By Hook or by Crook

Forums > Scared To Write A Genre? Which? Why? > By Hook or by Crook	New Topic\|Reply

Author
Kathryn Loch
Posts: 7

Hey everyone,

I know this topic is about writing genres but I really like the community here so I thought I'd throw something out there that's a bit different in hopes of getting a discussion going.

I've been publishing on KDP, and have had better than expected success thus far, plus I'm really having a lot of fun doing it. One of the things I've been doing is looking at different romance novels on KDP that are self-published. I want to look at not only what the writers are doing in their own works but how they are promoting themselves on Amazon.

That leads me to the Description. As writers, most of us know how important the hook is to our novel. We've got the first three sentences (give or take) to grab our reader and we dare not let go. The reader can be Jane Q. Public or it can be a NY editor or agent. For those who have submitted to traditional publishing houses, we're also familiar with the pain of writing a synopsis. UGH! I HATE writing a synopsis!

But I quickly realized that writing the synopsis had only barely prepared me for writing the description. That means, I need to work harder and work better. I also read some on KDP written by independent authors and I have to honestly say, I realize they struggle with this as much as I do.

So who is there with me? Or can you crank out a synopsis or Description without even thinking about it? I am genuinely curious.

Cheers,

Kath

2012 Nov 28 02:11 pm |Quote

Author
Normandie Alleman
Posts: 1

Ugh! I agree. The synopsis is THE WORST! My first pass at it always sounds like a fifth grader wrote it. I spend a lot of time on the fine tuning of a synopsis, but I am relatively new to fiction writing...

For some reason I can crank out the blurb or the shorter descriptions. It's breaking it all down to a couple of pages that sends me into orbit. Blech. I'm doing one now. Fortunately my editor told me that it only needed to be a page. Hooray for that!

I used to write a lot of flash fiction and twitterotica - those helped me learn to write short. It's the middle that gives me trouble.

2012 Nov 20 09:11:12 pm | Quote

Author
Kathryn Loch
Posts: 7

Quote:
Ugh! I agree. The synopsis is THE WORST! My first pass at it always sounds like a fifth grader wrote it. I spend a lot of time on the fine tuning of a synopsis, but I am relatively new to fiction writing...

For some reason I can crank out the blurb or the shorter descriptions. It's breaking it all down to a couple of pages that sends me into orbit. Blech. I'm doing one now. Fortunately my editor told me that it only needed to be a page. Hooray for that!

I used to write a lot of flash fiction and twitterotica - those helped me learn to write short. It's the middle that gives me trouble.

Hi Normandie,

hehehe...I'm the exact opposite, keeping it short is where I have the problem. What my agent told me a long time ago is that a synopsis can be difficult for many writers because we're always told "show" don't "tell" the story. Unfortunately, the synopsis is where we have to "tell". So switching gears like that can be tough - but like you, I end up tweaking, and tweaking, and...well, you know...the normal tearing of hair, rending of clothes, and gnashing of teeth. lol!

2012 Nov 24 10:11:55 pm | Quote

Novel Editor
Julie L. York
Posts: 26

11th grade English is where I was "safe" enough to fly free and write - I found my voice in that class. We had a unit on short stories by John Steinbeck that included plot vs. theme vs. moral. I've found the information I learned then to be very helpful when tackling my own synopsis (none perfect in any way), but using the "definitions" of each help to guide my synopsis writing.

A theme is one sentence, usually three to four words long: love conquers all, boy meets girl, good vs. bad, etc. A plot is no more than four to five sentences and sums up the basics, and does not include plot twists. (In "The Snake" by Steinbeck the plot is - A creepy looking woman goes into a pet store and pays the owner to feed a live rat to his largest snake. Her reaction freaks him out.) A moral is what you're trying to "teach" or "preach" or "show to the world" with your story. No, not all stories have a moral, but most do, even if it's not intended. (Bad people get what's coming to them, etc.)

In thinking in these terms, I've found the synopsis to be a little easier to do, still not my favorite part of writing, but workable, and by combining the theme, plot and moral together, with a dash of infomercial thrown in...well, they sound good to me, and so far no one's complained that my books were misrepresented! :D Hope that helps, if it does, thank high school teacher, Joyce Welch.

Julie L. York

2012 Nov 28 02:11:18 pm | Quote