Proposals: The Bugbear of Writers

If you’re like most writers, you either don’t know how to write a proper proposal, or you loathe having to do it so much that the end result is something so hastily patched together it doesn’t come close to reflecting the high quality of the work it’s supposed to be attempting to sell. This was my initial problem with proposals. I just didn’t get it. I would rush through them in the same way you close your eyes at the dentist just wishing to God he’d hurry up and get the pain over with.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

These days, I only sell on proposal, and I’ve written so many that I’ve grown used to writing them. For me, there isn’t much difference between the art of the proposal and the art of the first draft. In fact, my first draft of my proposal usually contains almost enough information to just become the first draft of my story. In other words, I overwrite them.

When I sold the sequel to Dream with Little Angels (a book called Close to the Broken Hearted) to Kensington, I did so with a forty page proposal and, if memory serves, about fifty sample pages. The proposal contained the forty major scenes or so from the book. It had an introduction explaining the theme of the book and what the proposal document was meant to convey—the major story beats. I said right up front that I wasn’t including any minor scenes that weren’t absolutely pertinent to the plot.

I then wrote the proposal exactly as if I was writing the book. I had already written the first,say, ninety pages of the book, so I knew where I was headed. Now, in the proposal (or outline, if that word makes you feel better… the word “proposal” really means the outline combined with the sample pages. I have a bad habit of calling the outline the proposal) I just kept writing, only doing so in a very condensed matter, trying to keep to just the major chapters and manage to stay down to one or two paragraphs for each.

As I got closer to the end, this became harder and harder for me to do. I am a believer that dialogue is so important to a book that it should appear in the outline. Not a whole lot of it, but some. Especially if you’re writing a book in a vernacular where different characters sound different, like I was. The trouble with dialogue is, as soon as you start including it, things begin to get bigger really quickly. So I always find that, as my stories get closer to the climax, the outlined scenes tend to grow.

I am in the middle of writing a proposal for my newest project right now. It’s a big book and the start of a brand new series. It will probably finish up at around 120,000 words when all is said and done. Currently, the outline sits at sixty-eight pages (that includes a six page introduction). Is this too long? That depends. I’m lucky, as I already have an editor who’s waiting to read it, so I can probably get away with at least a fifty page outline. You may not be so lucky. If you’re shopping your project around to agents, or you’re sending it out to editors on your own, you definitely want to keep your proposal outlines as short as possible, but not at the expense of not capturing what’s special about your story. If you can make the work shine and keep the outline to twenty pages, you’ve done the miraculous.

One thing I do to save space in my outlines is have very “telly” parts for the reviewer. I generally put these in boxes at points where they are important and give them titles like: This is What the Characters Don’t Yet Know. And then I describe in the shortest way possible some secret information the reader will have been spoon fed (in other words, exposition) that certain characters aren’t privy to. Or I will have titles like What the Reader Doesn’t Know but the Sheriff Does and such. It’s just a way to cut down on having more prose than I need in the outline while still allowing me to get the information across to the reviewer.

The first pass on my outlines are always massive, and I always tuck them away to be used as starting points for those major chapters of my book. In fact, the first thing I’ll do once my book has been accepted for publication is go through and number all the chapters I think I’ll have, and insert with square brackets the description of the scene from my original uncut outline. It gives me a great starting point and lets me launch into a book with 30,000 words already written. It makes it feel like I’ve gotten a real jump on the project and, in a lot of ways, I have.

Do I stick to my outline? Not completely. I’m a fast writer. I tend to write my novels in four to six months and, in that time, my plot will sometimes meander off the outline I spent a few weeks on constructing. Usually it meanders into better places than I originally thought out, which is a good thing. But then I have to remember that my publisher bought the book based on the outline I gave him, and that is the book he expects to get when I’m finished. So I’m always careful to veer back onto the course of the outline at the next major scene at the first chance I get. In the end—so far at least—it has worked well, and everyone’s been happy with the final drafts I hand in.

Having said all this, my proposal I am working on now has a seventy page outline. I know that sounds insane, but I am having problems making it any smaller without losing some of what makes my new book special. Right now, the outline is very reflective of the book (which is easy when it’s 1/5 the finished size of the final product). In fact, reading the outline, as you get closer to my climax (and in the climax), you’d probably think you were reading full chapters if you flipped it. You aren’t, but there is a lot of prose there. One scene takes up four pages of the outline. This is a high tension book, and to build that tension into the outline requires me to pretty well write it as though I am writing finished book chapters.

