The long and the short of building a synopsis

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Arizela

Writing a synopsis is hard work. Just about every writer out there who has written one agrees with that point. The dreaded synopsis is both a necessary evil, and much more importantly, a terrific tool for refining the story.

I look at a synopsis as a road map through the plot. A well written synopsis can show me places where the main plot leaps over logic-canyons, where the strengths and weaknesses are, and where the themes I’ve carefully interwoven through the story come into play.

As interconnected as my plots are, busting out a 2 page synopsis can seem overwhelming; every character is needed, every moment is important, and every plot point counts toward reaching that final goal. How to separate out what needs to be in the synopsis from what doesn’t took me a while to figure out, but I think I got it. The request for a full on Hunters was based on a 2-page synopsis and 3 chapter sample, so it must have done the job.

What I did:

  • Limited characters mentioned by name in the synopsis to the ones who needed multiple mentions. The protag’s aunt might be pivotal in that one scene, or even several, but if “his aunt” works, why bog down the synopsis with unfamiliar names?
  • Gave each named character a very brief description focused on who they are in relation to the story. The primary protagonist got a whole sentence. Everybody else got a few words.
  • Limited myself to one sentence of backstory, included in the primary protagonist’s description. The synopsis is about the story, not what led up to the story.
  • Condensed plot-important action down to as few words as possible. A battle is just that. Sure, it’s more exciting with all the blood flying and people dying, but the synopsis is a sketch, not a painting.
  • Used one word where four or five would do. Flee rather than run away from. Kills rather than puts an end to. But keep in mind that voice matters. If 3 words fit my voice better and I can cut two somewhere else, I go for it.
  • Kept it in present tense. This can be really hard if the story is written in past tense, but it helped me differentiate the style. I wasn’t telling a story anymore, just giving a briefing of the story. I found it made cutting much easier in the end.
  • Kept in the motivation. The difference between a story and a random list of events is what motivates the action to move forward, the cause and effect. Of course there’s no room to explain in detail what motivates your characters to do what they do, but you can hint at it.
  • Took it all the way to the end. A synopsis includes the ending and denouement. This allows the agent/editor to see that I know how to be a closer, to wrap up the story in a satisfying way. This portion of the synopsis actually showed me that my “final” draft wasn’t so final. I added another short scene that really helped cap the story off in a more satisfying fashion.
  • Stuck to what happened that moved the story forward, not the details on how it happened.
  • Followed the guidelines! If the agent asked for 2 pages, they got 2 pages in standard synopsis format (single-spaced with 1″ margins around in a 12pt font) unless otherwise specified.

What I didn’t do:

  • Describe physical appearances, settings, or sensory details.
  • Mention every obstacle in my protagonists’ path.
  • Focus on subplots.
  • Stick in more of the world-building than absolutely necessary.
  • Stick obsessively to the scene order. Sometimes what works for scene order in the book doesn’t work as well in the synopsis. I rearranged a couple of things by a sentence or two, particularly when my two main protags were off doing their own things.

I gave myself a lot of space to work with, putting everything in and then taking things back out a few words at a time. I also saved several versions of the synopsis – 4 pages, 2 pages, and 1 page versions, so I’d have them ready if an agent requested them. The 2 page version ended up being my favorite.

How do you handle the dreaded synopsis? What are your do’s and don’t-do’s?

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Muse Medicine Quicky – Medicinal Use of Bees

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Arizela

Short post here (believe it or not).

So I was talking to some writer friends today about the medicinal properties of honey. Yep, good old honey. Not the mostly-corn syrup crap they try to pass off as honey in the grocery aisles half the time, but the real thing.

Honey has been a home remedy for a VERY long time, and recently modern Western medicine has taken a new look at this natural miracle. Of course, not all things that are “natural” are good for you – hemlock, nightshade, and sulfuric acid are 100% all natural, too. But in this case, natural honey really does help to prevent infections in minor wounds. With powerful anti-bacterial properties and its acidic pH, honey is a very real remedy.

