Dreaded Synopsis Time Again

I'm starting a new manuscript and have been in the early stages of planning. I'm about to embark on the next stage of my plotting process - the DREADED SYNOPSIS. I've decided it helps with my plotting, keeps me focussed on the hero and heroine and their conflicts, and to be honest, gets the icky bit over with so I can relax and enjoy the writing *grin*.

I just hope synopsis writing gets easier with practice, although I have a sneaking suspicion it doesn't. Just how difficult it is to write a synopsis is obvious by the software I found (see image). If they were easy people wouldn't have seen a market for the software. Mind you, if the software was that good I think it would be embraced and talked about in hushed and worshipping whispers everywhere.

I guess there is nothing for it but to dig in and write (with a good supply of chocolate at my elbow *grin*).

Motivational Monday

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

- E. L. Doctorow



Law of the Garbage Truck

My Dad sent this to me and just lately it's been appropriate:

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport.

We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.

My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!'

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment.

As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally.

Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day.

Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so ...

Love the people who treat you right.