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What do you do when you suspect your storyline might be one of the living dead?
First off, don't panic. I never do. Oh, I did on the first 3 or 4 manuscripts, but now I see a pattern. I get bored with my own story. Yeah, I said that out loud. And newsflash: If the author's bored, the reader will be bored. It's a valid reason to stray from your original outline, but there are a few other reasons you might want to consider when deciding if you should revamp or ditch your plan altogether.
You might want to change your synopsis if:
1. You thought of a better idea for an ending.
2. A new character shows up and takes center stage.
3. You realized an angle to turn the story into a series.
4. You came across information that makes your original idea not only implausible but outright impossible.
Remember, a synopsis written before a story is finished is really more of a guideline than a legal contract. It's okay to change things up, unless you've already got a contract on the piece. Then you'll have to clear it with an editor first.
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4 comments:
Very good reasons. I also glance at an outlined synopsis as a cheat sheet, but I get excited when I stumble upon a rabbit trail because more often than not, it leads to more interesting curves and dips in the plot. If the rabbit trail doesn't lead me where I want to go, then I backtrack, but save my work. I have over a hundred pages of scrapped rabbit trails...
Smart idea to save your work. I always forget to do that.
I was definitely contemplating writing the synopsis FIRST this time, as a kind of template for the story. But too often I have those secondary characters upstaging things and my storyline veers in wild directions. So I'm just hoping I'm getting better at post-book synopses. Still, they're my Achilles heel (as well as book proposals. I am getting better, though).
I hear ya...I'd rather get a root canal that write a stupid synopsis! I think they're way easier to write after the book is finished. But when you're trying to sell a book before it's written, you've got to include a synopsis in the proposal. Part of the game, I'm afraid.
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