Bzzz

And the medicinal uses of bees doesn’t end with their pollen by-products. Bee sting therapy is an alternative therapy in some neuromuscular disorders. Bees release a mild muscle relaxant upon stinging that can be beneficial in disorders like multiple sclerosis and certain palsies. Of course, modern Africanized bees wouldn’t really be recommended.

** Don’t forget. This information is presented for fiction ONLY. Do not try these methods at home or anywhere else but the pages of your fiction.**

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Organic characters

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Arizela

I read a novel a while ago that was wildly popular; it was published on multiple continents by a well known author. I liked the voice, I liked the characters, I liked the depth of the world, I liked the plot (well, at least 3/4 of it, until it got trippy weird and stopped making sense). The trouble for me really came down to the fact that while each individual element of the story was well done, none of them seemed to belong in the same book. The world was amazing, but given the parameters of that world, I just couldn’t see any way that the main character could ever come to exist. His life experiences just did not lead up to the character he displayed. Because of that, the plot didn’t make sense either in the context of the world building and characterization.

Now, in reality, people react to and grow from a multitude of circumstances into an infinite variety of individuals, but just like dialogue, characterization needs to make more sense in stories than it does in real life. Real dialogue between people is full of broken thoughts and skips and jumps and half-formed words. It often starts off with hello’s and how’ve you been’s, continues an earlier conversation mid-thought, or meanders pointlessly. If you tried to write down exactly what was said in a real life conversation, chances are very good it wouldn’t make for very good *story* dialogue, because in the story, the dialogue isn’t just people talking. Story dialogue conveys purpose and meaning. It addresses the needs of the story.

In the same way, characterization conveys information to cue the reader into the motivations, values, assumptions, and history of a character. When it’s done skillfully, the reader is left with a sense of understanding who that character is and what makes it tick. The events related about the character’s values, point of view, back story, and beliefs illustrate the why questions of the story. Why does she act that way? Why doesn’t she just run when trouble comes? Why is he an outcast? Why do people trust him? Why does she make mistakes?

I guess it seems to me that characters who are created without any thought to how they became the person they are stand out like a cat in a bird’s nest. The reader never gets that sense of understanding who the person is, and the choices that direct the story never add up.

Of course, this is not to say that every influential moment of a character’s life needs to be on the page. Certainly not, unless you’re writing a biography. But for me as both reader and writer, what does appear on the page needs to make sense and illustrate how that character came to be whomever she ends up being. And I find that sometimes, if I really dig deep and figure out the why of how a character behaves, I can refine those qualities to make the character live and breathe on the page and in the minds of the reader.

I suppose what I’m saying is that the label “organic” in writing could be applied to more than just writing without an outline. Characters, worldbuilding, plot, etc… These are all elements that can be organic, in the sense that they can be grown naturally from one another and be part of the same story-ecosystem.

This doesn’t require strange rituals or sacrifices to the muse or writing hoodoo voodoo. There’s no magic to it. It takes a lot of work to grow a garden that is complex and beautiful, where the elements marry together in harmony. It takes even more work to do that with a story.

Ah, but for me at least, the end result is very much worth the time.

How does your story garden grow?

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Losing words, gaining meaning

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Arizela

I was recently debating whether or not I should write up a tight little synopsis for book 2 of the novel I have out in full to an agent. You know, just in case the agent didn’t make a clerical error asking for my novel and calls me up sometime to discuss my plans for future books in that world. A wonderful, supportive writer friend of mine pointed out that editorial changes to book 1 might make what I have planned for book 2 completely defunct.

A very valid point, that. Editorial changes to a novel can be rather sweeping, and when you write the kind of stories I do that are very organic in structure, a tiny change can be pretty damned sweeping anyway.

Case in point, when I wrote the synopsis for Code of the Hunters I decided the ending needed something. Something was missing. I took a close look and realized that adding a little scene at the end would give a much more satisfying ending and actually give a better lead-in to book 2. So I added 300 words to the end of the story, proofed it again, tucked a few words on the synopsis to match, and sent my submissions packet.

