Writing and Rewriting the Synopsis

Dear M,

If my tail were actually on fire, I would not have run as hard as I was running the last few days.

I have absolutely no idea how I survived hopping between the different things and still managed to keep track of what was happening where (of course with enough slips along the way) and to continue where each was left off.

In between that fire-and-smoke existence, I managed to take a look at my synopsis. Now the synopsis, like the query letter, is another frightening thing. That is the first glimpse the agent/publisher has of our work. Either they like it, or they don't. Either they think it has potential, or they don't. Whether it lands up in the trash or the "Exciting New Author" box depends on how well we craft the synopsis.

I had written one for this novel a few months ago, possibly when my first draft was ready. Strictly speaking, there is nothing wrong with the synopsis. It is factually correct, it has a brief summary of the what and the who, and everything. As per the rulebook.
But.
Reading it again after months, it did not excite me.

Now the easiest person in the world to be excited over anything related to a novel is its author. No one else in the world thinks it is a masterpiece but the author. He/She pretends to be all modest and humble about it of course, but secretly, in their eyes, the novel beats the best of the best.

So if the author isn't excited by the synopsis, then there is really something wrong with it - no, a better way to put it is that the synopsis is dead. It was never even born.

The synopsis said exactly what was needed to be said about the novel, but that's not how a synopsis ought to be written. I need to write it again.

Let's hold the match stick to the tail again...

Love.

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With time, comes confidence

Dear M,

Today I updated my bio again, to go with an article I was sending. And today, I found that it was so much easier to write one, perhaps because I have been doing it for so many years.

Writing a bio is not easy at the start. And writing a bio is essential, be it at the start or the end. (I don't know about the end, though.)

When we attempt it for the first time, it is easy to overdo it. Every little bit of information need not go into the bio. It is like a compressed resumé, but containing only the things that the reader needs to - or would be interested to - know. Your previous publications, your prior writing experience, your association with famous writing clubs, your writing awards, your hugely popular blog.

Sounds simple, but somehow the first time we write our bio, it appears so difficult. It never does come out well in the first attempt. Keep improvising and keep modifying, and most importantly, keep reading others' bios to see how they have done it in a simple yet striking manner.

Love.

P.S. And that's my 200th letter on this blog.

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The Art of Querying

Dear M,

If querying were like mathematics, there would have been a formula which you could apply to the completed manuscript you have with you, and the equation would have yielded the perfect query letter.

However, writing queries is not mathematics, it is art. Which means that there is no rule, no law, no equation, no correct answer. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. Some people like it, some don't. Some stand out from the crowd, some are trampled in the stampede.

As a person who has been writing query letters for a long time, I know what I am talking about. I don't even dare read the ones I had written a few years ago in my height of optimism and self confidence. Really, if there was a touch of arrogance in them, I would not be surprised.

Different agents and publishers look for different things in the query letter (though the essential items remain the same: author's bio, sample chapters, synopsis, etc.). It is important to understand what they need and how they need it before querying. They also could be bored individuals gazing at query after query, day after day after day.

Like every other art, writing query letters can be learned too, to some extent. The query letter is the first hurdle to cross on the road to publishing. It opens the door to the agent or the publisher just enough for you to put your foot in. The rest is up to the brilliance of the manuscript.

As in any other art form, the only answer is to keep trying and keep modifying and keep learning.

Love.

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The road to publishing

Dear M,

I recently saw an update on one of those social networks. A person who has just completed a book (or will complete soon) is looking for publishers and wants to begin discussions with them.

Like the wrinkled old woman in the story who laughs at the naïve, arrogant, optimistic and pretty young woman, I guffawed quite a bit at this. But I hate to kill anyone's enthusiasm so I did not respond, and walked away whistling (as much whistling and walking away as the Internet permitted me to do).

Seriously, as aspiring newbies, we expect publishers to line up before us and we only need to choose the best from among them. No, that's an unkind way of putting it. Everyone knows that publishing is tough business. But we do half-expect that the publisher will see our book as the next big thing. And we do think that things are going to sail smooth and in the next two months, we will have a book to show. Even when we read everywhere that these publishers get a thousand manuscripts a day, we still believe ours will stand out (and possibly shoot a Cupid's arrow). Even when we read that brilliant authors have had only a hundred rejections, we still believe ours will not have to go through the torture.

