Creative Writing Course – Week 22

Week 22 of my creative writing course was spent doing some more in-class read-throughs. Mine didn’t get an airing, which I am grateful for as I think my third chapter needs some work, as well as about another possible 1,000 words adding to it.

These were mostly read aloud by the tutor from the screen, straight from the Word document via the projector. This is quite a useful way of looking at work in progress, as the reader is not just a listener, they get to see the shape and intonation of the writing on the page. Of course, they get to see all the typos and formatting errors too, but that’s part of the process. The writers were asked to reflect back on what they’d heard of their work read out, and in the main people were happy with it, caveating it by the fact that it was still very first draftish.

Once we’d been around the room doing several read throughs and feedbacks on the work, attention turned to the synopsis part of writing a novel. Two examples from the previous year’s classes were shown on the projector for us to get an idea from. I’ve done a little bit of work on writing a snyopsis before, and know how hard it is to complete. The two we were shown were different in style to the way I’ve done mine, in that they were character lead. This meant that each character was given a block of text explaining their role in the novel, which then meant that the story was pieced together through their experiences.

Myself, I’ve always taken the narrative approach – outling the key events as they unfold so the reader knows how the story starts, develops, and ends. I found that with a character based synopsis it might be unclear how certain characters cross over and how the story ends. Perhaps this approach is better suited to certain types of novels. As I’m attempting to write a crime thriller, a narrative based synopsis might suit me better.

However it’s done, there are certain guidelines to bear in mind;

Always write it in present tense.
Keep it fast paced, moving from key point to key point as quickly as possible.
Make sure it’s readable – in theory the synopsis is the first thing an agent/publisher will be reading to see what you have to offer.
Make sure you cover most plot points, including any sub-plots.
1 or 1 & ½ side of A4 – single lined.

Must get back to my synopsis. Maybe if I write out my synopsis properly, I’ll know where I’m going with my novel…