Meanwhile, I’d been working diligently on book 2, which I put on hold to make that little change and polish up the subs packages for book 1. Those 300 additional words changed the story just enough that the entire 18k I had written so far of book 2 no longer fit. I tossed it out.

Yep. 18k words, and over a month’s worth of work, down the hole in a single flush.

I know a lot of people who have trouble cutting words, let along ditching an entire fifth of a novel.I guess my take on the matter is that I have a big vocabulary. I can string words together all day long, every day. Words are just words. I’d trade 300 quality words for 18k of quantity in a heartbeat and never look back.

I haven’t done an official count, but if I had to guess, I’d say that I wrote at least 250k words on my book 1, and cut and scrapped and pasted until it stood at the final count of 83k.

The words aren’t my babies. They aren’t even my darlings. They are hired to do a job, and if they don’t, they get the ax. I’m GOOD at tossing words that don’t work. The story I want to tell is more important to me than any number of words.

How do you feel about cutting and gutting the words?

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My Broken Heart – an Explanation of IST

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Arizela

A lot of people have asked me questions about my disorder, because even my nurse friends have never heard of it. One of my aunts recently asked me if there was somewhere on the internet she as someone who doesn’t know much about medicine could go to learn about my heart problem.

Surprisingly, the answer is, not really. The information that is available through a simple google search is primarily from 2003 and before. It is both outdated and flat-out wrong according to more modern research. As a health care professional, I had access to the most current peer-reviewed journals and research, and I still am not quite sure what to tell people about my disorder. The problem is, there aren’t enough people who have it for there to be good, solid research on it. One of the major midwest clinics that specializes in rare disorders did a two-year study on IST that they published. In two years, they saw 9 patients with the disorder and a handful more who qualified but were unsymptomatic.

You see, this disorder has been documented for a very long time, but it is still not well understood. It wasn’t given its current designation until 1979, when it was labeled Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia (IST). It generally becomes symptomatic in women aged 20-40, and seems more prevalent in women who work in health care.To explain what it is, I’ll have to go into a bit of a lesson about the “normal” rhythms of the heart. Bear with me.

Sinus rhythm is the rhythm most people are in most of the time. It is the “normal” baseline. Sinus rhythm means the atria are firing before the ventricles to efficiently push blood through the system, and that the rate of beating is between 60-100 per minute.

Sinus tachycardia happens when the heart still beats in the right pattern, but the pattern speeds up. 110 beats per minute, 130 beats per minute, 140 beats per minute. This can push into another rhythm known as supraventricular tachycardia or SVT, which basically means everything above the ventricle can’t beat fast enough to keep up. The heart can beat as fast as 150 to over 200 beats a minute in this rhythm.

Wait a minute… sinus tachycardia can be normal though, right? Correct! Sinus tachycardia is perfectly normal in certain situations. Like when you exercise heavily. Or when you have an adrenaline rush in a situation of danger.

The trouble with IST is that sinus tachycardia happens when it is NOT normal (when it is inappropriate). When sleeping, sitting quietly in a chair, standing up, walking slowly to the bathroom, driving a car, playing a video game, reading a book, watching TV… you get the idea.

IST is characterized by an elevated heart rate all or most of the time, with spikes of the heart rate well over the “normal” range during very mild exertion, very mild stress, or even just being irritated by some dumb kid on the internet. The elevations in heart rate are prolonged and difficult to control with medications. They lead to severe chest pain, nausea, dizziness, lightheadedness, syncope (passing out), and palpitations (you can feel your heart beating forcefully as if it’s trying to punch its way out of your chest, or maybe doing some flip-flops for fun in there).

Consider that the “target” heart rate for an average person doing a 20 minute exercise routine for heart health is somewhere in the 120-130 range. Then consider that folks with IST have a heart rate in that range or higher for hours and hours a day. Even when they are just sitting in a chair doing nothing. It takes an enormous amount of energy to run the heart that fast, and leaves you feeling fatigued, drug out, and emotional.

