A synopsis distills the key messages, themes, and direction of a story. Have you ever tried to condense the plot of a novel into one page? How about one or two sentences? It's hard. Really hard. The first time I tried to write a one page synopsis for Moonlight and Oranges, my novel manuscript, I almost went crazy. Cut, revise, rewrite, condense. Delete reference to non-vital scene. Include…
*SPOILER ALERT! PLOT AND KEY POINTS IN THIS REVIEW* Cross cultural, forbidden, young love, set against the painful backdrop of World War II and the Japanese internment camps. Henry's family proudly identified themselves as Chinese. Keiko's family proudly identified themselves as Americans. Keiko's English was flawless, learned from birth. Henry still had trouble with many of his words. They strike up a friendship because they're both…
I just finished Suzanne Collin's first book in the Hunger Games Trilogy. It was a compelling, fast-paced read in an intriguing world with chilling rules and political complications that captivate the reader. I found our main character, sixteen-year-old Katniss, to be a strong-willed, tough and likeable character. She is not without her weaknesses. Soon after the story opens, her love for her little sister, Prim, forces…
Looking at the world through another's eyes can be enchanting, funny, disturbing or profound. Christopher Boone's avid attention to detail in this first-person canine murder mystery makes this story both funny and heartwarming. A dog is discovered brutally skewered with a garden rake in the yard of Christopher's next door neighbor. His investigations follow the logic of Christopher's revered Sherlock Holmes and continue dig up more trouble than answers, but he does not…
I'm rooting for the hero. I'm hoping to learn some deep truth, even at the cost of emotional pain for the hero and also for myself, because I tend to read with empathy. I reach the final page and I realize the story has ended without any resolution of the sorrow. The ending has no consolation to offer me. I've just finished reading The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, a…
It's more than just an creating entertaining story, it's building a story that resonates. If this new book by Brian McDonald is anything like his Invisible Ink, you will blown away by the structure he reveals for how to write a story with maximum impact. The best stories are not those that simply dazzle us with a car chase or wow us with clever dialog. There…