Saturday 14 March 2009

Writing isn't all about the novel

*warning, honesty present in this post*

Today's topic is written with me reaching for a tissue. Unfortunately it's not a cold. Having an 'I am a stupid writer' moment.

This is because I'm attempting to write a logline for a competition over in Bookshelf Muse (go check out the blog!) And I'm failing miserable.

So my friend says 'What's you're plot?'

I falte.r I can't tell her. I try explaining the novel....and am unable to give a plot. I give details which aren't relevant.

Then it dawns on me why I seem incapable of writing 1 line, or one paragraph about my wip. I just don't know how.

Truly.ļ¼©write by instinct. I just write the chapters, the story come from my muse. I've never been good at summarising. I admire all those who can explain their plots in a few sentences, why their characters should be loved.

At the moment, I'm still scratching my head over how to summarise. I've got to learn for agent querying. It's the one side of writing that really scares me. I'll happily slash words from my wips in edits. Or even change characters, ditch them completely, add new ones...but this important task of summarising?

It has me reaching for tissues.

All advice welcome. This writer definitely wants to improve herself, but is stumped as to how.

5 comments:

Captain Hook said...

Well you got my advice and assistance. All I'll add is that summarizing comes with experience.

Danyelle L. said...

You can do it. It takes practice, a lot of it. Don't give up!

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Yuna, it sounds like you need some direction in focusing on what makes your story and characters tick. You need to read through your manuscript and jot down ideas as they come. Things that make you think, "Oh, that's something that weaves through the whole book. That's something that really makes my character unique. Maybe I should include that in the summary."

If you write by instinct, try reading a lot of summaries and sentences and then thinking how your own story might fit the same.

Just some ideas. :)

Nayuleska said...

Thanks for all the tips! I'm feeling a lot more positive about summaries now :)

Merc said...

It'll come with practice, Yuna. ;)

I suck at summarizing, too, even when I plot beforehand and draft blurbs/loglines/The Sentence. :P

*sighs*

*debates again what she could blurb for the contest*