Books & Pianos

Wednesday night, my writing buddy came over with her finished synopsis. We celebrated. My daughter and granddaughter were over also. They are both used to listening to the ravings of writers, so they fit in well with our celebration. 

Of course, the synopsis was a draft, but it was finished, nonetheless, and that is a very difficult thing to do, if you've ever written a synopsis. My friend's was five pages. So I read it out loud. My granddaughter decided we needed musical accompaniment. She is only six and can't read music, but loves to 'create' piano pieces. As I read of the villain, she used the lower keys. As I read of the hero, she used the middle keys. As I read of the doves, she used the trilling upper keys. We howled. It felt like one of those silent movies. Thankfully, my friend was open to using different mediums with her work.

When I finished reading the synopsis, she asked for feedback. My daughter, who is as smart as a whip, said the MS had her at .... Which was about a page and a third from the beginning. I agreed. 

Cutting a synopsis is a painful thing, but my friend took it all in stride. She left it with me and I tried to hone it today. The first part needed almost no changes, but I could, the further along the synopsis I went, I could see just where my friend had begun to frazzle. I knew the story and the characters backwards and forwards since she's been sharing her book with me for the last year, so it was easy enough, for me since I did not sweat blood to write it, to put it in bullet form and then flesh it out. This cut two pages worth.

I gave it to my friend tonight. She was grateful, but I could tell not too excited. I'm sure things I cut are things she thought were important. Thankfully, we have been working together long enough that we both have the deepest respect for each other and our writing abilities. 

I can't wait to see what the finished version looks like, but I know it will be great. The important thing is - she is sooooo much further along than just a month ago. I do believe she'll be able to send it to her agent within the next couple of weeks. She's got her pitch done and her character pages, the synopsis, and the first five chapters are edited and ready to go.

Life is good.

PS - I got an incredible letter today. I'll share it with you tomorrow, but I just had to say that, after yesterday's post, the mail lifted my spirits one hundrefold!