Please, welcome a guest blogger today. Let me introduce Dr. Paper, a renowned psychoanalyst specializing in the treatment of patients with written word issues. His patient, Mr. Sy Nopsis, has bravely agreed to share this rare glimpse into a document in trouble…
Dr. Paper: So, Mr. Nopsis, why are you here today?
Sy (nervously, doubly so now that he realizes he's included two adverbs in his thought process): She's straying.
Dr. Paper: Tell me more.
Sy: She's not coming home like she used to. She's going somewhere else for, you know, inspiration.
Dr. Paper (who has heard it all before, shakes his binding): How do you know this for sure?
Sy: Late nights, strange words showing up, strange ideas we never talked about, she doesn't consult me like she used to… sob… she ... she doesn't need…me…
Dr. Paper: Calm down, Sy. When did you notice this…er, disassociation?
Sy (blotting his blurring ink) : Just recently. Until, say, yesterday, she was always stopping by. You know, checking things, talking to me, adding a word here and there, telling me how much she appreciated me being there for her whenever she needed me...
Dr. Paper: Now, come on, perhaps you're overreacting…
Sy: Oh yeah? Maybe I should contact her editor. Maybe I should tell that nice lady that my … sob… writer is using other words behind her back. Huh?
Dr. Paper: You wouldn't do that!
Sy: I would! I'm desperate. She's straying, I tell you, she's drifting away from me…
Dr. Paper: Perhaps she's just outgrown you, Sy.
Sy: Profound silence.
Dr. Paper: Even in the best of relationships, Sy, people move on, they have evolving needs.
Sy: I know when it happened. It was when she hit second to last chapter and she started having these ideas and then she came to me for direction and I said, "Hero and heroine work together to save the day." That was the moment. She snarled at me. She accused me of being vague. Me! Then she stormed off.
Dr. Paper ( nodding so fast his lines blur): Can you blame her?
Sy: No. She needed specifics and I didn't have them.
Dr. Paper: Don't be too hard on yourself. After all, you can't be more than the sum of what she's invested in you. She just realized the relationship was over before you did.
Sy (sighs): This always happens. There comes a time when I'm not enough.
Dr. Paper: It happens to the best of us.
And thus ends this interview. No longer needed, no longer consulted on every issue, Sy Nopsis cried himself into a pulpy ball at this point. He had outlived his usefulness, and I, Dr. Paper, was forced to move on.
12 comments:
LOL. Thanks for the chuckle, Alice. I really needed it today. ;)
Funny, and so true! Alice, you must be a writer! ;)
I was working on the synopsis I wrote before I started the contemporary, and I had to add elements to it that I'd written in and weren't in the synopsis. In fact the changes changed the ending. Which I still have to write. So it will be interesting to see if the synopsis will morph once again.
All these changes as I write are why I don't understand the need for a synopsis before the story is written when it will change so much by the end.
Bwahahahaaha! I need a Dr. Paper. Snort.
Really good points conveyed with humor. We consult our synopsis up to a point and we're off like a shot. Poor Mr. Nopsis. So taken for granted. Sniff.
Paty, I see what you're saying, and you don't seem to need the synopsis before you start writing your books. As for me, I need some solid footing before I can embark on my story journey. I usually keep most of the beginning, but the middle and end evolve considerably.
Thanks, Alice, for such a fun blog today.
Thanks everyone for putting up with my silliness.
Paty, I think a synopsis grows with the story, but still acts as a guide through treacherous waters. I have learned not to wander too far astray or I will pay for it big time. I try to respect the thought and effort I put into the synopsis to make sure things make sense. If I get too crazy, I risk throwing off the logic and a mystery can't exist, most of the time, without logic. But invariably I meet that point where I say something, "They break into the castle and save the day," which of course does not cover how they break into the dang castle.
And that is the point where Mr. Sy Nopsis and I have issues.
OMG Alice, exactly what I needed today!
Does this mean you are actually ON the second to last chapter??? WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
Alice, I love your "silliness"!
I do lots of plotting up front but don't write a synopsis until after a book is done. However, up to this point in my writing career, I've not sold on just a synopsis and three chapters--I've had a finished manuscript.
Very cute blog!
Wavy, yep, to more chapters to go. Have officially moved on from the "I don't have enough words to make a whole book" to the "Egad! I have too many words for the remaining pages!" stage. Woohoo is right!
And Genene, enjoy what you have while you have it, your time is a'comin, baby.
Way to go Alice! Almost done!
Elisabeth calls a synopsis something else, something snarky that I'm drawing a blank on. But totally appropriate. Suck-opsis? That might be it.
Kendra, that's it.
Just joining in the WOOOOO-HOOOOOO that your book is almost done, Alice!
Ack! Just because the pages are almost there doesn't mean I'm almost finished! At this point, nothing makes sense!
Ack!
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