips here for every writer.
• Deb at The Freelance Writing Jobs Network’s 6 Tips for Finding New Freelance Writing Markets are applicable for short story and poetry markets as well.

“Best of” Lists

• Writing and Illustrating is a blog for “sharing information about writing and illustrating for children,” but Kathy Temean’s  Top Twelve 2009 Posts is useful for any writing. Her list includes posts about proofreading, revision, character arcs and dialogue.
• QueryTracker.net has a feature on their blog called Top Ten Lists. You can find the most queried agents, the most requested (by agents) fiction genres and the most non-responsive agents. I won’t tell you who the number one requested agent (check out the blog post to find out!) but I will say this: I’m not surprised.
• Lisa Romeo Writes shares the best information and tips from the notebooks she filled during her MFA program in a series of 14 posts: Gold in Them Notebooks.
• Be sure to stop by The Freelance Writing Jobs 20 Top Posts of 2009, which include tips for starting your freelance writing career, free online writing courses and who to follow on Twitter.
• Speaking of Twitter, Jane Friedman at There Are No Rules posts a weekly Best Tweets for Writers, with links to great posts such as “When to Stop Revising.”

Defining Genres

• Writing children’s books? Writers’ Digest Questions & Quandaries blog tackles Defining Picture Books, Middle Grade and Young Adult.
• Agent Scott Eagen of Greyhaus Literary Agency visits the Guide to Literary Agents blog to talk about Romance vs. Women’s Fiction.

Finally, I know that Christmas is over, but, you’ll need some time to practice Toni McGee Causey’s An Author’s 12 Days of Christmas before 2010’s Christmas party.

Blog Roll-Up: Best of the Week's Writing Blogs

Novel Writing

What Makes a Great Book? A Voracious Reader Shares her Insights. Nina Sankovitch read a book a day for a year and wrote about the experience on her blog Read All Day. Christine Baker Kline adapts her insights on her own blog, A Writing Life.

How do you know when you're done editing? A. Victoria Mixon, Editor explains the long process professional writers (i.e. published authors) do it, as well as an alternative: finding a really great editor in her post: Being in the Right Place at the Right Time.

Jane Friedman at There are No Rules shares A Big Mistake to Avoid in Story Openings.

Querying Agents

Should you send your query out to agents during the holidays? Some agents are taking a query hiatus: Rachelle Gardner at WordServe Literary (December 15th-January 14th) and Nelson Literary Agency is closed over the holidays (from December 18th until the new year). Five other agents weigh in on Holidays and Queries to Agents over at the Guide to Literary Agents blog.

Query Ninja joins the Query Shark in critiquing query letters.  This time, Kate Steps Up to the Plate with her query letter for a young adult novel.

C. Patrick Schulze offers some help in writing the dreaded synopsis with his post: 11 Elements of a Successful Synopsis.

The Social Side of Writing

Nathan Bransford, Literary Agent has updated his blog, which now includes discussion forums. His blog has always been a great source of information of all things writing (and probably more than you need to know about the show The Bachelor), but now it's even better.

Jane Friedman at There Are No Rules again brings you the week's Best Tweets for Writers which include the 14 bigggest mistakes even the best-selling writers make and a self-editing checklist.

Why should you go to conferences, tweet and blog? Janet Reid, Literary Agent tells you in her post 10 Things Crime Writers Can Learn From Paris Hilton.

Dreams and Writing

Are Your Dreams Trying to Tell You Something? Jeanie Franz Ransom at Storytellers Unplugged thinks so . . . and I think a couple members of our group might agree!

Member Blogs

Diane Bator had a busy blogging week despite being sick with pneumonia and hosting an art show. Check out her post about A Romantic Life for a bit of inspiration.

Weekly Laugh

Courtesy of the blog of Janet Reid, Literary Agent, this terrific parody of The 12 Days of Christmas, just for
writers: The Twelve Tips on Queries.

Brian Henry Workshop in Orangeville

About 30 people attended Brian's Nov 1st workshop . Aside from a couple of technical difficulties - the room was freezing and tea was accidentally dumped all over our table - it was a fun afternoon.

We did an exercise on creating prompts which led to a discussion about writing short stories and why entering the Toronto Star Short Story contest is a waste of time. We used some of our new prompts in our first exercise which was to actually write a short story. Brian's definition of a short story was: a prose narrative between several hundred and several thousand words that aims to achieve a single, concentrated effect.

After our break, we discussed plotting novels. His basic 3 step approach to writing a novel is:
1) Brainstorm
2) Organize
3) Write
Few writers will go these steps only once. For some of us, it's an ongoing process until we get to The End.

One of the most helpful things to do as you brainstorm is to create character sketches. The more important the character's role, the more detailed you want to be. This is also the stage to develop a 500-1000 word synopsis that highlights all the major and minor crises as well as the climax. Tracking your scenes using a flow chart or cue cards is helpful in keeping your novel moving smoothly.

Keep your eyes open for the next workshop!