Help! I've Got To Write a Synopsis!

I'm at the point where I need to write a synopsis. Some of the agents I'm planning on querying require a synopsis as well as a query letter. So, here I am, attempting to write one. A one-to-two page one. Yowzah, it's difficult. I was fussing about it on Twitter and someone said that it was so difficult because these were my words and every word was important to me (so true, @janedoe_tcm!). I can whip out a summary of other books no problem. I want to make sure that everything I feel is important is in there.

But that's just not going to work. I've got to trim the fat--say what's most important, get my storyline across, and tempt the agents into reading the full manuscript (hey, if my mother can be tempted to read my whole MS & not just a little of it, despite the fact that she runs screaming from anything even suggesting fantasy and has never read a YA on her own, I hope I can convince an agent to do the same. And my mom said she liked the characters--thanks, Mom!)

So, I went looking for advice on YALITCHAT, which had a whole thread on synopsis support. There I found:
Jennifer Lawler's How to Write a Synopsis
Bob Mayer's video on How to Write a Synopsis
Denise Vitola's synopsis writing guide

Those helped so much! If you write Young Adult and haven't joined Georgia McBride's YALITCHAT, you really need to. There's so much good stuff there, including contests, agent info, and support from fellow writers and published authors.

Back to my synopsis now. My goal for today is to have a strong draft down and maybe, just maybe, an edited version, too. Dare to dream.

Candor by Pam Bachorz

You know those stories that just stick with you? The ones that, while maybe not the absolute best book in the entire world that you want to read over and over, you can't seem to stop thinking about? (Have you had enough with the rhetorical questions?) CANDOR by Pam Bachorz is now one of those books for me.

I finished it in one sitting, curled up in my bed yesterday, and I haven't stopped thinking about it. It even invaded my dreams. Okay, I did read it right before bed but still. It was disturbing. In a creepily good way.

Here's the back copy: In a town where his father brainwashes everyone, Oscar Banks has found a way to secretly fight the subliminal Messages that turn even the most troubled kids into model citizens. On the outside, he's the perfect Candor teen, and no one knows that he's built an entire business around helping new kids escape before the Messages take hold.
But then Nia Silva moves to town, and Oscar thinks she's perfect exactly the way she is. Soon he must make a choice: let Nia be lost to the brainwashing, or help her stay special and risk himself in the process.
I heard about the book first on Twitter (thank you, @EgmontUSA and @EgmontGal!) and was intrigued. As a teacher, I've had visions of brainwashing my students so that they'll all actually study and get their homework done and turned in on time (hey, a girl can dream) but, you know, it's not really feasible or moral. And I'm sure there are many out there who would like to change something about their loved ones, to make them somehow better. Pam Bachorz took the What If of it all and ran with it.

The main character, Oscar Banks, is the son of the town's founder and has worked hard to be the perfect son while avoiding the most subversive of the Messages piped through his town at all times. At first, I didn't really like him too much. He reminded me of those entitled rich kids who think that they can get and do whatever they want because they throw around their parents' money. But then I got to know him and I really felt for the kid. I was rooting for him to succeed with his plan to stay himself (rather than cave completely to the Messages and become the Stepford-like kid his father wants) and keep the girl he's fallen in love with whole, too.
I like the way the author built in consequences for moving to this planned community and listening to the Messages. People can never leave. At least not permanently. If they leave and don't have their special "music" to listen to, they'll go nuts and kill themselves. The now-perfect children do go off to college but they can attend only a select few, must live in special dorms and keep playing their special music while away. And I really like the back story the author's created, the why of the Messages--why Oscar's dad started them in the first place. Okay, I have to stop or I'll give away the whole story and I don't want to do that to you! Just read it. So good.

CANDOR is a fast-moving, disturbing debut novel. It reminds me (in a good way) of THE GIVER by Lois Lowry in that it's a society of people who have tried to create a utopia for themselves but succeeded only in creating a town of clones, where everyone thinks and acts the same.
Author Website: http://www.pambachorz.com/

Book Trailer:


Happy Reading!

