It’s Christmas decorating day here at the Warrens – I love it when our house goes from dreary to dazzle!  We already have the red wall, and I jazz up the rest of the house with ribbons and ornaments and pine boughs, suddenly the season doesn’t seem so…filled with to-do lists.  It seems, well, jolly.   

 

Color adds life!  Yesterday, we talked about adding color WORDS to your synopsis.  Today I want you to add actual color. 

 

When I first started writing a synopsis, it felt so…overwhelming.  Weaving in all those threads, and helping my editor see the main plot, as well as knowing whether I’d sufficiently explained all the turning points and the black moment…arrgh!

 

For example…through your synopsis, you should have three different story threads – a

spiritual thread, an emotional thread and a plot thread. You should, in your first paragraphs,

have outlined the beginning of these threads, and then through the subsequent paragraphs,

be unrolling those threads.

 

In my synopsis about Mona and Joe (Happily Ever After), I start out with

Mona’s desires – to start a bookstore and find her “Jonah”. I also mention her greatest

need – forgiveness. In the next paragraph, I mention her first couple obstacles in the plot.

 

Then I introduce the hero. Then I spend a short paragraph telling about Joe and his needs.

 

In the next paragraph, I return to the plot obstacles, and throw in the spiritual obstacle from

Mona’s pov.

 

The next paragraph  is about Joe, his issues, and a bit more of the emotional plot.

 

The idea I’m trying to get across (and you can read the entire synopsis in a moment), is that although you are unraveling the threads, you’re not doing it evenly through the story, but to add interest and punch.

 

So, when you are all done, how do you KNOW that the threads are all wound

through the story, and tied up neatly?  I came up with a handy dandy trick to help me see the story as a whole and determine if there were any loose ends. 

 

The Book Therapy Synopsis Trick:

 

After I’ve written my big, bang punch and added colorful words through the synopsis, I

print it out, find THREE different color highlighters and sit down on the sofa with the

piece.

 

I designate one color per thread (for example – blue = spiritual, orange = plot, yellow = emotions) and then, starting at the top of the synopsis, I read ONLY for the spiritual thread, highlighting any sentences or thoughts that have to do with this thread. (Including their desires/greatest needs.) I work my way through every page all the way to the end with just one color.

 

Then, I do the same for the emotional thread, and the plot thread. When I am finished, I

have a colorful (and smelly!) synopsis. However, NOW, I can sit down with a pen and read

through each thread individually through the synopsis, seeing if it is all tied up. If not, or

if I’ve left out holes, I just add them in. I also look for redundancy. Have I said the same

thing twice, or three times?

 

The little technique has helped eliminate editor (and personal) confusion and made me

feel confident that I am leaving no thread untied when I send in the story.

I know it sounds simple. That’s the beauty of it! But it works.

 

Your Turn: Find three different colors of highlighters. For each thread, read through the synopsis and highlight the physical, emotional and spiritual threads, making sure they are tied up.

Tomorrow we’ll talk alittle about Sample Chapters before we move into our editing discussion. 

Hope you’re getting all those proposals put together!