Category: Reading

The Storybook Synopsis

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Today we talk about using as few words as possible to tell a story. It’s a great exercise for synopses writing, query letters, and elevator speeches.

I’ve been reading more picture books to my son lately, and some of his favorite are the five-page, itty bitty board books by Disney.

my first library

His collection seems to be out-of-print. I’d like to think it’s because those stories were so blatantly sexist. But I digress. I’m supposed to be comparing this to a summary of a story.

Think of a Disney movie. Take, for example, my favorite, The Lion King. We’ve already examined The Lion King using my 8 C’s of plotting, so we know that there’s a full story there.
But Disney merch has shown us a plethora of synopses for the story. There are chapter books, story books, picture books, and yes, a 5-page board book. Each is the same story, condensed in varying degrees of complexity.

Some of the 5-page board books have no plot at all. They have one page per character in the story. And you know what else? They are stupid. When agents/editors/publishers read your query letter or synopsis, they don’t want a page per insignificant character. They want to know what your story is. Yes, that means they want to know the plot, right down to the happy or unhappy ending.

Another digression:

I read in How Not to Write a Novel the chapter “How Not to Sell a Novel.” One mistake new writers sometimes make when trying to sell the book is not giving away the ending . Maybe in children’s merchandise you don’t want to tell little 2-year old Sally about the prince slaying the dragon, but I’m pretty sure 3-year old Sally wants to know that the prince is worth his salt. And Publisher Sally wants to know that the new writer she’s considering is worth his salt and can write a decent ending. Don’t annoy the publisher or agent in an attempt to be mysterious.

The best of the 5-page books are like a good movie trailer. They spell out the plot in a condensed manner, but they don’t give everything away. Still, they at least hint at the ending. My husband and I hate watching TV Spots for movies, because lately they seem to never actually tell you what the movie is about. There’s more fading to black than there is content.

Disney will probably sue me and take my puppy away if I give you an example of one of the stories they published, so let me make up an example. Each page has 1-2 sentences. No page has more than 15 or so words. Here’s my uninspiring “5-page board book” of The Hunger Games:

  1. Katniss is a skilled hunter with trust issues.
  2. Peeta can decorate a cake like nobody’s business.
  3. Katniss and Peeta have to fight in the Hunger Games.
  4. They fight for themselves. Children murder other children.
  5. Katniss and Peeta fight for each other.

There, see? I just wrote a synopsis. You can do it, too. Try this method—it’s less painful than gauging your eyes out with a pipe cleaner.

Optional Part One: Pick a Disney movie. Find all the Disney-sponsored books you can about that movie. Chapter books, novels, story books, picture books, coloring books, story books. Read them.

Optional Part Two: Write your own 5-page board books of your favorite books or movies. Then try it out on your own stories.

Non-negotiable Part One Point Five: Enjoy yourself. If you aren’t having fun, pick a different hobby, like coil-building clay pots or macramé.

 

School is in Session

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With Labor Day over and out, kids are back in school and I figure there’s no better time for me than the present to get my act together! Forget New Year’s resolutions—you don’t have to wait that long. We need to Write, Now! Here are my goals (perhaps “aspirations” is a better term) for the new school year, in no particular order:

  • Write EVERY [week] DAY
  • Schedule a time to work every day
  • Use my typewriter more often so am not distracted by the interwebs
  • Use my typewriter more often so I can’t go back and edit while writing
  • Read more books in the genre in which I am writing
  • Read at least on week nights so I can get through said books
  • Write, even if/though the first draft really is utter crap

I’ve been doing pretty well so far. (It’s been three whole days.) Today I typed 6 pages on my typewriter, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s certainly more than I’ve been doing lately, and not being able to delete anything is going to be a good challenge.

On Tuesday I picked up a couple books from the library: The Encyclopedia of Medieval Times, Volumes I and II, and this gem: How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them–A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide

It’s bitingly sardonic, so if you don’t have a sense of humor, leave this one on the shelf. But if you do have a sense of humor, this is definitely one of the most entertaining books on the subject. Do note that there is a chapter on how NOT to write a sex scene, and there’s some colorful language. So if you are sensitive to that sort of thing, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Bethany asked a question on an older post about what kind of technology I use to write, and mentioned Scrivener. You can read my response here, but I basically said I didn’t find Scrivener to be something I needed to purchase after the free trial. I use Evernote all the time because it syncs across my devices, but as I am trying to wean myself from being continually distracted by the internet, I’m going old school and unplugging more often. I’ve printed out worksheets, put them in a binder, and started to type on my typewriter, as mentioned above. It’s working pretty well for me. Better even than paper and pencil, because the text is legible, I write faster, and my hands are less likely to cramp up. Though I will go back to pen and paper when I do my edits. There’s nothing like a nasty red pen bleeding on a field of black and white.

Whether you are enrolled at school or not, what are your goals for the school year?

As luck would have it…

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…I’m holding a miserable, feverish toddler in my arms who very well may have 1) another ear infection or 2) strep throat. Difficult to diagnose when one is dealing with a mute toddler (mute except for the pitiful whining, that is. Poor baby!)

But I keep good on my word and don’t want to leave you with nothing, so I’m going to direct you to my review of Heat Wave by “Richard Castle” and ask you this:

Have you ever learned a valuable lesson in how not to write while reading? What was the lesson?

I look forward to your answers while I nurse my sick baby back to health.

100 Funniest Words

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A few years ago, Dr. Robert Beard compiled a list of the 100 funniest words he had come across in nearly a decade of daily vocabulary emails he would send to hundreds of thousands of people.

Here’s the list of his 100 funniest English words. I’ve always been a fan of brouhaha, canoodle, doozy, flibbertigibbet, hootenanny, kerfuffle, ornery, rambunctious, shenanigan, skedaddle, and troglodyte.

Which one is your favorite? Any funny words you think should be added to the list?

I’m usually in the camp that it’s better to use a majority of simple, short, old words that are accessible to readers when writing fiction. I am not amused or impressed by authors who have a love affair with their thesaurus and shove every possible multisyllabic word into their text. Once again, I am looking at you, Christopher Paolini.

But if there’s a fun word that fits naturally in the tone of the novel, throw one in every once in a while! One per scene, one per page, one per paragraph, more—you decide. Make it a word readers will circle in their books because they love it and want to use it in conversation during their lunch break. Just remember, you want to be readable, not detestable. Understandable, not put-down-able.

Less is more.

Write now.