I've been putting together the proposal for a trilogy. A proposal generally encompasses three chapters, a synopsis for the first book, and blurbs for the other two. One thing I include, though, is a series arc proposal thing. I don't know what you'd call it. A series bible maybe only not as detailed as that, I don't think. Anyway, today I finally had a series bible or something worth sending to my agent for feedback and I pasted it into an email because it was so short.
Um, okay. It seemed short. I didn't know exactly how long it was since I didn't write it in a word processing program. When I finally pasted it into one this evening, I realized it was five pages. Ouch! Not short and definitely should have been sent as a file attachment. Oops.
In my defense, for me, five pages is short (look how long my books get) and it sure didn't feel even that long as I wrote it. I was having fun, I guess, putting together my characters with the big over-arcing story and with their own individual stories and I just lost track of how much writing I was doing.
The reason why it's fun? It's not a synopsis! Synopses are hell on earth to write and I hate every minute of them, but this arc thing isn't like that. Of course, I might not think it's that much fun if my agent thinks it sucks and I have to start all over again, but for today at least, I feel as if I've accomplished something and I'm happy with what I came up with. Tomorrow is another story and I might not feel that way then, so it's nice to enjoy these moments when I can.
So I knew the story for my first couple, but while I had a second couple and background information on them, they didn't have a story. I finally figured out what their deal is--at least a little bit.
Then there's the third hero. Poor guy. No heroine was coming forward for him at all. It was frustrating, but as I tried to imagine his story, suddenly I started learning things about her with the exception of her name. For that, I put a placeholder in, just something so I could send it and get feedback. The only thing is that I just remembered the last time I was suckered into using a name just as a placeholder. I got stuck with it!
It's true. The hero who'll be in book 1 has a name I don't like. He lulled me into a false sense of security. "Just write the prologue with it," he said. "You can always replace it when you get my real name." Grr. It was his real name. By the time I finished the prologue, I conceded defeat. I was going to have to go with his choice. Sigh.
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see if the name really is a placeholder or if this is her name and this was her way of letting me know. I don't dislike this name, so it's not like the other incident, but still....
Um, okay. It seemed short. I didn't know exactly how long it was since I didn't write it in a word processing program. When I finally pasted it into one this evening, I realized it was five pages. Ouch! Not short and definitely should have been sent as a file attachment. Oops.
In my defense, for me, five pages is short (look how long my books get) and it sure didn't feel even that long as I wrote it. I was having fun, I guess, putting together my characters with the big over-arcing story and with their own individual stories and I just lost track of how much writing I was doing.
The reason why it's fun? It's not a synopsis! Synopses are hell on earth to write and I hate every minute of them, but this arc thing isn't like that. Of course, I might not think it's that much fun if my agent thinks it sucks and I have to start all over again, but for today at least, I feel as if I've accomplished something and I'm happy with what I came up with. Tomorrow is another story and I might not feel that way then, so it's nice to enjoy these moments when I can.
So I knew the story for my first couple, but while I had a second couple and background information on them, they didn't have a story. I finally figured out what their deal is--at least a little bit.
Then there's the third hero. Poor guy. No heroine was coming forward for him at all. It was frustrating, but as I tried to imagine his story, suddenly I started learning things about her with the exception of her name. For that, I put a placeholder in, just something so I could send it and get feedback. The only thing is that I just remembered the last time I was suckered into using a name just as a placeholder. I got stuck with it!
It's true. The hero who'll be in book 1 has a name I don't like. He lulled me into a false sense of security. "Just write the prologue with it," he said. "You can always replace it when you get my real name." Grr. It was his real name. By the time I finished the prologue, I conceded defeat. I was going to have to go with his choice. Sigh.
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see if the name really is a placeholder or if this is her name and this was her way of letting me know. I don't dislike this name, so it's not like the other incident, but still....
