Synopsis

The plural of synopsis is "synopses". Sorry...my friends call me the Grammar Slut...

I can only tell you as much about my story as it has told me! I am not of the mind that we writers actually create a whole story. I think we create a setting and a few characters, but from that point on it has a life all its own! God I LOVE writing! ;u)

Here ya go...

Casey is an alcoholic. He meets a girl named Marie strictly by chance. They (of course) fall in love and marry. Marie passes suddenly in the night, very soon after they exchange vows. The rest of the story is pretty much Casey learning to cope and deal with his ever increasing alcohol problem.

There's going to be more to it than that, but that's all I have outlined so far. ...and YES it is KILLING me not to start the actual writing!! I just hope this excitment lasts through to November 30 at 11:59PM!

-wordrebel
www.wordrebel.com

Always viewable at www.wordrebel.com

Good thread, Meredith! Thanks--I need that extra nudge.

Twilight IV: The Witch of Andvarra
Giovanna Lee is now 14 years old. When she was 11, she found a magic gem that transported her at twilight to a different world. There are many worlds of Twilight and not all of them are safe. With her companion Terry, a dog from a world where dogs can talk, Giovanna has had many adventures, but none as difficult and as treacherous as the one she finds herself. She and her friend, fellow Twilight traveler Cally Winston, are attacked by shadowy figures as they are transiting back home. They find themselves trapped on a strange new world, one that resists even the magic of their Twilight Gems. And Giovanna's Gem has been stolen!

In the world of Gim Falas, the members of the Fellowship of the Gem are fighting a losing war against the Shadows and other evil entities as their numbers dwindle. Giovanna and Cally find themselves in the middle of this conflict; and, worse, the dangerous Witch of Andvarra, herself the daughter of a Twilight Gem wielder, seeks both Giovanna's stolen Gem (held by the Shadows) and Cally's remaining Gem.

Hm... that's two paragraphs... and I haven't worked out all of the details (there are several major characters not mentioned above).

--Tim

Tim Yao aka NewMexicoKid
co-ML, Illinois::Naperville
Fog Readability Analysis
Writing resources

Danny is 13 years old and is just graduating eighth grade in the summer of 1976. He's smart, occasionally funny, and a total outcast among the kids he knows. His father's best army buddy is coming up to visit for the Bicentennial with his kids -- including his 13-year-old daughter. Can Danny learn how to not be a nerd ('70s terminology) around her, or is he doomed to go years until his first kiss?

I'll give this posting a try just to how this looks in the printed word.

Jo started early on to accept the painful side of life. At eight she witnessed a double murder, at fifteen her baby boy born to out of wedlock was adopted by strangers, at twenty three she becomes involved with a man high in a domestic terrorist organization. Now, after twenty years, that man believes Jo has the key that will put him in prison or on death row. After twenty years of bad road Jo finds herself in a Dead Heat between the law and the lawless with no family and just one friend.
She knows too much, her new friend doesn't know enough. . .and time is running out.

Thanks for fun little exercise. (:
Sheeva

I feel like I still have a lot of blanks to fill in (one character is nameless and another lacks personality) but here's the skeleton of what I'm trying to put together:

Steven Parker is falling quickly for Allyson Dale, a young worker at the local comic book shop. Steven's never read comic books or been at all into what he deems the "geek culture" of fantasy novels and role playing games, but he feigns interest in an attempt to impress Allyson. Her friends see right through him, but Allyson is charmed by Steven and invites him to a gaming session where she unveils an old and rare gaming set called The Isles of Aleanya. Little does Steven know, there is magic in the ancient game and once he agrees to play, the group is transported into the fantasy realm - taking on the traits and abilities of characters they created. Steven is bewildered by the world of imagination turned real but he must win over Allyson's friends and work together with them because only by completing their quest can they hope to return home.

