Synopsis Complete – The Climb #787

Monday 19^th April 2021

I got the synopsis done today. This was a bit of a struggle as I’m doubting myself.

I felt I was missing some subplots. The act of writing up the synopsis from my notes highlighted a few areas that were weak. So as part of that work, I ended up doing a bit of subplot work.

I’m still convinced that as part of the first draft a lot of those sub plots will come to the surface, and strangely I don’t want to be too fixed on them. This story hasn’t had the benefit of allowing the characters to marinade in my brain for years and as such, I’ll be discovering the characters as I write.

The synopsis is done but feels messy. That’s fine. I can fix messy things. It was a struggle to get it down on the page but I filled in the gaps and now all I need to do is make it a little tidier. First stage of that is ensuring I don’t mix up two characters names.

I’ve made a start on editing the pre-writing. There’s a lot I’m flip-flopping over. Chief among these concerns are the tense for the main storyline and the initial scene with what I’m calling the bro-job.

The tense is an easy quandary. The book works in the past tense and so there is no need to change it. However, as part of a larger tapestry of work, it might make sense that the tapestry shares the same tense. It’ll make them easier to sew together later.

The Brojob is difficult. I’m currently leaning towards getting rid of it. It’s meant to be a bit cringey but it sets the tone for the novel. I just worry that it’s too much too soon. I also worry, reading it back tonight that I just don’t convey that scene the way my head imagines it. In short, it’s a difficult scene with so many layers of character and theme that it’s tricky to write.

I do feel that I’m getting close to getting this pre-writing done though. Whilst I haven’t felt the progress, only focused on the grind for the day, it is good to look up and see that the project I’ve been beavering away on is nearly complete.