Slush Pile

I turned myself into a gibbering wreck yesterday researching the submissions process. The Ours was amazed:

"You've written an entire novel but you're freaking out about a synopsis?"

"But I haven't a CLUE how to write one! Don't you SEE, if the synopsis is WRONG the agent or publisher will LOB it in the BIN before they even read a WORD of my novel! It's all a COMPLETE waste of time, I might as well GIVE UP right now -"

Cue The Ours handing me a paper bag to breathe into and giving me a Jolly Good Talking To. (Yes, he's English.)

My mistake, as always, was ignoring the second Golden Rule of writing - One Step At A Time (TM)*. In other words, there's no point worrying about it until you get there, and when you do you'll figure it out. No matter how tight of a corner you've written your characters into, how awkward your premise is to explain, and how your novel is a collection of ten short stories so the request of three sample chapters by agents/publishers makes no sense in your case (guess which one is my problem?) it will all come out in the wash. Hopefully.

But just in case you're subbing at the moment, or if you want a quick peek at what all the big fuss is about, here's a brave and generous article by Daniel Clay where he shares the submission letter and synopsis that helped him escape from the slush pile.


* The first Golden Rule is: There Are No Rules, which comes in helpful when it feels like there's an infinite number of (often conflicting) rules about writing, editing and submitting your novel, and if you don't follow each and every one of them you haven't a hope in hell of getting published so you might as well GIVE UP right now. (Ignore the fact that the second Golden Rule contradicts the first one. That's writing for you.)