We were talking about  what skills are needed for writing synopses after last night's writing session at  Million Monkeys We concluded the main one was the ability to précis, something you're unlikely to have been taught unless you have studied literature or language at school or college.

On the back of this we're now thinking about how to better educate ourselves in the T Party and may run a workshop.  And those of us already with the skill have realised it could be useful in other ways too.

This link looked useful to me, though a synopsis will need to be much shorter.

I really like what Tom said at the end of all this, half joking that novels include all the unnecessary words, scenes and characters.  That's what make them novels, and makes them entertaining.  It's the difference between a story and a synopsis.

Back in March at Eastercon the T Party ran a writers workshop - 16 writers, 5,000 words each, divided into groups of four with 2 T Party members mediating each group.  It was pretty successful, we had some good writers, and some of them have stayed in touch. 

One of the writers in my group was David Wake, who alos wrote a play for the Con.  I really liked his story, a tale of revenge set in medieval Japan, and have recently just finished reading the full ms.  David's a great writer and I really hope this novel finds a home and a good audience. - it deserves to.

Meanwhile - back to the synopsis for Ace Timewaster.