I'm doing it. Really I am. Honest. Here I go...

Well, I'm really doing it.

Soon.

Kinda.

No, really, I am.

Soon.

I'm talking about writing and finishing the synopsis to my novel and sending that out into the world of agents, so I can become part of the rejected writer's nation.

Let me back up, give those of you not in the world of writing a couple of definitions.

First, the novel. You all know what that is – a book-length work of fiction. I completed my novel, revised, edited, had it read over by some writer acquaintances of mine who tore it to shr—I mean offered some insightful, valuable suggestions. (Okay, no on actually tore it to shreds, but I did get an enormous amount of truly helpful suggestions).

I've had the novel finished, ready to go – at least as ready to go as I know how to make it – for a long time. Months.

I spent time on the query letter. In the world of traditional publishing a writer with a completed manuscript tries to land a literary agent. Most of the large publishing houses won't give the time of day to a would-be writer unless his or her manuscript is submitted by an agent.

Agents get paid on commission. Your work sells, they make money. Your work doesn't sell, they don't get paid. So agents aren't in a position to spend a lot time reading over every novel that comes their way, nor are they going to take too many chances. They understand what books work in what genres, what books might appeal to what publishers, and you have to fit your work inside those parameters, as well as write well and tell an engaging story, and that's what the query letter is for.

It's a brief letter that tells the agent what your story is about, what genre it might fit, names two or three recent novels that appeal to the same readership and why, tells the agent how your learned of him or her and why you've chosen to submit your work to them, as well as tell a bit about yourself, the writer.

All in one page. Agents read the query to weed out most of the slush pile of submissions to save time, progressing to actually reading the synopsis, and hopefully the full novel, afterward. The vast majority of submissions do not make it past the query-reading stage.

I have had what I hope is a fairly decent query letter ready to go for a couple of months.

The big hold-up is the synopsis. This document is roughly 500 to 800 words that gives the nuts and bolts of the novel – introduces the characters and who they are, what they're up against, supporting or significant minor characters, then gives a bit of a blow-by-blow of how the story develops and ultimately ends.

Think of the query as the sales pitch, the jacket copy on the back of a book meant to entice readers to buy. The synopsis is the blueprint, a work document tracing the development of the story to its end.

More than anything, this is the one that scares me. My novel is nearly 76,000 words, a tad over 300 pages. The idea of condensing that to two pages, relying on such a short document to communicate the story in a way that makes an agent not only interested, but believing that publishers and readers will want this too, is more than a bit daunting.

I've spent a good bit of the year putting it off – something else is always more important, or I'm too tired, or I'll get it done tomorrow (or next week) and here we are, the end of summer and I'm still sitting on this thing.

No more.

Yesterday I dove in, reading several guides to synopsis writing, listening to podcasts of literary agents talking about the documents. To take a break, I spent time researching specific agents who take this genre – learning what they want, how they want to receive the submission, as much as I can. Some agents want a query, ten sample pages and a synopsis, others just want a few pages and query, still others want several chapters and a query. Eventually, they all want to see the synopsis, so doing the work is inevitable.

Today I've spent time building the basic outline of the synopsis, and this week I'm going to spend time every day and get at least the first clean draft done and ready to review, so I can get this book out. I've already got the next one ready to write, and quite frankly the two after that as well.

I just have to get this synopsis thing done first.

And I will, This week.

Really, I will.