It is the boundless optimism (as well as ignorance) of the new writer that actually serves as the initial push to take the plunge. Once he begins to read up on different publishers he would realise that we need to approach them, and they are not hiding behind our gate for a glimpse of the next best-selling author. Then once he lists out all the possible publishers and agents that he is going to blow over, he would realise that querying is as tough a job as completing a novel. And that, even for some kind of a response to come, it could take up to six months. Rejection letters sometimes come after a year.

As time passes the optimism wears thin, until it is a shadow of its former gigantic, towering self, and that's when the test really begins. That's when you know for sure if this is what you want to do for the rest of your life.

I cannot say all this to a new author putting up enthusiastic updates on social media, and I will not. Even if I do, he is not going to believe me (Thank God). He will have to find out for himself and then decide how to put his knowledge to good use. And if he is really the genius he believes he is, then he would not have to know any of this either.

Love.

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"What's past is Prologue" - W. Shakespeare

Dear M,

My novel begins with a one-page prologue.

In its first draft form, there was no prologue, the story began from Chapter 1. Of course, in that form, it was as bare and empty as a skeleton. It took about a year (or more?) to get it into some shape. When I began expanding the story, I figured that a bit of backstory would be ideal. So I inserted it into the prologue. It looked good to me, and whatever looks good at first sight makes me suspicious. So I began to read up more on prologues.

The first advice I read was, Do not use prologues. So I closed the article and did not read any more. Because, try as I may, I could not find a way to remove my prologue. It could not be worked into the story. It could not be made Chapter 1. It could not be deleted. The novel could survive without any prologue, but it seemed clearer with a little light thrown into it at the start.

(Read up on the title of this post here.)

Now, after polishing the novel to its final gleam, I revisited the prologue. This time I was more open to reading about them and assessing their necessity. I knew I wasn't going to remove it from my story, but it was time to understand its purpose better.

This time I saw that the advice I had read and closed was not complete, there was more to it. It said, Do not use prologues for certain reasons. Here is one article that explains the purpose of the Prologue.

Do not use a prologue if it can be worked into the story, or if it is not needed, or if it can be renamed as Chapter 1. Most of all, do not use an excerpt from the novel as the Prologue.

I also Googled a bit on whether it is a good idea to send the Prologue to the publisher or agent when we query. Though there were several opinions for and against, most of the writers seemed to agree that it was better to send the prologue with the sample chapters. I agree, the Prologue is our first chapter, in a sense. It is the first thing that the reader reads. If the publisher or the agent finds it redundant, we could just drop it.

Write with the assumption that our story does not need a Prologue. But if something comes up that cannot fit in anywhere else, probably it could become the Prologue.

Love.

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The most challenging part of querying

Dear M,

Most writers would agree that the toughest part of getting published is the querying. And in querying, you know what is the trickiest job? Not just writing a query letter that could whip up the publisher's excitement and make them dash to our doorstep. Of course that is important, but the most challenging thing is to halt their world in mid-spin with our three sample chapters.

The opening of the novel pretty much determines if anyone wants to continue reading or throw it into the trash. So what if your novel becomes awesome from chapter four? No use at all. We get three chapters - but in most cases not more than three pages, for apparently they deal with a hundred manuscripts every day - to prove our worth, to take the editor's breath away. Everything we do after those three do not matter!

In the case of a novel, at least you have the luxury of saying that these are my first chapters, whatever happens. I can modify and edit them to my heart's content, but I cannot send chapter fourteen in the place of chapter one. But when you are submitting an anthology, the story is different.

Submission guidelines specify that the author should send three (or in some cases, five) of his best stories as a sample. Sounds simple and clear enough, but you will know only if you try it a few times. To an author, choosing three of the best stories is like choosing the most beloved of his children. All stories are amazing and original and exceptional and well-written, in his eyes. He can ask a few others, but the problem is that each person will have a different set of favourites. Which leaves you, wide-eyed and wondering, back to square one. There might be a few common stories, though, and most of the time, their selected stories don't match the author's!

A big problem, if I ever saw one. And I do not have the right answer to it. What I do now is, imagine that the folks sitting at the other side of my query are all alike, even though they belong to different publishing houses. So I send a different set of stories to each. Maybe a bad idea, but who knows? I don't. It hasn't worked so far, but neither has sending the same set to all. I stubbornly refuse to believe that my stories could be rejected because the trouble lies with my stories and not with the folks who read them!

Meanwhile if you can tell me how to select my top three stories to submit to the next publisher, I could certainly do with some hints.

Love.

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