My Synopsis

Firstly, another big thank you to all who posted here yesterday and said such lovely things! I’ve been feeling a bit down over the past few weeks, waiting for the wretched revisions, and having such nice comments made me feel much better. Thanks guys.

Anyway, I see my synopsis is up. Argh. Now, I hate these things. I don’t know any writer who likes them (don’t put your hand up, Lorraine!). It didn’t help that it was only supposed to be two pages double spaced and that Chasing Kate had been rewritten six times and I still hadn’t worked out what was going to happen! Anyway, luckily I had a baby plot in there – the ultimate in internal conflict (yes, apparently it is) – so that was a relief. And I chucked an argument with an ex in there just for good measure. But they were just desperate attempts to cover up the fact that I didn’t have a handle on the conflict and it showed. If your conflict isn’t convincing to you, it won’t be convincing to other people – at least that’s what I’ve come to realise.

Right, I think they’ll put up the editorial comment tomorrow so I’ll wait till that goes up before I post anything else. People had some great questions about conflict so I’d like to talk about that, and stereotypes as well. They also gave me some good comments about alpha males in MH – slippery beasts to get a handle on (no double entendres intended!). I had half thought to post up my revised chapter here, just so you can see how I revised it with their recommendations and to see how it compares with the first draft. Would that be useful? Maybe not. Although they liked the revisions, they still didn’t want the story! 🙂

Oh and if you have any questions about the synopsis, do ask. I’m not an expert by any stretch though, and they didn’t give me feedback on the synopsis specifically.

12 thoughts on “My Synopsis”

  1. Loved your synopsis, Jackie. Am itching to read the book.

    A big ‘yes please’ from me to your offer to post your revised chapter. And I think that Lucy’s earlier idea to post the whole thing in installments is a brilliant idea. You should give it serious thought.

    And just to prove that you’ve been googled, here’s the paste from my Feedjit link:

    Milton Keynes arrived from google.co.uk on “Suzanne Jones: Falling For A Hero” by searching for jackie ashenden.
    09:37:17 — 10 hours 36 mins ago

  2. I once googled you myself when I lost your blog so now you must be officially famous 😉

    I hope you get to give Alex and Kate their new HEA soon.

    (Having been named and shamed I must defend myself – I used to hate synopsis writing like normal people but have recently gone in for them in a big way in the hope that writing them first will save massive re-writes…

    I do hate pitches though so perhaps I’m not so weird after all.)

  3. Oooh, Suzanne, I am web famous (just a little bit)! Thanks for passing that along.

    Well, I might post the revised chapter. Or the beginning at least which is where most of the changes were. Yes, Lucy did suggest installments. Only problem is that I’ve only written half of it! If you want, I could post the first three chapters – which is what I sent through to Anna at M&B. I don’t suppose they’ll mind since it was officially rejected.

    Lorraine, I hope you didn’t mind me naming you. Liking synopsis writing is a HUGE plus in my book! You’re a synopsis star!

  4. Hi Jackie,

    Your synopsis was good. And it would be immensely helpful to read the editorial feedback you got and why in the end they didn’t want this story.

    Thank you so much.

    Sri

  5. Thanks Sri! I’m definitely going to post it but I didn’t want to step on M&B toes by posting it before theirs. Dunno if it makes any difference to them but, well, can’t be too careful. Anyhoo, the comment will be up on I Hearts tomorrow I’m guessing, so I’ll update my blog then.

  6. Hi Jackie,

    Thank you so much for stopping by my blog.

    I understand about waiting till they put the feedback on iheartpresents. Still, thanks a lot for sharing your own thoughts,

    Sri.

  9. Ugh, I hate writing synopses. As I never know what’s going to happen most of it is drivel anyway. Yours, on the other hand, is great! (Thank God for unplanned pregnancies, eh 😉 – in fiction obviously.)

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