If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck....

Have you ever tried to make something into something it's not? Or maybe you tried to steer your plot one way and though it tried to go a different way, you forced it down the path of most resistance anyway?

DON'T.

Wanna know why?

During writing good ol' Duality, I've learned a lot about acceptance. About accepting what you're writing as it is. I didn't intend to write a love story when I first started on it. Really, I didn't. Once the romantic element reared its head, I didn't want it to take over. Duality's about a lot of things--what really makes us human, the danger of letting science go too far, the costs of scientific advancement--but I didn't want (and never expected) it to be about love.

But it is in its own little way.

I fought against its true nature. But as I'm writing my synopsis and working on the new *FINAL* ending, I realized that there was a lot more of a love element to it than I wanted. And honestly? It's a lot better for it.

I never wanted to be a 'romance writer' (no offense to those awesome romance authors who actually read this), mostly because I don't find my ideas to be that romantic. But dammit all, if this isn't, then what is it? Deep down, it's about love and loss and desperation. Accepting that has made EVERYTHING so. Much. Easier.

After all, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's not gonna be a fire hydrant.

Q4U: Have you guys ever had that happen, where you intended one thing and got something totally different? Were you surprised by the results? Let me know in the comments!

4 more people to our next contest!

Or 13 days. Either/or. Get ready, folks.

I don't have much to add tonight. I'm still highly intimidated by my synopsis, to the point that I might rock back and forth in my floor from the sheer fear of it. The one I was working on was filled with way too much backstory. Must start anew.

Q4U: What's your least favorite (or for you sadists, most favorite) part of the submissions process?

For me? The synopsis. I'd rather have a million rejections than write a synopsis.

dude, i think i wrote a synopsis

i like it, if that means anything. of course, it's 5 AM, and i've been up since 1130 AM yesterday. i'm happy i can write complete sentences at this point. whether or not it makes sense remains to be seen...

now...back to that query letter... i only have a week until i send crap out. this time, i'm sticking to my word.

hold me to it. please?

***edit***now i'm unhappy again. darn adjectives and adverbs... i need an ax to chop out my words. darnit.***

aaaaaaaaaaaah! edits!

down to the last 9 chapters for editing!!!! i'm so pumped! and after this, seriously, no more edits. i'm DONE. i'm gonna prep for send-outs. this means queries and synopses galore. woo. friggin. hoo.

one half of me is completely exhilarated while the other half is toast. dry wheat toast. i'm so excited to get this out (even though i know that the whole waiting thing's gonna suck, but i waited for a guy for almost 3 years and nothing came of that, so waiting for like, a year to be rejected is actually a relief) and actually prove that i can do it. granted, whether it gets picked up or not is something else ENTIRELY, but i just want this off my hands. like a term paper. you slave over it and agonize, and then when you turn it into the professor, it's like this huge weight has been lifted from your shoulders because it's out of your hands by then, and you can only sit and wait for your grade while working on all your OTHER projects... OK, i'm running on a LOT of mt dew right now, so sorry for the spastic run-ons. i'm just ready to go on to the next phase.

speaking of, i'm 3 chapters into my fantasy novel, and i'm gonna take a brief break for plotting purposes... but it's going fairly well, i suppose. 4 main characters... doing a kind of anne rice-y thing with weaving together completely different people into one major plot. (like queen of the damned, but less involved. there were what, like, 10 different sub-plots in that?) why am i using "like" so much? argh. the pitfalls of waking up too early to successfully stay up all night... this really does feel like college.

oh, hotel tidbit:
"i lost my wallet, my key card, and my bra." ~~random guest.

seriously. how do you lose your BRA? any takers?

going to run audit now.

at home for once

until i go back in at 11. gotta work a grocery store trip in somewhere...

i continued to drive myself nuts with my synopsis last night into this morning, and i just decided that it's a waste of time to worry. granted, i haven't written a book report in about...oooooh, almost 10 years *and suddenly i feel old*, but that's essentially what a synopsis is, at least in my view. *eureka!*

think about it:
depending on page length, you're merely hitting the high points of the novel, granted, with a little more finesse than the standard listing of events. there has to be a little personality involved, which is probably not a big deal for most writers b/c they write with personality anyway (me, not so much). they have an innate sense for writing entertainingly, throwing in a few quips here and there, and making the story come alive. i do not. that is where my problem lies. on paper, apart from the actual novel, i have no personality. so i shall work on that.

but continuing... i remember in school when we'd have to write one-two page book reports, especially in eighth grade English. i never put a whole lot of thought into them then, but i still managed to cram what i needed to into the length. i got the gist of the story, important things that happened, and the ending. and that, my friends, from what i've gotten out of hours of reading, is what a synopsis is. a book report. with feeling and personality. crammed into one-three pages depending on the chosen agent.

i feel like i've cracked the Da Vinci code. this may not help anyone else, but it certainly makes me feel better. and i haven't even been up an hour yet.

SYNOPSIS--WRITE THYSELF!

i've obsessed about my synopsis (now another s-word in my vocab) for about 16 hrs now. well, that's not entirely accurate. i slept for 8 of those...so about 8 hrs. minus the 45 minutes i spent playing assassins creed...

OK. so not entirely accurate, but it's been a while. i don't know what it is, but for some reason i just don't feel like i can get it right. i read all through nathan bransford's blog (because now i have a writer-crush on him) and the only thing he says is to make it good. but considering there are a few agents who prefer one-two pages (CRUEL!), even for SF/F, my mind boggles. i have no idea what to focus on because there are different aspects that drive the piece as a whole, and they all lead to one another.

since my character is an amnesiac genetic experiment, do i include her life before the story starts, to show her relationships between the two lead scientists, her husband, and herself, or do i just say: this is Dima. she wants to get her life back, maybe, if she can handle the person she was before. there are these two scientists; Scientist A torments her at every turn. Scientist B treats her with such tenderness that she can't bring herself to hate him, though she knows she should, and eventually, she starts falling for him. then there's this OTHER guy who hates the whole thing and wants to shut down the experiment because of what happened to his sister, who was married to Scientist A and was critically injured in a car crash. Scientist A took his wife to the lab and tried to save her with said technology, but she died anyway and Other Guy has hated him ever since. when he uses his agents to whisk away Dima and the other victims, Dima meets someone she never expected: her husband.

that is my book in a nutshell. and sounds great for the jacket, don't you think? you know, with names included and better-written...