Thursday, August 25, 2005

Getting there

Huge progress on the proposal. I rewrote my synopsis! This is a big deal for me. I hate writing a synopsis. Until selling on proposal, I never wrote one until the book was completed. So sending in a synopsis based on little more than an idea to my new editor was very difficult for me. Especially when I only knew the characters names, the opening scene and the last scene.

I'm hoping it's better now that I've actually put conflict and character into it. The original version was 3 1/2 pages. The revised version turned out to be 9 pages. I was shooting for 5 or 6.

Of course I changed the story. I always do that. And I'll probably change it again once I get past the first three chapters and have to muddle through the middle. I hate middles. Almost as much as I hate openings. What I do love are the endings.

I always know how my stories will end before I begin writing them. I often write the last scene first. It's just a draft, but that gives me direction, a place I need to go.

Some writers say if they know how the story ends why write the book. I don't understand this thinking. I write romances. All my books end happily ever after. For me, it's all about the journey. I might know where I need to end up, but there's never only one way to get there.