And here I was so happy that the editing part was completely done, and I was almost halfway done with creating the right cover design, when suddenly someone reminded me of one tiny fact that I have completely forgotten about: the book's synopsis.
And my heart sank.
Not because it is an impossible task, but because summarizing your novel to one or two paragraphs has got to be the hardest part of writing a novel, period. You have to sell the novel to the potential reader, convey just about everything, or at the very least, the most crucial aspects of the story without giving any surprises away! Which sometimes means omitting amazing details that would for sure drive people to buy/read the book, but you can't give those details away because they serve a larger story and their impact needs to be discover while reading the book, not on a summary.
So I have stop all work on the cover design, to concentrate on the synopsis. I must have written about 10 different versions of the synopsis for VIOLET HILL, until I landed on the version I ended up using for the official release. But VIOLET HILL, when compare to book #2, was a piece of cake. VIOLET HILL might have been a bit difficult to summarized, but the story itself is very straightforward compare to the new novel. The new one is perhaps the most complex story I've ever dreamed up; it is a huge, sprawling epic from which book #2 is only a fraction of.
I already feel a headache coming on......
But fear not, I'm known for putting myself in this type of "against the wall" situations and finding my way out. I am a higly intelligent, confident, practical, resourceful being, and though it may take a dozen drafts, I will end up with the perfect synopsis for it. Which I will then post here, along with the official reveal of the novel's title.
stay tuned.....
Showing posts with label futuristic worlds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label futuristic worlds. Show all posts
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
On: THE DREAM OF PERPETUAL MOTION by Dexter Palmer
Done. It took me long enough, but I can't believe I'm now done and can start reading other books, which is always a good thing. I'm making a personal vow not to ever take such a long time with a book regardless of how I feel while reading it.
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THE DREAM OF PERPETUAL MOTION has a lot going on for it. The fantastical, steampunk world created by Dexter Palmer is quite striking, the writing is extremely funny, at times curiously quirky, sentimental early on, with a huge magical child eye on its first half, and peppered through out, there's are starlingly dark scenes, that though violent, are balance by a sense of humor to keep them from turning you off from its gore.
Though the story remains compelling, it loses steam after the halfway point, mostly because its main character, Harold Winslow, becomes dour with adulthood (he's recounting his life, and from childhood up to his early twenties his life is most absorbing) and he becomes borderline abstract, almost secondary to all the things happening around him, and not as likable, only because as life dulls him, he becomes a cypher with almost no personality, and I feel like we in turn, lose the sould of the story in the process. Also, the books starts dragging some, to the point that it becomes hard to continued reading, with things happening, it seems, just to make the story longer but not advancing it in any shape or form.
When the story reaches its climax, it feels as though Harold doesn't even want to be there, he's just doing it so that it all ends as it should; if he was an actor in a movie, this would be the equivalent of him phone it in. Which makes me sad, because I really enjoy most of the book, and as a steampunk enthusiast, I love the world Dexter created for it, and how cool it all was at the beginning and how intriguing everything was from the point of view of Harold the kid, Harold the teenager, Harold the young adult, until Harold the 30 year old, left us a bit cold.
I'm sure others will find the book riveting from beginning to end, I just wished Dexter Palmer would have not let Harold become more or less a device to tight everything together without giving him a choice. B-
THE DREAM OF PERPETUAL MOTION has a lot going on for it. The fantastical, steampunk world created by Dexter Palmer is quite striking, the writing is extremely funny, at times curiously quirky, sentimental early on, with a huge magical child eye on its first half, and peppered through out, there's are starlingly dark scenes, that though violent, are balance by a sense of humor to keep them from turning you off from its gore.
Though the story remains compelling, it loses steam after the halfway point, mostly because its main character, Harold Winslow, becomes dour with adulthood (he's recounting his life, and from childhood up to his early twenties his life is most absorbing) and he becomes borderline abstract, almost secondary to all the things happening around him, and not as likable, only because as life dulls him, he becomes a cypher with almost no personality, and I feel like we in turn, lose the sould of the story in the process. Also, the books starts dragging some, to the point that it becomes hard to continued reading, with things happening, it seems, just to make the story longer but not advancing it in any shape or form.
When the story reaches its climax, it feels as though Harold doesn't even want to be there, he's just doing it so that it all ends as it should; if he was an actor in a movie, this would be the equivalent of him phone it in. Which makes me sad, because I really enjoy most of the book, and as a steampunk enthusiast, I love the world Dexter created for it, and how cool it all was at the beginning and how intriguing everything was from the point of view of Harold the kid, Harold the teenager, Harold the young adult, until Harold the 30 year old, left us a bit cold.
I'm sure others will find the book riveting from beginning to end, I just wished Dexter Palmer would have not let Harold become more or less a device to tight everything together without giving him a choice. B-
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