Help Please! My proposals & synopsis fall short... HELP!

[Constantlypestered]

I'm struggling to condense a real-life, complex journey into a few key points. There are several ways I can go with this, but it's tricky to get a feel for what the appropriate tone is, and what would appeal to readers and agents.

 

[Steve C]

There is a section where you can upload samples of your work and get help

The Lab

Manuscript Development Central

colony.litopia.com

 

[Constantlypestered]

There is a section where you can upload samples of your work and get help

The Lab

Manuscript Development Central

colony.litopia.com

Thanks Steve - I'll take a look.

 

[Jonny]

Hi CP

As Steve says, the WWD might be good location for this. Are you looking for assistance on how to write up your journey as a book?

Perhaps post your proposal or synopsis in a new thread in our WWD as per Steve's link above. Once you get a few replies you can make the thread private if you wish, meaning only you and a small group can workshop the idea. Once finished you can delete the thread. The process is completely confidential and the only people who can read it are Litopians.

That way we can get a feel for what you're trying to achieve and offer advice.

@Constantlypestered

 

[Barbara]

We often think that everything in our stories is important. They say 'kill your darlings'. I would treat it like a price of fiction. Whittle down to the core message of the piece then concentrate on putting that across.

Or you could start by writing all they key points down, then put them into groups according to themes, common moods, that kind of thing, and see which has the strongest, most progressive feel.

I think anything with an emotional journey (the human aspect, the struggles) will appeal. I'd concentrate on that.

 

[Rich.]

... it's tricky to get a feel for what the appropriate tone is, and what would appeal to ... agents.

Writing non-fiction is a tough one, or at least getting an agent or a publisher interested in a work of non-fiction is tough. If you're not a celebrity, or you don't have an existing platform (blog, YouTube channel, etc), or you're not a known expert in your field, it's unlikely (not impossible, but unlikely) that an agent or publisher would be interested. If you tick any of those boxes, you're streets ahead and you can focus on the actual writing.

 

[Jonny]

On the wider issue, as Rich mentioned, profile is a big factor in these things. Also if there's something particularly notable happened that chimes widely with the general public then that's a possible "in" too. We see it all the time - celebs, comedians and actors fronting travelogues. The public (and so too agents and publishers) want some kind of a tie-in or a familiar face, otherwise getting traction can be quite difficult.

 

[AliG]

Are we talking synopsis or blurb here? Assuming synopsis, I think condensing down is massively tricky- too much good stuff to work with. Building from scratch is easier. If you put in only a few brush strokes on MC, inciting incident, result, character's journey you have a frame of about 300 words then can hang on it a few extra bits of colour to give tone. It will seem as if you have space to add ideas, not struggling to chop.