Ravioli's Thread of R&D

Ravioli · Oct 9, 2016

Last night at 5 am, sleep-deprived me finally gone and done it. I queried my first agent. When, this morning, I queried two more (I like when they say they like Outlander - my biggest worry is my potentially cringe-worthy explicit content), I found that the first query was almost - almost! - as poorly written as one'd expect of a stubborn mule who insists on staying awake for the hell of it and can't see the forest through the trees anymore. That stubborn mule would be me.
Some 2 hours ago (10 pm), that first agent sent me a rather kind form-ish rejection, so now it's 2 more to wait for and one query to press Send on - but wait! I'm stalling! They want cover letter, synopsis (define "brief"?) AND 3 chapters all in one file, and this tiny effort is my perfect excuse to go do something else, such as getting carried away with photoshop requests.
See, improving and sending out more queries was why I declined today's invitation to hunt Pokémon by the beach. I have now completed 3 Photoshop requests, one more epic than the other, and no further work on my MS. Though the chicken breast-stealing chameleon photoshop job is epic.

This thread will codument my journey of procrastination and avoidance and intermittent query work and avoiding to open replies because a rejection not read is a rejection not received and I need help :hooray:

Seriously though, when they ask for a "short description", what do I give them? Genre? Word count? I don't even know what genre it would be! Tragedy would fit, but also dystopian, contemporary, perhaps erotica, and people have suggested YA. And my guess is that including such a long list for agents to pick their favourite from, is not a good idea.

I suck at bureaucracy.

Calla Lily · Oct 9, 2016

A brief synop is generally one page.
A "short description" is usually synonymous with a query/cover letter.
I would suggest you decide genre before querying. If it's a YA crossover then you may be able to create 2 queries, one skewed toward YA and the other toward the adult market, esp. if it has erotic elements.
"Tragedy" isn't a genre, really. If it's contemporary or dystopian, then that's sufficient. Although I can't quite picture a book which is both contemp and dystop. They're mutually exclusive, AFAIK.

Good luck!

Ravioli · Oct 10, 2016

Thanks

But why does tragedy not qualify as a genre? I thought I saw it listed as one. And now for the biggest challenge ever: how to cut down a 3 page synopsis to ONE page?

It's set in Israel and Israel is contemporarily dystopian...

Calla Lily · Oct 10, 2016

I'm speaking from my own experience.

I haven't seen "tragedy" or "comedy" as a genre. I've seen them used as a modifier: "comic horror" for example.

The way I learned to cut down my synopses was to go through the book chapter by chapter and write one sentence for each chapter. If that made a page, then I smoothed things out and ran with it. If more, then I cut nonessentials. It's work, there's no way around it.

To make sure I'm giving you the right information, I went to Merriam-Webster. They define dystopian as: "[FONT=&quot]an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives." That seems to really pare it down, but the key is "imaginary place," much like "utopia." Macmillian concurs.

So if your book is set in contemporary Israel, I don't think it can technically be dystopian. Is it set isn a future, imagined Israel? Then it's dystopian.

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Fuchsia Groan · Oct 10, 2016

Ravioli said:
Thanks But why does tragedy not qualify as a genre? I thought I saw it listed as one. And now for the biggest challenge ever: how to cut down a 3 page synopsis to ONE page?

It's set in Israel and Israel is contemporarily dystopian...

Tragedy is a huge genre in classical literature, specifically drama, but it's not a label you see used in modern book publishing, or really much for novels at all. There's a difference between the genre labels used by critics and used by professionals for marketing. I can say that something like Breaking Bad is a "tragedy," say, but a TV exec would probably call it a serialized cable drama. You want the industry label.

Similarly, you could have your character perceive his world as dystopian, and we'd all understand what you mean, but if you label the book that way, it implies a setting other than contemporary reality. My guess is that you might just want to call this contemporary fiction, to avoid getting boxed in. If it could potentially be classified as erotica, it's not YA. And many mainstream works for adults have erotic elements or scenes.

Either way, it sounds interesting, so good luck! Synopses are The Worst. Not fun at all. But it's exhilarating to get one done.

Treehouseman · Oct 12, 2016

I would stick to contemporary as a genre, even if there were other elements in it. Unless it were set in the far future, in which case I'd do science fiction!