IST is not caused by anxiety (it was ruled out), thyroid imbalance (also ruled out), or any other hormonal or emotional problem. I’ve had six months of extensive testing, some of it invasive, and all of it difficult to endure. My cardiologist says this disorder cannot be faked and that all other possible causes have been ruled out in my case. My endocrinologist and sleep pathologist and general practitioner didn’t know what it was until I explained it to them. Yeah, it’s really that rare.

The current research and guidelines on IST say that there are three treatment options.

1) A drug class called beta blockers – these slow the heart. They also cause severe side effects in many people, including low blood pressure, passing out from low blood pressure, severe depression, and in men, impotence. My doctor has tried several of these, including metoprolol, inderal, and bisoprolol. The first two caused depression and fatigue so severe I stopped caring for my own needs. For a couple weeks at a time while trying to adjust to the meds, I rarely showered, missed 1-2 meals a day… even brushing my teeth was just too much work. I became suicidal, but fortunately didn’t have the energy to act on those thoughts. Bisoprolol, so far, is only causing low blood pressure and more dizziness, to the point that it is no longer safe for me to drive a car.

2) Calcium channel blockers – these also slow the heart by working on one of the molecular pathways that allow electrical signals to flow smoothly and quickly along the heart. They have been shown to be effective in a small percentage of people with IST, and they come with a host of side effects of their own.We tried this one, too. Cardizem caused me severe and continuous chest pain. For about a week, I felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. It was hard to breathe, and I couldn’t even walk to the bathroom without assistance toward the end.

3) Surgery called ablation for cases that are very severe and which cannot be controlled with medication. The surgery was once thought to be a complete cure, although symptoms persisted in many people despite having a clinically measurable lower heart rate. The ablation surgery carries risks of damage to the nerves that control the diaphragm (ie breathing), perforation of the heart, inadequate destruction of the electrical initiation cells (SA node) of the heart resulting in a need to repeat the ablation (sometimes over and over again), over destruction of these cells resulting in too low a heart rate and the need for a pacemaker. Further, the SA node can grow back, requiring the surgery to be repeated in 3-6 months, even if it looked completely successful. The surgery also carries the risks of death, brain damage, stroke, and further disability. The risks are considered moderate for most people, but surgeons hesitate to place a pacemaker in someone my age. Pacemakers have risks of their own, including massive infection, dysfunction of the machine, frequent need to monitor and recalibrate the machine, and the need to replace the machine every 5-7 years. My doctor has talked about this as an option for me. He thinks it might help. The risks and long-term complications (like a pacemaker) have to be weighed against my daily life without the surgery, though, and the only person qualified to make that decision is me.

IST is not life-threatening. It is not going to shorten my lifespan. Very few people who get IST progress to any sort of heart damage even after years of elevated heart rates. My arteries are clear. My muscle works fine.

Knowing that, knowing that I will not die from this disorder no matter how much it changes my life, makes facing the risks of repeated surgeries and implanted devices seem unwise to me. The truth is I am here today with my husband and my son. I can still type, read, write, sing (if a bit breathlessly), cook a meal (if I pace myself), and enjoy spending time with my guys.

Yesterday, I was playing an online game and a 15 year old kid said something to me that kind of ticked me off. Not “blow a gasket” pissed off. Just sort of annoyed. I could barely speak for the palpitations. My heart rate was over 140. My hands were shaking so bad that I couldn’t type the reply my brain was cooking up. I am not a docile person. My wit is sharp and my tongue has been known to be even sharper. I turned off the computer and sat there staring at the screen. I could not walk away, for fear of falling on my face. It took over an hour for me to start feeling “normal” again enough to get up and walk around.

Life with IST isn’t easy. I could waste my energy railing against how it isn’t fair (it isn’t), or how I wish it would just go away (I do). I could just follow through with one of those suicide plans I thought up while on the depression-inducing beta blockers.

But I’m not a whiner. Or a wisher. Or a quitter. I’m just me. Fast heart and all.

UPDATE: So many of you have expressed thanks for this post and asked after me over the years since I wrote it that I felt an update was in order. You can find more information about how I’m doing now (2013) here.

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