The synopsis saga

So the synopsis still isn't happening. I seem to be able to write other things, like the blogs, like responding to other people's blogs, but everytime I make an attempt to get the synopsis done I seem to freeze. Kapput! Mental shutdown in action. 

And I am finding this SSSSsooooo frustrating. I am getting so cross at myself. So: up early again. 'Do Synopsis' time. 

Nope. Not happening. Fiddling about doing other stuff instead.  

But a crack of daylight suddenly appeared when I was browsing through old Psychic Virgin files. Poking about in the rejected synopsis pile for that book, of which there are loads, I chanced to come one which could be borrowed by My Psychic Toolbox. A bit of reworking here and there, and it could work. 

With lashings of enthusiasm I copied and pasted the synopsis into my PT workfolder.

And then like the rain running off our brand new roof and gaily running into our brand new guttering and from thence into our brand new drainpipes, so my mental energies flowed away as well. Why is that? Why can't I do this flippin synopsis! 

So I thought I would have a moan into your ear, which always makes me feel better. But: I have managed to get the graphics for the front cover of PT started. They need to show some similarity to PV because they are part of a series of four, possibly five, books.

Blank page up. Into Autoshapes (can't do any posh graphic packages yet) a bit of a play around, and I think it's done, the central graphic that is. I like the way the flowers don't look quite right, sort of a little bit askew. Sort of like me really. And I didn't want to do the usual type of graphics which books of this genre normally have: either a photo of the author, with makeup intact if female, plastered across the front of it, or some etherial theme which would be totally out of place with me. 

The beauty of self publishing is that one can do what one likes with one's book. The less beautiful aspect is the accompanying frustration when one's mental faculties won't co-operate.

Ok. So moan over. 

Things I have learnt: ? 

Things I have NOT learnt: How to find those words which are at the moment being elusive. 

Things I HOPE to learn: everything!

Cheerio for now, and wishing you much joy and happiness, and oodles of creativity in whatever it is you are creating.

Trying to find the synopsis words

From out of Psychic Virgin came My Psychic Toolbox. Having unexpectedly arrived at 130,000 words when I thought I would only write 5, I had to shave off some of the content of Psychic Virgin. Hence Book Two. Not so hard to write, most of it was done last winter (2009). Then it was left. Not a bad thing to do because it allows the book to 'cook'. Not as difficult to write either because the book is about how I work, what happens to me psychically, rather than how I arrived at being me.

So, book more or less done. Another read through, checking for typos which is like going fishing: you stand on the bank dangling your rod hoping for a 'catch', so I sit at the PC grazing through the words hoping to catch some typoes. Like fishing, it can be tedious at times if you don't 'catch' anything! Anyway, done this. Almost ready to upload to Lulu.com. The site will automatically convert it to Pdf format and download it back to me within minutes. Then I have to check that all is as it should be on the page: page numbering running seamlessly through, headers left and right where they should be and saying what they are supposed to be saying, same gap between headers and top lines, does the page itself look reasonably balanced, and so on. Loads of things to watch out for. Still, there will be plenty of things which slip through, so I put a note on one of the front pages that this is a 'cottage industry type book which means that I have done all the work on it myself. Therefore please forgive any typos that have escaped the net and any layout errors that have done the same'. That is all I can do for the reader: just explain that this is a homemade book.

Now onto the front section of the book. Easy this time. All I did was copy over Psychic Virgin's entry pages, then change the words relevant to My Psychic Toolbox. And a word here: I really would like to get on to other books, and would love to have a bash at a novel. All this writing about me can be tedious, especially because I don't want the books to be about how clever I am: they are supposed to help and inspire others to develop psychically if they want to. But these books need to be got out of the way before I get on to more interesting things. They need to be done!

BUT: I'm stuck. The b********y synopsis again! PV's synopsis took loads of re-writes and re-writes and re-writes before I let it go. Even now I don't really regard it as finished, but the book is done so no more fiddling about with it. The main question was: how serious do I make the synopsis, or should I make it funny, or spout off about what a clever and talented person I am in which case I would bin the book anyway. So I chose the route of funny. But then that is what you need to do with life: remember the funny bits and forget the rest, not take life too seriously.

AND: up against a wall I am now jammed. Synopsis time again. How to encapsulate a book of 70,000 words into 250 and 500. One for the back cover and Lulu's sale's pages, the second for the Introduction in the first section. Into avoidance mode I have gone. I get onto PC with good intent. An hour or so later time to go do something else away from the PC, having checked and responded to emails, looked at blog to do any responses to people who have left comments my thinking being that if someone can take the time to leave some words then I must make the time to respond back, onto Internet to have a browse at the newspapers, maybe YouTube for a bit of a fish around if I am really into avoidance mode.

THE OUTCOME: No synopsis! I am now getting cross at myself. Nothing coming out of my head. No 'lead in' words. No inspiration. But a thought has popped in: skim read MPT, lifting out certain phrases which leap out of the page at me. Make a note of them. Then use them as the scaffolding of the synopsis. Will let you know how I get on!

Meanwhile, my head is devoid of words and to sleep my creative faculties have gone. Maybe because it is cold here in our patch of the world, and hibernation time is upon us. Hope your head is being more obligingly active for you, and leaving you with the thought that writing has got to be a passion if one is going to put the hours of work in that is required to get those words out of one's head. Of course, one has got to find those words in one's head, often they will play hide-and-seek and refuse to be found, hence my early start today to see if I can find them. Singing 'I CAN write that synopsis, I can WRITE that ******* synsopsis, I can, I can I CAN', I am off to have a go.