Welcome back to this week in my Lil’ World of Writing. Before I get to the good stuff, here’s a brief observation from the seat of my Southwest luxury liner on last week’s Reno flight. When I wasn’t enjoying the four-course in-flight meal or the latest film splashed across their IMAX movie screen, I noticed the contents of the seatback compartment for the seat in front of me. Southwest had thoughtfully labeled the contents “Literature.” I particularly enjoyed reading this offering. I call it “classic literature,” while the less sophisticated might refer to it as a “barf bag.” To each his or her own, I guess.

And now on to the Story of the Week. Thanks to Chuck Foster for sending me the prompt. Always nice to get a prompt from a fellow writer, and when Chuck’s book comes out, it’ll be a good one. I know—I read an earlier draft. I’ll pass along the info when it hits the world.

The Day Justice Was Truly Blind

“I’m guilty, your honor. Guilty as sin. Lock me up,” Jethro told the packed courtroom.

“Your contrition is noted,” the judge said.

“On the other hand, people did lots worse than me, so maybe I deserve a break. Nah, send me away forever. I’m evil. Not totally evil, but pretty close. I ain’t changing. ‘Course, I could always try…”

The judge pounded his gavel. “Enough! Despite wasting the court’s time, I believe everyone’s potentially redeemable. Your sentence is suspended. You’re free to go.”

Jethro beamed. “Thanks, dude. I’m a changed man!”

He stole the judge’s gavel and skipped away.

“Or not!”

Prompt: Conflicted felon

NOVEL NEWS & NOTES: As mentioned last week, my goal was to write a two-page synopsis of Questionable Characters. I’m happy to report that I was able to condense 300-plus pages of content into an 800-word document. Everybody says writing these synopses ain’t easy, and after struggling with it, I gotta say: Everybody is right. I poured through every one of my story beats and really worked to identify only the absolute essential story pieces to include in the synopsis.

Once I had done that, I worked to craft it into an easy-to-read document written in present tense (unlike the novel which will be written in the third-person, past-tense point of view).

Why did I go through all of this? Is it necessary to have a synopsis? In my case, I wrote it for two reasons. First, I wanted to see if I could do it. It forced me to summarize my proposed next draft so I could see if it all makes sense and flows reasonably well. Second, when I meet with my developmental editor next week, besides giving her a very stripped down outline with bullet point descriptions of each scene, I wanted her to have a readable document that lays out the story. This will be the easiest way for her to be able to advise me when it comes to the strengths and weaknesses of the next draft. In hindsight, I think it was totally worth the effort, and after I meet with her on Monday, I’ll know if it all pays off.

I’ll keep you posted.

As Always, thanks for listening.

Scotty out