Ok, so I really just wanted to use that as a blog title. You can’t blame me.
But on a serious note. What do you do when it’s just not working?
Some people delete–anything from a page to an entire book–and start again.
Some people cry.
Some people lie on the floor.
Some people glare at the book.
Some people bribe the book.
I tend to bribe, then glare, eat cookies, send my agent panicky emails, stare at the screen… I’ve hinted a few times that the latest book, which I’ll call SUPREME CREEPY CUPCAKE (I have no idea why), has been mistreating me.
But something has happened! The tides have shifted, and the change has come from none other than the dreaded, the fierce…the SYNOPSIS. That’s right. I faced down the synopsis. And SURVIVED.
Why are synopses so chock full of SUCK?
Linda Grimes said it best: it sucks to try to sum up a whole novel in a few pages, while retaining the flavor of the novel. If a query letter is like a 30-second ad for a book, I guess the synopsis would be an infomercial.
And yet, SOMEHOW, I not only survived the ordeal, but it might have saved my book (O_o)? I was lost and beginning to suspect that while SUPREME CREEPY CUPCAKE was chock full of creepy, it might not be chock full of PLOT. Writing the synopsis helped assure me that it did indeed have plot, buried among the weeds, and helped me fine tune the overall pacing and figure out where I was floundering and why.
This is all to say: SYNOPSIS = OFTEN-NECESSARY EVIL.
But I still recommend lying on the floor with a box of cookies. And some Lady Gaga.
Do you have any tricks to beat the block? The lack of plot? The derailed idea?
Do you delete and start again? Open new word documents and/or windows?
Do you cut all your pages into itty bits and rearrange?
TELL ME.
Victoria (V.E.) Schwab 