100,000 Book Challenge for Literacy!

Love books? Love a challenge? Love a good cause? Have I got a cause for you! Harlequin Enterprises is teaming with The National Center for Family Literacy to donate up to 100,000 books!

The rules are easy. Just sign up for a community ID (it's free!) at eHarlequin.com and start blogging about the books you read. For those of you who'd rather listen to a book than strain your eyes (or for those who need it), even e-books and books on tape/CD/DVD count. Every book you blog about will count toward the community total. Our aim is 100,000 books this year, since we completely blew away our goal of 10,000 books last year! Every book blogged will equal one book that Harlequin Enterprises will donate to NCFL!

When you blog about a book, don't think of it like one of those old book reports from school. You don't have to do a blow-by-blow description of the plot. Just say a few things you liked about it, mention the names of the main characters, and why you recommend (or don't recommend!) the book. The idea is to make people want to read the book, so please don't give away the ending!

One more thing: since this is promoted by Harlequin Enterprises, they ask that at least 50% of the books you read and blog be one of their lines. However, they have plenty of lines from which to choose, including Worldwide Mysteries, for those of you who wouldn't be caught dead reading a romance!

So, please, come join us, and help stamp out illiteracy! Remember, this is a free challenge. Thanks!

Rewriting the Synopsis

Did you ever hear the one about "the best-laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley?" (Robert Burns, and you'll notice the famous title lifted from the line of his poem.)

Version Two of the synopsis was better received by my critique partner than Version One, but she still had plenty of suggestions to make it, and the novel, better. So, it's off to rewrite land to start over.

First things first. My cp advised me to start with a character sketch of the heroine, leaving out nothing important. I had left vital information about her until later in the synopsis, which affected the flow of timing and pacing. By putting everything pertinent about her into the first paragraph, I eliminate the need to mention things later, and the reader (editor) will know that the story is character-driven.

After the heroine, describe the Hero. (Unless you're writing something other than romance...male oriented action/adventure may not even have a heroine.) Everything that makes him who he is should be put on paper right at the beginning.

Then get into the story. Make sure the pacing is right. I had the Hero & Heroine admitting they loved each other on page three of the synopsis, which looks like it's halfway through the book, even though it doesn't happen until the last chapter! My cp's advice was to make it clear that it happens near the end, so that the editor won't think things are going too smoothly for the protagonists.

In addition, my cp had some wonderful suggestions for the story itself. We brainstormed a bit, and now I need to do some rewriting on the novel as well. All in all, it shouldn't take too long to fix, and it will improve the book. That, hopefully, will also improve its chances of selling!

In conclusion: if you're working on a synopsis, make sure you get all the important character information in first, and then leap into the storyline. Make sure you really care about your characters. If you don't care about them, no one else will!

Happy writing!

NaNoWriMo Starts Tomorrow

NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, starts November 1st. I've never done NaNo before, although I did FAWM (February Album Writing Month) this year for the first time. Since I need to write an album really fast this year for the Harlequin American Romance editor pitch challenge, I took the plunge. At first, I was worried that I'd already written 500 words on the story I intend to write. Then I read what I'd written. Yecccchhhh! Not a problem. I'll scrap that, keep the original idea, and start over from scratch! Actually, it wasn't bad, but it was a first effort, and it shows. The characters and emotions are good. I don't need some of the wording and phrases I had before.

So, it's off to the drawing board tomorrow to create this book from scratch! Look out November. By the grace of God, here I come!