Earlier this month, I sent my synopsis to my mentor. Sunday, she sent it back with feedback and I eagerly– spent the rest of the day avoiding it.
I had dived into her comments on my first chapter. I don’t usually hesitate to read feedback.
What was different this time?
The synopsis lay my story out cleanly. In 3 pages, my mentor could see my entire plot. My characters’ motivations. Everything.
My Top Five Fears:
5. Just didn’t connect
The most common and frustrating reaction from agents — the pure defeat of “I just didn’t connect with the story/characters/plot”.
But, as a mentor, she’s going to give some sort of feedback. What if she suggests it go in a completely different direction, that doesn’t work for me or my characters?
What if she insisted I was telling a different story than I had? Or thought a different story would be more compelling to agents?
4. Found it confusing
Sometimes agents don’t connect because they can’t understand what’s going on. What if my mentor didn’t get my story because my writing was confusing? The motivations didn’t make sense and the sequence of events was unclear.
3. Found it too formulaic
Perhaps, she could have thought it was decently written, but something she’s seen a thousand times, with nothing unique for us to build on, to draw the agents and publishers in.
2. Found it too contrived
A critique-partner had already told me back in December that one of my plot points felt a bit too contrived. What if my mentor agreed, and thought MORE of the plot felt forced and contrived?
1. Found a massive plot hole
What if there was some logic my story was missing that broke the whole thing?
That would be a LOT of work. I’m emotionally prepared for edits and polishing, but a MASSIVE restructuring of my story would definitely knock me back on my heels.
With all that weighing on me? I indulged my cold *sniffles hard*, binge-watched tv, and avoided reading her email.
Finally, just after midnight, I gave in and opened the email.
No plot holes, just some clarification needed and slightly better justification for an almost contrived point.
I cleaned up my draft, sent it off, and I talked with her just before I wrote this post. She likes my story, loves my world building, and was pleased that I could justify just about everything in that synopsis.
How do you handle feedback? Is the stress worse than the reality of it?
WRITING TIPS & WRITERLY MUSINGS 
While I completely understand the importance of the synopsis, I still lament it as a torture device designed to bring writers to their knees.
I’m so glad yours didn’t reveal any plot holes.
I think I always fear the synopsis because we have to write them in a generally dry fashion. I love vibrant prose, and that is just so hard to pull off in such a short document. And my fear when writing/submitting a synopsis is that without enough of my wordy-prose, my story falls flat. Of course, this is probably untrue, but regardless I’m grateful the synopsis is only one part of a submission package.
As always, best of luck! I’m rooting for you!
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Exactly! The entire story is exposed, without half of the grace and finesse of our writing — because there isn’t space.
Best of luck with your writing!
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Reblogged this on: https://harmonykent.co.uk/top-5-fears-when-facing-feedback/. … Best of luck with your book 🙂
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Thanks for the reshare. Glad my post connected with you.
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The truth is, every novel has all of those…it’s just what the author wraps around them that matters.
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Yep. 🙂
But knowing which part is holding your story back, or making it get lost in the crowd is pretty key.
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This is too good to keep. Thank you for sharing.
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