The thing with genre is that it's a marketing term, and limited to the categories a bookseller would buy. Contemporary is a broad enough church that it can contain other categories easily. You don't want to let an agent know that you are uncertain with genre, (even if you are) as it may signal an uncertainty with other elements of the book such as plot and pacing. With all things, assume you are completely in control...

Ravioli · Oct 15, 2016

Calla Lily said:
The way I learned to cut down my synopses was to go through the book chapter by chapter and write one sentence for each chapter. If that made a page, then I smoothed things out and ran with it. If more, then I cut nonessentials. It's work, there's no way around it.

But... how do I put all the events that happen in one chapter, and all the crucial info, in one sentence? Gawd I need fundraiser... "Buy me a beta reader and a synopsisser because I can write a 150k word story no problem, but I can't sum it up!".... I can't do this... I've had the new 1 sentence synopsis file open for DAYS since your suggestion, and for just as long, there have been 2 sentences for the first chapter which don't comprise all the important stuff

Also, does this mean I leave out establishing info if it's not described with action in the chapter?

To make sure I'm giving you the right information, I went to Merriam-Webster. They define dystopian as: "an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives." That seems to really pare it down, but the key is "imaginary place," much like "utopia." Macmillian concurs.

So if your book is set in contemporary Israel, I don't think it can technically be dystopian. Is it set isn a future, imagined Israel? Then it's dystopian.

In this case, I guess it's kinda dystopian anyway? It's set in Israel, in the near future. I think I mentioned Deadpool 3 somewhere in the story. I went for dystopian because the characters are cooped up in race ghettos within Israel that all Israeli Arabs have been shipped off to, and they're tyrannized by violent curfew enforcers, no humanitarian aids or staples, etc. But I also went for contemporary, because what is this ghetto if not another Gaza Strip or West Bank, and reflecting the very likely things Israel will do or is hoping to do to its Arabs? The town that becomes a ghetto, is made up, the fact that all Arabs are ghettoed is made up, but the latter becoming real is more than likely. This is why I'm torn between dystopian and contemporary.

Everyone's being so helpful and I still feel like a doorknob

Layla Nahar · Oct 15, 2016

Ravioli said:
But... how do I put all the events that happen in one chapter, and all the crucial info, in one sentence?

Short answer - you don't.

Slightly more helpful answer, I hope - start by summarizing a chapter it as briefly as possible. It's ok if this step takes multiple sentences. Then for that chapter describe the 'take-home' action that the MC of that chapter takes, forex, 'She decides to return to her country', 'He gets fixated on the new girl' - a very simple action like that. Then go on to the next chapter and do the same. Now you have two tracks to work from. You may find that you can combine two short take-home statements into one sentence. You may find that there are chapter that you can skip, because statements further down the list make them redundant. Now the hard part. Take a look at your long summaries. Why are they so long? How much of that detail is relevant to the take-home? At this point you will have to start making some sacrifices because, see short answer above.

Oh - also, history lessons and proper nouns such as place and institution names and such like have no place in summaries.

Summaries are hell.

chompers · Oct 15, 2016

Think of the synopsis like an outline, except in sentence form.

Filigree · Oct 30, 2016

Here's how I attack synopses, which is probably the wrong way, but it works for me. I boil down each chapter to one paragraph, then to as few sentences as possible. Then I cut the sentences that relate to subplots, unless they are all-important to the main plot. And that's it. The really short version can be 1 - 2 pages long single spaced, and the long version 4 - 6 pages.

I'd rather write a synopsis than a query, any day. I get into trouble with queries.

Toothpaste · Oct 30, 2016

Good SF even though it is set in the future or in a different reality tells stories of now. It reflects the society we are currently living in and comments on it. That is pretty much its purpose. When you say that even though your story is set in the future it is a commentary on what's currently happening in your county, that is exactly what it should be doing. But that doesn't make it contemporary. "Set in a dystopian near future" or something works just fine.

Ravioli's Thread of R&D

Ravioli

Crazy Cat Lady

Calla Lily

On hiatus

Ravioli

Crazy Cat Lady

Calla Lily

On hiatus

Fuchsia Groan

Becoming a laptop-human hybrid

Treehouseman

Ravioli

Crazy Cat Lady

Layla Nahar

Seashell Seller

chompers

Filigree

Mildly Disturbing

Toothpaste

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