One-Sentence Summary

-
Randy Ingermanson has been discussing the all-important one-sentence summary on his blog the last few days, so I decided to give it a try with one of my shorter (and therefore more definable) works in progress.

Here it is:
Catherine has finally found the perfect man in Robert Wyvern, but when his ex-girlfriend – naked, branded and very definitely dead – quite literally crashes a wedding, Robert is the prime suspect in the murder.

I think this is fine as a first stab, but it's missing a few key elements:

  1. What is Catherine going to DO?
  2. The connection of Robert’s family to the local dragon legends (and, as it turns out, the local dragon).
  3. The depth of Catherine’s own involvement (as an intended sacrifice to said dragon).

Of these, I think the first one is probably the worst thing to leave out, although - since I'm classifying this one as a "dark, urban fantasy" - I feel the other two really ought to be there as well. However, adding any these elements to what is already there will make the 'one-sentence summary' waaaay too long. It's probably too long as it stands, anyway.

So I'm stuck.

But I'm going to keep at it, because I've decided to focus on this piece until I have a completed draft. My next step is to finish plotting it, and I think it will help to work this one-sentence thing out first.

Hopefully, I'll have something better by the end of the week. If I do, I'll post it. And if I get really brave, I'll post a snippet from this piece, too.

We'll see.

.

Comments

Anonymous said…
For those of us who miss the fine print of "dark urban FANTASY" your one sentence synopsis smacks of a Kay Scarpetta-esque crime novel. I know his last name is Wyvern and all, but reading about the dragons after reading your sentence made my scratch my head and re-read your post.

And I'd rather read an outtake than a single sentence any day! Be brave!

FWIW,I LOVED the (too few)chapters I read of your other novel (boats, drugged out prince, and knife-wielding princess with the creepy old lady tutor).
20:19
Bethanie said…
MCP: That's it exactly! That version of the one-sentence summary is missing major elements of the story. I think that would be a big problem if I'm trying to sell it to a publisher or agent (or even just trying to explain it succinctly) - the genre should be obvious. I can probably get away without 'dark' and 'urban', but the 'fantasy' bit needs to be there.

So perhaps I will post a snippet on Friday... we'll see where I am with the plotting. It's going well, so far, but I don't really want to re-read anything I've already written on that story until I'm done plotting.

And I'm still working on that other novel - it bits and pieces - but it's still a major mess... :(
07:27
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friday Snippet - Mutagens

-
Welcome to my very first Friday Snippet! (*bites lower lip* nerves, nerves...) This is from a story called 'Mutagens' that I started a few years ago after having to edit a paper on childhood cancer. I had to do a fair amount of background reading on teratogens and mutagens and oncogenes and such like. Naturally, my imagination chewed on the science-y stuff, twisted it up with a bunch of other stuff bouncing around in my mind at the time - terrorism, homesickness, being a mommy - and next thing I knew I had this story idea burning a hole in my brain. This part is actually a bit that I cut when attempting to force the thing to be a short story, which it adamently refuses to be, so it will probably go back in in some form eventually. Anyways, here 'tiz: ******************************* She took James up onto the roof to play in the warm afternoon sun. So late in September the heat felt good, even though the light had taken on that glow that said in no uncertain terms that i...
Read more

Thursday Thirteen #5

-
Image
The subject of this TT comes to you courtesy of my 20th high school reunion, which I found out about yesterday, because an old friend found me on Facebook and sent me the info. It was kinda neat cruising the reunion website and seeing where people ended up, which naturally induced a bout of homesickness. Consequently, I give you... Thirteen Things I Miss About My Hometown That Have Ended Up In My Fiction 1. Moe’s Italian Sandwiches. It’s the bread, I think. And the absense of lettuce. And the particular meat they use. Or all of the above. I dunno, but you haven’t lived until you’ve had a Moe’s. Fiction: One gets shared in Dragons - in Prescott Park, as a matter of fact (see #7 below). 2. The Brioche. A café, which isn’t actually called that anymore, but I can’t remember the current name… Anyway, it’s the café on the square where I spent half of high school, every morning of my college career before I caught the bus, and as much time as I can manage on visits home. Fiction: Bits...
Read more

Lessons Learned

-
I thought the Character Clinic (CC101) Joely hosted over the weekend was fabulous! Even though I didn't win anything, I learned a ton about how to build characters and what I like about them - among many other things. And it's the "other things" that, for some reason, are really churning around in the ol' brain right now. Two interesting things occurred as a strangely direct result of CC101. One, I'm not prepared to discuss yet. It's still churning, and it ain't turned to butter yet... The other is the big one for me (a big pain in the ass, that is...): theme. Stories have themes. They just do. Any good story worth the paper or pixels it's printed on, anyway, has a theme, an overriding, overarching thread of wisdom that guides the ultimate outcome. That's how I define it for myself, anyway. I flat-out SUCK at theme in my own writing. There are reasons for this. First of all, I blame the fact that as a reader, I don't like to analyze. ...
Read more