The Watchtower Lies is a story that takes place in a Victorian-esque city whose skyline is dominated by a giant black tower. The Watchtower rises from the center of the city, and has a unique way of warning its citizens of approaching danger--it wails. Typically, criminals that approach are told to leave or be shot by the city's vigilant armed forces. But when a young boy, alone and weather-worn, approaches amidst the wailing of the tower, the the tower wails and the guards are left perplexed with no idea what course of action to take.

They go to get the boy blessed by the monk-like order that guards the tower and the wailing ceases. The apparent innocence of the boy fuels the public's questions about how reliable the tower is. In the midst of the uncertainty a woman tries to convince others that the boy is not innocent at all. When peaceful attempts don't work, she takes her actions one step further. Who is innocent and who is guilty?

--

There's a lot of uncertainty and holes up there, and this idea really needs a lot of work before November 1st. :/

2003: Psion (16,613 words)
2004: The Burning Gears (27,461 words)
2005: Wanderer (2,374 words)
2006: Broken Worlds (52,866 words) and The Fourteenth Man (22,187 words)
2007: A Bit of Human Driftwood

Here is a synopsis of my book:

Patricia

"The Sound of Murder"

Associate Professor of Psychology Pamela Barnes never envisioned herself a detective. But when she finds her department’s star professor and top grant producer Charlotte Clark strangled to death with headphone cords in the department’s state-of-the-art experimental computer lab, Pamela feels compelled to track down the killer. Who could it be? The list is long, because, although Charlotte is nationally famous, she is despised by all her colleagues for her nastiness and her over-bearing manner. Pamela feels torn, because she did not like Charlotte any better than her colleagues did, but driven to find the murderer because she was the one who found Charlotte’s body. When Pamela discovers that the actual sounds of Charlotte’s strangulation have been recorded on a spectrogram on the lab’s Master Control panel, she makes a copy of it and begins a surreptitious attempt to analyze the sounds she hears. As she listens to Charlotte’s agonizing choking sounds, she also detects a strange double clicking noise—a noise that occurs after Charlotte’s death gasps have ceased. Could these clicking sounds be a clue to the killer? As Pamela’s questioning of and curiosity about various faculty members intensifies, she worries that she may inadvertently alert the killer to her suspicions. As she fears, Pamela’s insistent questioning leads her to an unexpected confrontation with the killer.

Okay, finally:

Devil's Advocate
...it's the best job in the world, as long as you don't read between the lines...

Olivia Bennett lives with the weight of the world on her shoulders. As a child, she took on the task of sheltering her younger sister from their parents, and then, from the horrors of the foster system. As an adult, she's still protecting Abby--only this time, the enemy is far more sinister--terminal cancer. When the job of a lifetime comes knocking at her door, Olivia only sees the opportunity as a way to pay for her sister's escalating medical costs. But the job isn't what it seems....

How do you say no when the devil demands his due?

Okay, so that's the messy looking query, here's the down and dirty synopsis:
Olivia is offered an amazing insurance job out of the blue, just as her sister's medical bills threaten bankruptcy. She gladly accepts, keeping her head down until one day she realizes that whenever her insurance accounts leave the company, terrible things happen to the people involved--their buildings burn down, they have terrible car accidents, etc. She starts looking into it and begins to suspect that her employer is not exactly on the up-and-up. In fact, after meeting a strange man who knows everything about her, she begins to realize that the company she works for is owned and operated by the devil. She's got a choice: save the lives of innocent people--or stay, and perhaps save her sister's life. With the help of a coworker, and an ally from "below", Olivia struggles to make the right decisions.

ugh.

"I'm getting out of this business." "And go into what?" "Anything. Insurance underwriting, like Garland was supposed to be doing. Or I’ll emigrate. Yes" he nodded. "I’ll go to Mars." Rick Deckard, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Philip K. Dick).

A group from Chicago, who met via Craigslist, is preparing to perform an improv show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in a small venue. While the success of the performance isn't the main motivation for the professional improv actors, Andy and Steve, a huge failure would hurt their careers. When there is an opportunity for the group to perform at a much better venue, they accept even though the group isn't ready.

