Day 92 & 93

Yesterday I had a headache. Now I'm better.

Day 92:
"Write a brief synopsis — one paragraph, no more — of your novel. Make it strong and lively. This is an important sales tool."

Day 93:
"Make a photocopy or print out the first fifty pages or so of your novel. Try to leave off at a point where the reader will want to know more of the story."

Regarding the guide for day 92, in day 84 we did one paragraph description of the story already. What's the difference b/w this and "synopsis?"

I checked the dictionary for the word "synopsis" and it came out 3 definitions:

1. A brief or condensed statement giving a general view of some subject.
2. A compendium of heads or short paragraphs giving a view of the whole.
3. A brief summary of the plot of a novel, motion picture, play, etc.

I can't really tell the difference...

For the guide in day 93, I kind of did a similar thing on my "Prince Vingo" by emailing the first half to 2 people and waited for their reactions. Not really a word. Sigh.

One more week.

Day 91: In seeking an agent...

"...remember that you’re an unknown quantity and the top agents are loaded with clients. Aim at those in the middle of any listing of agents. And be sure they actually represent the genre of novel you have written."

Good advice. But how do I know which agents are top and which are in the middle?

9 days.

Day 90: Select a few agents...

"and send each a letter which begins — as appropriate:

I recently read ____, which is a wonderful book, and saw that you are ____’s agent.

Or:

My friend/acquaintance______, who is represented by you, suggested you as a possible agent for my book.

Or:

I read your article in______ about the book business, and was hoping that you might consider me as a future client.

Add the paragraph you’ve written about yourself, and then the paragraph about your novel."

Great practical advice! That's what I need. When I finish the story I'll surely do it.

10 days.

Day 89: To begin the agent search:

• Check the acknowledgement pages of books similar to yours to look for the names of the author’s agent.
• Ask other writers for recommendations.
• Use the “Friendly Agents” list in the Resources of this newsletter .
• Use the Internet and key in such words as “writer,” “author representation,” “agent.”

Wow, I googled "author representation" and I got some good info. There seem to have some agents accept email submission. But many of them are non-fiction. I wonder what non-fiction exactly means. I thought I knew, but now I probably don't. Maybe I'm good at non-fiction?

11 days.

Day 88: Don’t mail your novel yet.

"It is now time to research and find the right agent to represent you."

I hate this part, but I guess it's a necessary evil.

Why can't I just directly contact the publishers? Everything has an agent in this culture, like everything has to be insured. And the money paid to the insurance company is way exceeding the value the things being insured. Doesn't make sense.

Yea, I'm stretching too far. Just like to complain.

12 days.

Day 87: Print out your novel.

Not finish yet, but sure will do when it's finished.

But why can't we use email? If we can do that that will save so many trees.

13 days.

Day 86: Presenting your book.

"Follow these instructions closely:
• Printed on 8 1/2-by-11, standard 20-pound bond white (not high-gloss) paper.
• No three-hole-punched paper.
• Pages not bound in any way.
• Printed on a laser or ink-jet printer — no dot-matrix.
• 12-point-type font.
• Double-spaced, with one-inch margins..
• Number the pages consecutively from title page to last page of text.
• All new chapters start halfway down a new page.
• No mention of rights or “copyright.” Mentioning “copyright” labels you as an amateur."

Gee, I didn't know all new chapters start halfway down a new page. What's the purpose?

And printing this will kill a lot of trees...

Good to know all these though.

14 days.

Day 85: Write one paragraph about yourself.

Myself?

I really don't know what to say. Sometimes I feel a rush of disappointment or even panicking feeling: why am I me?

I don't know what I am looking for. Sometimes people praise me of my works, but I just can't get enough. Ten tons of praises can't compensate a drop of criticism.

And the praises can't never reverse the fact I'm getting old. Why am I so afraid of being old and death?

I'm a middle-age man, a husband and a father of 3. I'm a Ph.D. student and am scared to death about finding an academic job. I have some talents: music, painting, some sports, and some other things. But I'm easily irritated and getting angry, and I need constant approvals. All the time. I'm neurotic.

