January 2016

“Good book, vicar? Would you like a parenthesis with that?”

Writing books has more than a few pitfalls. For example, which formatting do we use the more traditional, indented paragraph and dialogue lines, or a more modern straight block paragraph with no indents? Do we opt for traditional speech marks, “like these” or more modern parentheses, ‘like these’?
For my money, I’m rather traditional, so despite the extra stretch that it takes on the keyboard to get up to “ I prefer that, and opt for that as often as I remember to. (Though if traditionalists would like us to continue doing so, it might be a good idea to re-design the keyboard so that “ is more conveniently placed. You’ll see that ‘(single parenthesis) is in exactly the right place, and unlike “ does not require us to use the SHIFT key.

I am assuming that traditionalists who use “ ” will also use paragraph indents for dialogue, which I do think looks better, but can feel a bit arbitrary. When do we use paragraph indents, and when do we allow a paragraph to continue? In many cases, it seems to boil down to what looks good, which is fine, but not exactly good teaching. (“Just do what looks good, kids, and you’ll be fine….!”)

One thing is certain. I must not mix and match, or my characters’ lives can get very confusing, and the editor will be most annoyed. At the moment I am writing two books, in both of which I started out using different conventions, though I have now put both books into traditional format. Thinking about what is right or wrong is sometimes so confusing, I retreat to my usual line, that as long as I am consistent and clear, it doesn’t matter as much as I think it does, which is probably true.

Thanks for reading.

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Writing synopses.

(Almost) every agency and publisher who accepts submissions from Joe Public says, ‘send a synopsis and first three chapters with a cover letter to us at….’ and it’s taken me a very long time to work out what I think that means. The ‘three chapters’ is relatively easy – it means, the first three chapters (assuming they are less than fifty pages); or no more than fifty pages (and if your first three chapters are more than fifty pages, you might want to edit them down. Who is going to want to read half a chapter?)

Fewer and fewer publishers take submissions from unrepresented writers, but a trawl of the usual sources does throw up a good handful; and the agencies are always on the look-out for new talent. So it’s worth knowing roughly what to do when you are asked to write a synopsis. No submission is perfect, of course, and there is some wriggle room for differences of style and presentation, so please don’t take me too literally.

The first sentence of a synopsis will often be a summary of the whole plot, giving a quick taste and flavour of the writing and the genre. The next two or three paragraphs will give a deft outline of the main plot developments, and will include mention of what happens at the end. The synopsis is not the blurb, so you don’t want to leave the publisher/agent thinking, ‘Yes, but I’m not buying the book, I only want to know if you can give me a plot that works.’ (And I haven’t got very long, so best keep it to one or two pages).

I always try to aim for one page, just because that is easier to read.

The synopsis is, according to Nicola Morgan, my current guru on such matters, the least important part of any submission package, which makes sense. The first thing any reader sees is your covering letter, and the only thing he wants to read is good material, so the synopsis comes home a clear third. But, everything helps, and my guess is that a well-written synopsis helps the writer as much as the publisher/agent.

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