Muppets for Christmas

All I want for Christmas is the Muppet Show to return to TV as a new show (why not? they did it with Knight Rider. And Transformers. And Alvin and the Chipmunks!).

But, for right now, I guess I'll just have to be happy with the Muppet Studio creations on YouTube. Thank you, Muppet Studios. I <3 you! First off, Beaker sings Ode to Joy.

Next, Beaker is joined by his pals the Swedish Chef and Animal for Carol of the Bells.



And, of course, no Muppets post would be complete without the Swedish Chef trying to cook Big Bird.



Finally, Gonzo and his chickens.



Have a wonderful Holiday season, whatever it is that you celebrate!

As Of Today, It's Officially Winter Break

As it is now winter break (which goes way too fast, btw), this is what I have to say to all those to-do lists and pushy Pennys out there:


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Exactly.

What's the Next Step?

So, I finally finished my major revisions (thank god) and now I'm feeling a little at loose ends. I mean, there's just so much I could do next:

*Print out corrected MS and edit (with minor revisions, I'm sure. There's always something to add, change or take away, it seems. No wonder it takes some people years and years to finish their novels. Lucky for me, I'm impatient and want to be done. No ten years for me!!)
*Write query letter
*Research and create list of possible agents (already started, btw)
*Work on new MS
*Plot out arc for rest of series (how many books, what happens, follow MC throughout?)
*Catch up on blog reading and make time for some comments (uhg, I totally suck at this!)
*Read through my stack of magazines

Or, ya know, keep up with my blog! (Now, that would be a change.) *sigh* maybe I'll just procrastinate with Twitter.

REVISIONS

The revisions for my WIP are totally kicking my booty! I've been working on the last quarter of my book for what seems like forever. It's been about two solid weeks, along with some not-so-solid ones thrown in for good measure. I think this second revision is taking me longer to write than the original draft! Does everyone struggle like this? I'm about to pull my hair out.

Maybe because this is my first full-length MS. Maybe it's because I didn't have my entire world built before I jumped in and started writing. Maybe it's because I really didn't have an idea of where my story was going until about halfway through the first draft.

I've had to go back and really change so much. I love the beginning, the middle works really well, too but I'm worried about the end. I think I like it and I think it works but I'm just not sure. That may be because I'm thinking this is a series vs. a stand-alone. There are too many questions, too many places I want to take my MC and her friends to just stop at one book.

What's bad is that I'm afraid, if it's multiple books, no one will want to publish it. I know, I know, I can't think that way. I just need to write the story that needs to be told and deal with the rest as it comes. And I'm trying to do that but everything I'm reading about the publishing industry right now is really freaking me out. Closures and money problems and self-publishing and finding an agent and...oh, I just can't go on! *throws hand over eyes and falls dramatically back into chair* (heehee, just kidding!)

I just need to write the book--excuse me, books and not worry about it. It it happens, it happens. If not, I'll stick it in the trunk (metaphorical, of course. I don't actually own a trunk except the one that's part of my car) and move on to the next one. I'll be sad about it but I already have a bunch of other shiny stories begging to be told.

Well said!

Carrie Ryan talks censorship. Eloquently. Sarcastically. Fabulously.

If you haven't already read it, here it is:

Won't someone please think of the Children?

Don't know about y'all

I don't know about y'all but lately, I've had a really hard time getting up in the morning. I don't know if it's just that time of year but the 6am alarm is way too early these days. Tuesday, I didn't even hear the alarm because, at some point, I'd accidentally turned the volume down too low. Thank goodness I woke up at 6:30. Then leapt out of bed, got ready in only six minutes and ran out the door. NOT late to work, got there before the kids were released from the gym and even had time enough to get my morning diet Coke (thank the lord for that because my poor kids would not have been happy to see an uncaffeinated me. Nope. Not at all.).

So, when I saw the LOLcat on morning, I just had to share it:


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