14,000 words (phew) and Helpful Bloggers

It's a lovely day, here. Bulbs are pushing out of the tops of pots. Birds are strutting their stuff in front of females, and the squirrel has dismantled the bird feeder. It's too good to be writing, really, but my back isn't up to much more.


I was reading my fellow writing bloggers latest posts this morning, when I strayed onto this, A Novice Novelist. I followed the link to Nicola Morgan's blog, which I follow anyway (Help! I Need a Publisher!) and she's written a book on writing synopses, which is £1 from Amazon Kindle (for the PC) which I downloaded. How helpful! Better than that, how timely. I have to write a synopsis for this competition, and aren't they always different speeds? This one needs a punchy, short, 300 word one, the other one needs a single page of single spaced text. Two completely different animals.

So, I read the advice in the e-book. I had a go with the Method Two with the Crappy Memory Tool, and came up with a single 25 word line encapsulating the absolute kernel of the book. It took me a couple of hours, but I feel happy with it. Now I'm working it up to a paragraph - and it's working. Actually, it's creating questions in my own head about what goes where and when, and what is essential for the story, and what is added to make it a readable novel. I can recommend the book, and it's on special offer during January, from Amazon. Thank you, fellow bloggers.