I still need to make at least two more passes on it. I really hope to knock it down closer to fifty pages. That’s my target. It might be a pipe dream, but you have to have some sort of goal in life

That’s another thing. Some writers seem to think their outlines are almost a throw away. They’re not. In a lot of ways, they’re more valuable than the chapters you are including with your proposal. Spend time on your outlines. Edit them well. Polish them. Redraft them if you need to over and over until all the plot elements work and make sure you’ve included everything you need so there’s no holes anywhere in your story (I’ve found sometimes even though I’d made sure my book’s plot was airtight, I haven’t put enough information in the outline to show this, and it looks like I have huge gaping holes in my story). Even if you have to fill the holes by just putting a box on the page with the tile This Isn’t a Plot Hole and explaining why it’s not, that’s better than leaving the outline “unfinished.” The reviewer of your outline (whether it be your agent or an editor) should come away from your outline and proposal feeling as though he or she has read your book. They should have that same satisfied feeling finishing a good novel always brings.

Technical Details

Outlines should always be in third person point of view (POV) and present tense. This is one aggravation when I transfer the outline over to my working draft; I have to change all my tenses and point of views (unless my story happens to be in present tense, but I generally always write my novel in past tense with one character in deep first person POV and the rest in deep third person POV). For more information on Deep Point of View, see my previous blog post, here.

Make sure you include an introduction in your proposal before launching into the outline. Tell the reviewer that the outline contains only the major scenes crucial to the plot lines. If you have more than one plot line, describe them. Label them your “A” plot (that’s your main plot, “B” plot, “C” plot and so on. If two plot lines weave in and out of each other or coalesce into one at some point, mention it here. Tell the reviewer what the themes of your story or major symbols are. Introduce your characters. If you plan on making the book into a series, talk about any “series hooks” you’re building into the book. In other words, sell the book up front. Don’t be afraid to talk to the reviewer in the proposal document. I generally take the first four to six pages and use them for my introduction. By explaining a lot of these things up front, you can get away with pushing back or even leaving out some information in your outline. This will also make everything in the outline easier to understand.

Lastly, remember to include your sample pages. I always send these as two different documents. One is called “Novel Name – Sample Pages,doc” and the other is “Novel Name – Proposal.doc.” Your sample pages should always be the pages that start at the beginning of your book and include your title page. Generally speaking, the first fifty pages is a good number to use, but make sure you stop at the end of a section or chapter and make sure it’s a place where you leave the reader wanting more. A good cliff-hanger always makes a great sample page ender. You may even want to construct your story just so you have a cliff-hanger right at the fifty page mark.

Also, make sure your first fifty pages line up with your outline as far as it reflects them as it describes the opening major scenes in your story. If the outline and the sample pages don’t jibe, the reviewer of your proposal will either get very confused or simply won’t trust you’ll bring in the book you’re telling him you will.

Proposals for Finished Books

Many of you might be writing proposals for novels that are already completely finished. If this is the case, make sure you tell the reviewer of the proposal in he introduction. Having your book complete should make the proposal somewhat easier to write. Just go through your story, one chapter at a time, and, using a different color of text than black (which I assume you write in, and if you don’t, do), tag every chapter that is essential to the plot. Any chapter not tagged just leave out of the outline. Then start making your outline from your first chapter onward. Don’t call them Chapters in your outline, though, call them Scenes. Otherwise, you’ll make it confusing when the chapters don’t line up because of the ones you left out. Outline each scene in as little detail as possible while still getting everything across. It may take a few passes to get the outline down to a manageable size.

You may even want to transcribe the complete major scenes directly into the outline and then just go through and start deleting the parts that are unessential to the scene. That’s a good way to get started at any rate.

Again, make sure when you’re done that you edit and polish everything to a bright shiny finish. If you’re proposal is a mess it will only make those reading it think your novel’s going to be worse. Make everything as easy to read and as pretty as possible and it will reflect the rest of your work in a positive light without anyone even having seen it.

I hope this helps anyone out there trying to write a proposal. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go cut twenty pages somehow.

Michael out.

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