Minotaur

Dear Darren,

Howzit. That’s South African for G’day.

Minotaur is now on the move. On my bookshelf.

This is the game I play. Minotaur is my draft. There are things I don’t like about my draft so I had better fix them. What things don’t let me sleep at night?

A synopsis is not a dust jacket blurb. My synopsis does not tell the editor what he needs to know. In plain English, he wants a succinct summary, a beginning, a middle and an end. Yes, I have to tell him how the story ends. When I’ve rewritten my synopsis, perhaps a key sentence becomes the pitch.

Synopses are daunting for me. I have already written mine fifteen times and it is still wrong, but nevertheless, I had better do something about Minotaur’s.

My opening paragraphs in chapter one are intriguing. They hint exactly where this tale is going. Perhaps a clue to how to handle the synopsis.

I worry that my writing in chapters one and two are tending towards over-the-top. Too sensational. Easy for me to edit the ott stuff out. Perhaps use more down to earth expressions. The story is already sensational, so I need to present it factually to gain credibility.

Going on to chapter three. Overall, I want my stuff tighter The way I write my first drafts is long and loose. Gangling. Like a teenage lout who hasn’t cut his hair.

So I’m going to edit it short and tight to make the key stuff stand out. Don’t need to tell the reader every last detail. He or she is already visualizing everything better than a TV video. So I’m going to give this teenager a crew-cut.

‘His brother’s eyes almost popped out.’ Point made. Stuff the ‘as if they were spring loaded’. Only one example of everything I’m going to prune.

My speech is too formal. People don’t speak like that, as if they are reading from a book.

‘Sure sounds big.’ Is believable. ‘Whatever it is, sure sounds big.’ Is reading from a book.

I write my drafts with ‘had’. Had done this and had done that. But when I edit, it sounds like some unimportant event that is not relevant to now. So I change the whole bloody lot to ‘he did it’. He did this and he did that.

Darren, I only went to farm school. So this ain’t a English Major giving his opinion. Only a hayseed. But it is exactly how I treat my stuff.

Yes, I agree with your comment about fancy crits. I delete mine.

Kind regards,

Pierre.