Two things are clear here:

1. I have to do the synopsis. No matter how much I hate it. Until and unless I get rich and famous and can publish my own stuff and ride on my name, which let’s be honest here, isn’t that likely, I have to do it if I want to be published. It’s just one of those horrible things writers have to do. But at least I’m not sitting in a cubicle somewhere stapling the new cover sheet to the TPS reports.

2. If I don’t get over my synopsis resentment my synopsis will look like A. I can’t write a synopsis to save my life and B. I don’t know my own plot or else don’t have one.

I’m trying to rethink and re-frame how I approach the synopsis. Sure, I want every reader, even the editor or agent to get to experience the book like the reader does. And I strongly feel that if you get spoiled first it changes the experience. And I’m honestly not sure how someone can sell a book to anyone that they were spoiled on first. I just don’t grok it.

However…an editor/agent is like your lawyer. If you have a lawyer, he/she isn’t there to “experience courtroom drama.” He/she is there to help create courtroom drama (well and get you free, but that goes without saying), which the judge, jury, and any people sitting in the “audience” get to experience.

You don’t withhold anything from your lawyer. Or you screw up your case. You can’t hold back an essential clue saying it’s a “surprise” from your lawyer, just because you want your lawyer to experience shock and surprise. I guess a part of being a lawyer is you give up the right to that sort of thing. But maybe there is an equal level of fun in being “in on the secrets.”

I still don’t love this synopsis thing. I’m still only a fraction of an inch away from hate, where I was. But if I don’t change my attitude on it, I may never get published, simply because every synopsis will make me look like such a rank amateur no one will want to work with me.

These are the hoops one has to jump through when they need someone else to finance their project. And that’s basically what the publishing industry is…someone else financing your project. Like an investor.