-Jennifer
 

Borrowing heavily from The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, Robert Dugoni came up with this outline for the Seak - Advanced Legal Fiction Writing seminar:

1)Beginning:

• Ordinary World
• Call to Adventure
• Refusal of the call/ hesitation to accept the task
• Meeting with mentor
• crossing over the threshold - hero is committed to the adventure
  

2) Middle

• Friends, tests and allies
• approaching the innermost cave - the challenge the hero must face to suceed
• the inner most cave (Story Climax)
  

3) The end

• Seizing the reward
• Return with the reward
• the Resurrection
• the reward - denouement
  

If you can find and identify those elements in your story, than you've done your synopsis.

I really highly recommend the seminar for all genre writers. It was excellent.

 

* Ordinary World
* Call to Adventure
* Refusal of the call/ hesitation to accept the task
* Meeting with mentor
* crossing over the threshold - hero is committed to the adventure

This fits an awful lot of fantasies, but not all of them. Most particularly mine. Take my friend's story for example, imagine a character in an abnormal world with memory problems trying to figure things out faster than people keep trying to kill him, that doesn't seem to fit the bill here. For example there is no mentor. Is there more of a generic formula that fits every story, more universally--I mean?

 

Normally it should cover:

1. Characters – identities, goals, motivations and conflicts of the characters central to the plot.

2. Setting – a brief description

3. Plot – the main of your story -- usually not the subplots

4. Sequence of events – how the story progresses

5. Theme – what's the point of this novel?

What most experts seem to advise is to select the most important elements of each chapter and present them in the order that they make sense. Give your reader directions to make their way through your story.

You don't have to present things in the order they are in the novel itself. You want the synopsis to flow well.

It has to be written in present tense, whatever the tense of the novel.

I'd rather have my fingernails ripped out than write one, but it's one of those chores all novel authors have to learn to do.

 

quote:

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2. Setting – a brief description

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I usually describe the setting of my WiP as, "a fantasy version of Early Modern (Renaissance) Italy." Would that be acceptable in a synopsis? Or would I want to describe it in terms that didn't refer to our real world?
 

Bob Dugoni used two of his books as examples:

(1) Jury Master - a legal thriller
(2) The Cyanide Canary - a true story.

The advice to start a story just before the MC's life changes follows this outline - it shows the ordinary world.

In Denzel Washington's movie, Crimson Tide, the ordinary world is shown as the credits roll - he walks into the house, there is a birthday party going, he kisses his daugther on the top of her head.

The call to action -the phone rings and he's needed back on the boat.

Because this is action adventure movie - there is no hesitation.

Crossing the threshhold - when he choses to defy Gene Hackman.

In all stories the MC has to cross the threshold or there is no story.

Zero - your MC's ordinary world seems to be the "abnormal world" and his memory problems.

His call to action is when someone tries to kill him. There probably is no "refusal" because you are an action type story.

He probably does meet with someone/thing (in Pelican Briefs, it's the Library of Congress) who help him obtain the tools he needs to figure out what is happening.

The MC crosses the threshold when he decides to investigate why people want him dead.

Next batter, please.

I can also use another one of the examples we talked about in the seminar or of your choosing up as another example and I'll post Falcon's on Monday.

Do you want: Jaws, Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, BraveHeart, Jury Master, Cyanide Canary, Moby Dick, or somthing completely different?

lehollis the setting description you have probably does work but you might want to indicate what makes it "a fantasy version."

It's a very complicated story, but I won't say it doesn't fit the model for sure. You'll have to read it if/when it's ever published. And then you can show me what I'm not seeing clearly.

Also, I'm still interested in seeing your example, when you finish it.
 

quote:

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lehollis the setting description you have probably does work but you might want to indicate what makes it "a fantasy version."

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Ah, good point. Thank you.
 

Also, I don't understand your "The End" points. What do you mean by "the Resurrection" and such? Maybe it'll make more sense when you show how Falcon fits these points.

[This message has been edited by DebbieKW (edited October 12, 2007).]
 

Don't comment on the text here - since I'll put this on F&F Novels too - but here's how the outline works out for Falcon:

Ordinary World

Barred from assuming the throne of Tarishah until she bears an heir, Princess Kauril escapes her power-hungry suitors by taking up residence in Fayette. Preferring to leave her royal life behind Kauril becomes Falcon, the spy for Queen Sabryna of Fayette leaving Tarishah, in effect, a province of Fayette.

Call to Adventure

Years later, Sabryna, now mortally ill, demands that Falcon resume her duties as the Princess.

refusal of the call

Mordent, a sorcerer and heir to a dying kingdom, coerces Fayette's King Jurriaan to delegate Tarishah’s governance to him in Kauril’s absence. Falcon endeavors to persuade Jurriaan to rule Tarishah rather than allowing Mordent to do so.

Crossing the threshold
Her desire to remain Falcon is threatened when Jurriaan requests the Princess’s guidance on a request to allow Mordent’s former kingdom to establish a farming settlement in Tarishah.

Approaching the innermost cave - Where the hero must go to fulfill her quest - must face this challenge to suceed

Using an elaborate ruse to protect the “Falcon” identity, she agrees to a limited encampment.

Story climax - innermost cave - bleakest moment - hero faced with greatest fear/real prospect of death/ forces of darkness/ must appear to have died or lost

Her partial concession is not enough for Mordent. He confronts her about being the Princess and casts a spell to force her to marry him. Falcon’s innate magic prevents his magic from working. They fight and she is wounded.

Seizing the reward - event that brings into conflict all the forces that have been set up - the place where something has to give

Falcon flees Fayette and learns that there is a greater threat to Tarishah. Mordent’s soldiers are looting Tarishah under the guise of authorized taxes.

Road Back - bad guys stage a last stand - think "Don't check to see if he's dead - shoot him AGAIN!

Falcon steals an original edict which implicates Mordent in the conspiracy. She returns to Fayette and charges him with treason. Jurriaan succumbs to Mordent’s spell and acquits him.

Resurrection - moment when the hero's hopes/dreams/goals seems lost but rise again

Falcon realizes that she must be both Falcon and the Princess to bring Mordent to justice. The question is not who she is but the kind of person she will be.

Wrap up - Denouement

Despite her inability to resume the throne, she accepts her responsibility to Tarishah which in return accepts her leadership.

- Does that help?

quote:

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Despite her inability to resume the throne, she accepts her responsibility to Tarishah which in return accepts her leadership.

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I must admit I find your example pretty dry. While writing a synopsis that doesn't read like choking down uncooked oatmeal is difficult, it does help in selling a novel.

[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited October 19, 2007).]