15 days.

Day 84: Write a one-paragraph...

"...description of your novel."

So far, it probably is like this:

(Tag)
A man is fighting with his own destiny; a destiny that is thrown upon him--and a destiny of his own creation.

Jason has a good family and a great future: a wonderful wife, four beautiful children, and a career full of potential. But he is in pain--until he creates a perfect world of his own in his dream. But now the dream is gradually out of his control...

16 days.

Day 83: The short story writer Raymond Carver said...

"...he knew a story was finished when he found himself going through it once and putting commas in, then going through it again and taking the commas out. Is that how you feel?"

I assume that means you just have no more to change? I guess that's what it means. Well, sooner or later I'll get there. =)

17 days.

Day 82: Re-read the endings...

"...of your favorite novels. How does your book match up?"

I don't know... it's so subjective. To me the hypothetical ending of my story is not too bad. BTW, I personally prefer an ending that leaves readers to think and wonder (e.g., "I think they end up being together," "I believe they broke up," etc.). And I don't exactly like a "fairy tale" happy ending: life is not like that. We always can have some hope, but also w/ many flaws and uncertainties. So my ending probably has some sadness, but w/ hope too.

18 days.

Day 81: You need a climactic scene...

"...at the end of your book, a scene that resolves the conflict."

I haven't got to the end yet; in fact I haven't got to the middle. But while I was camping w/ my boys I kind of having a rough idea of how it's going to end. So we'll see.

19 days.

Day 80: Review your manuscript...

"...and make sure you have given your readers a picture of your characters early in the story. Readers don’t need to know everything, but they do need to know what is physically important about each character. Use the five senses to get your characters down on paper."

Really? You mean how does s/he look like, how does s/he smell, that sort of things? I don't see many stories do that. My impression is they might talk a little bit, but not necessarily a lot.

But ok, I'll talk a bit about my characters.

20 days.

Day 79: Re-read

"Re-read your own opening sentence. How does it hold up?"

First, yesterday's assignment:

1. Prologue
May 31, 2001
Feast of the Visitation
House of Olivia and Gudge Beeler
Mountain City, North Carolina

THE ROOM, THOUGH small, is light and airy. A highly polished writing table overlooks a square of lawn with flower borders.

- Gail Godwin, Unfinished Desires

2. I had just finished a job for an interesting woman named Nan Sartin, and was happily making out my bill to her, when a woman came in who promised to be equally interesting.

- Robert B. Parker, The Professional

3. Molly Crane stuck her head into the open doorway of Jesse's office and said, "Chief Stone, there's a private detective from Boston here to see you."

- Robert B. Parker, Split Image

4. The place never changed.
Gabriel McQueen actually liked that about his hometown, Wilson Creek, Maine.
- Linda Howard, Ice.

5. While swards of lightening slashed and stabbed murderously across the scarred shield of sky, Bart Minnock whistled his way home for the last time.

- J. D. Robb, Fantasy in Death

6. A moment before the encounter, a strange expectancy overcame Grady Adams, a sense that he and Merlin were not alone.

-Dean Koontz, Breathless

Compare to my opening? Well, some start with description of things, some with ideas, and some with dialogues. Mine kind of starts with description. Don't know if that's attractive or not. But I surely can try another one.

21 days.

Day 78: Go to a good book store...

"...and read the opening sentences of novels that have just been published. "

Gee, today is Sunday, I probably can't go out and do this. Maybe tomorrow. But I'll try.

22 days.

Day 77: Pick up a half dozen great novels...

"...and read just the first sentences of each. "

1.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct
the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present
period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its
being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree
of comparison only.

--Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

2.
Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17__ and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first took up his lodging under our roof.

--Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

3.
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

--Herman Melville, Moby Dick

4.
Since Aramis's singular transformation into a confessor of the order, Baisemeaux was no longer the same man. Up to that period, the place which Aramis had held in the worthy governor's estimation was that of a prelate whom he respected and a friend to whom he owed a debt of gratitude; but now he felt himself an inferior, and that Aramis was his master.