Andy and Steve used Craigslist to get together a group that would cover the costs of the Fringe Festival since they usually lose money when they attend. Jon and Ivy joined for an unusual honeymoon trip, then canceled the wedding but both went on the trip anyway. Angela knows her parents have a secret and hopes to find out what it is during this trip. Clark is the only member from Scotland. He resents the others for being able to take a three week expensive trip since he has to work two jobs just to be able to afford being in Edinburgh during the festival. The entire book occurs in 24 hours and is told from multiple POVs.

Mindbleed:

So, a college undergrad, a cosmonaut and a foreign diplomat walk into a dystopian regime. The regime is dystopian (in America!) because there was contact with aliens, and the country turned itself into a right wing repressive autocracy in response. As happens. The college student wants to get by under the radar and live her private life without being crushed like an insect by the regime's social monitoring. The cosmonaut wants to help militarize and fortify space in case the aliens return. The diplomat, from a non-dystopian but under-powered Ireland, wants to get military assistance from the dystopian U.S. Along the way, she gets caught up in upper level intrigue within the regime. The other two characters are impacted by the intrigue as well, but they have less say about it because they're low level pawns living in a dystopia. Sucks to be them.

Novena for a Lost Soul

Jo Saudaskas, a woman with a fairly empty life -- sullen husband, domineering mother-in-law, and annoying, bossy friends. She finds herself at the center of a news story when she discovers the body of a child on the far reaches of her rural home. Her need for acknowlegement is a heady drug, and she works to keep the story in the news, haranguing the investigating officer, working a sympathetic TV reporter and befriending an ultra-religious woman who maintains a prayer vigil for nine consecutive Fridays for the soul of the child. During these nine weeks, the novice television reporter who breaks the story needs another shot to prove herself to the producer feeds Jo's drive for attention -- researching the story tenaciously that, in the end, uncovers a secret that shakes Jo's world to the core. She discovers the identity of the dead girl's mother, and must decide between her own needs and those of the mother.

Any idiot can write a book.

Oh boy. Be prepared for something that sounds absolutely and horrifically cliche.

Valentine Covington, a private eye who just so happens to also be a rather old vampire, and his partner, Dahlia Vanderbilt, find themselves hot on the trail of a serial kidnapper who seems to have a penchant for little brown-eyed girls. However, as their seemingly endless search begins to take them in circles and the trail goes cold, the two detectives begin to realize just how much they've overlooked, and how vulnerable they've become. So their focus shifts off of the missing girls, and instead onto the plot against their lives.

...Wow. That sounds even worse than I expected it to. XD

----------------

I invoke the Zokutou Clause!

If this year goes like last year, I'll have no clear idea what my novel is really about until around November 20 or 21.

But I do know this so far:

It will be the third book in my time-traveling trilogy (watch out -- alliteration in action!) Ruthie McDonald Terwilliger, accidental possessor of a device that allows her to travel in time, will have her final confrontation with her nemesis Sarah. History will get tangled beyond all recognition, and Ruthie and her friends will have to untangle it, more or less. And Ruthie will learn what it's like to have a daughter born with the innate ability to travel in time without the need of any device.

Suburban Trash

Sean Van Hal* is a 24-year-old college graduate stranded in the monotony of working a low-level clerical job and living in DuPage County. Over the course of a year, Sean tries to sort out his problems and figure out what he wants to do with his life while battling a love/hate attitude about where he grew up and himself. Along the way, he travels around the country (and to England), imbibes in too much alcohol, deals with confusing romantic and sexual relationships, goes to a lot of White Sox games and concerts, indulges in recreational drug use and associates with a colorful cast of characters that includes hot nerd girls, plain old nerds, small-time drug dealers, spoiled rich kids, slackers, drop outs and world travelers. Maybe DuPage County isn't as boring as previously indicated.

* that's me. But it's just a pen name and this novel is an only slightly fictionalized version of my own life as well as written in the first person, so I'm using my creative license.