I had plans for today.

[vg_ford]

Really I did. I was going to clean, and sew, and write, and cook, and pack...

But my cold had plans too. And apparently my cold is more enthusiastic about its plans than I am about mine.

I got the laundry folded in the living room - got three little bags finished for tax court on Saturday, and made an orange bundt cake and a loaf of pumpkin-cranberry bread. Now, I'm going to try and write.

I'm mulling over all the reactions to my new hook (thank you, everyone!!!), and will be working on that as well. But I have a question that I'm going to throw out there - shouldn't your hook tell what the major problem your MC faces is? Or should you leave that for the synopsis?

And yes, I'm asking these questions because, well, I've never had to write a hook or a synopsis or a query letter before. Stop looking at me like that. :P

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Uh, yes. I've always been under the impression that mentioning your MC's problem (the conflict that's getting in the way of reaching her goal) is important.

[vg-ford.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I thought.

[ammepyre.livejournal.com]

I think it's a matter of degrees. You want to show the main conflict in the hook...but tell it in the synopsis. If that make sense?

(I've been avoiding hook and syn writing, so take what I've gathered with a couple grains of salt.)

I've always considered the hook being comparable to what would be the copy blurb readers would see on the back (of a paperback) or inside flap. You're trying to hook the person reading it into committing to read the entire book. The conflict needs to be there so we can see what is at stake for the character(s).

[vg-ford.livejournal.com]

Interesting, and good point, re: hook. I think I'm going to avoid it until the book is done, then revisit this subject.