--Alexandre Dumas, The Man in the Iron Mask

5.
On an exceptionally hot evening early in July a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in S. Place and walked slowly, as though in hesitation, towards K. bridge.

--Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

6.
Dark spruce forest frowned on either side the frozen waterway. The trees had been stripped by a recent wind of their white covering of frost, and they seemed to lean towards each other, black and ominous, in the fading light.

--Jack London, White Fang

23 days.

Day 76: Rewriting period

"In this, your rewriting period, make the opening of your novel as strong as possible. The first few pages show an editor just how talented your are. Rewrite your opening scene. You’ll see that now, having written the novel, you are a much better writer than you were when you started writing it."

Rewrite the opening? Hmm... maybe that's a good idea. What constitutes "strong opening" though?

I guess it's an opening that creates tension, that makes you wonder "what will happen next?" I'll see what I can do.

24 days.

Day 75: Read your novel into a tape recorder...

"...and then play it back while following the written text. Look for scenes that don’t work, language that draws too much attention to itself. Cut and cut and cut towards the core of the novel, the essence of what your novel is about. Remember the “flight” of your novel."

Man, when I finish a long story, it'll take a whole day to read it out loud!

But I guess that's what it takes.

25 days.

Day 74: Get rid of...

"...meaningless phrases and jargon such as: coming from, networking, furthermore. "

Well, I didn't use these...yet. But the guide doesn't tell me what to use instead! What if I use these words?

Sigh...

26 days to go.

Day 73: Get rid of...

"...excessive use of foreign words or phrases, the inappropriate use of fancy words, vulgar language or images, or graphic blood and sex."

Gee, no sex!? No way! =P

Well, I don't think this will be my problem.

27 days to go.

Day 72: Get rid of...

"...unnecessary question marks, exclamation marks and parentheses."

"Unnecessary"....? Ok, that probably means "trying to hard to be impressive." I'll watch that.

28 days to go.

Day 71: Re-read your novel again...

"...and look just for the cliches. Cut: “one fell swoop,” “pretty as a picture,” “in my mind’s eye,” “right as rain.”"

Oh man, this is my problem: what are counted as "cliches" and what are not? I don't even know what "one fell swoop" or "right as rain" means...I know pretty as a picture is cliche though. I use different expressions. Actually, I don't like cliches and strive to avoid them. People should not see too many cliches in my story.

Day 69 & 70

69: "Go back and cut out one excessive metaphor or simile from each page. As F. Scott Fitzgerald put it, “You never cut anything out of a book you regret later.” "

70: "Cut out one adjective or adverb in each paragraph."

Yesterday I had to go father-son compout, but again I thought about the story.

I'm not sure what the guideline is referring to by saying cutting out excessive metaphors. They are not good? So we should never use them? And probably we should not use adjectives/adverbs either. I believe Steven King said something like "the road to hell is adjectives."

Day 68: Re-read your pages

"— one at a time — out loud to “hear” any awkward sentence structure."

Wow, you don't expect me to do it in a day, do you?

I did the 1st page, and then I changed a lot of things. This method seems cool.

Day 67: Do chunk editing.

"Cut away from the bone of the story. Go chapter by chapter and get rid of “all your darlings” as William Faulkner called excessive prose."

It means a big renovation, I guess. Cut to the bones and reconstruct. Is it?

Sigh. The problem is I never find so much time to do that. I do change the direction of the story off and on.

Day 66: Read the story

"Go back and read the whole novel from start to finish, noting lines and phrases that are awkward, but keep reading. Don’t bother to rewrite, not yet."

I did it yesterday....

And I added some stuff too cause my story is not complete yet.

Day 65: Editing your novel

"Now that you've been away from it for a while, it is time to start editing your novel. Before you start, remember what James N. Frey says in How to Write a Damn Good Novel; “Think of a climax as the target and the rest of your story as the flight of the arrow.” It is time to review the “flight.”"

Gee, two weeks already.

I've edited parts of my story. When you are away from your story and then read again, there will be some expressions make you think: "What was I thinking when I wrote that down? Was I high or something?"

Of course, there are some good parts too.