It's Weird Coincidence Wednesday!

Maybe that was a bit dramatic; but I've been gone for a long time, so leave me alone.

Something strange arose recently, as I'm moving back into find-an-agent-and-query-them phase: I began to realize an intertwining between the theme of my novel, and my quest to craft a perfect synopsis. I basically needed to take the advice of my book. But I couldn't realize that until I had already taken the advice of my book that I didn't realize.....Let me explain a different way.


This book is about choices. Specifically, and uniquely to the protagonist, it is about the need to make choices, that choices are made maybe even without us realizing it, that the choices of others can sometimes limit our own choices, and consequences will arise from all the choices we make or are foisted upon us -- sometimes we have the privilege of foreseeing some of those consequences, and can make the choice with that foreknowledge; but more often there are consequences we will not foresee. Sometimes this means we make a choice with no knowledge of what it will mean in the future whatsoever, sometimes the consequence we foresee is attended by other unforeseen consequences, and sometimes none of the foreseen consequences occur and instead all unforeseen consequences do. How this works out particularly for the protagonist, and for the other three characters we meet, is thus: they each define themselves a certain way, when we meet them, and they make choices based on that definition. But by the conclusion, they must all learn to define themselves differently in order to make the proper choices.

And, as I worked on writing a synopsis, I realized that I, too, defined my novel a certain way, and made synoptical (makin' up words and definitions now...) choices based on that definition. Which means, sad as it may be for me to admit, with all the effort I put into the novel promoting certain themes, I had gotten to the end and still didn't know what the novel was about. That made for some very bad queries, early on.

But now I think I have a better handle on it. I get to draft a query this week and submit it to me academic adviser, who will then, uh, advise me on how to make it better. And before long, a new batch of agents will be hearing about this book, too. Hopefully one of them will like it. Well, hopefully several of them will like it.

See you Friday.