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in this lesson I'm going to talk to you
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about the importance of planning your
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novel I'm going to show you how to write
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a synopsis that will be helpful for both
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you and your publisher a synopsis is a
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brief summary of your book so if you
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pick up a book off a Bookshop shelf and
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decide whether or not you want to read
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the book you will often read the back
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and see what it says about the book this
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is just like a really brief outline and
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this will be really helpful for you to
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be able to send to any prospective
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publisher to give them a rough idea of
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what happens in your book but I want to
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talk to you in this lesson about writing
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a synopsis for yourself um which would
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be a much longer one it could be
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anything from a th000 to 5,000 words and
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it should outline your entire novel from
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beginning to end and really help you to
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avoid stumbling blocks in the future you
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will definitely find that there are plot
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holes that will need to be filled
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characters that maybe you haven't
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thought about including and it just
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really helps you to give yourself a
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general outline of what's going to
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happen in your book this synopsis should
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list all of your twists and any spoilers
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because you shouldn't really be sharing
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it with anyone else it's really just for
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yourself and once you've written it you
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don't even need to look at it again I
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never do I tend to write one for myself
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it just really helps me to iron out any
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potential stumbling blocks and then
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after that I put it to one side and I
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just write the book that's in my heart
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very very rarely do I go back and read
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the synopsis in fact it's kind of funny
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because doing the preparation for this
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course I started to look up some of my
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old synopsis IES and they do vary a
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little bit from from my books but you
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know there are completely different
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character names and sometimes the
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settings are different so ultimately
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it's just about preparing before you
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start writing your book you might even
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find that you're the sort of writer who
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will want to plan much more than just a
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5,000-word outline you might like to
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plan every single chapter of your novel
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and that's completely fine you need to
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work out what works best for you I
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personally prefer a looser approach
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because I like the story to take on a
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life of its own and sometimes it will
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take me off in strange directions
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sometimes they'll be in the direction
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that I'll need to pull it back from you
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know when I hit a stumbling block but
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that's all okay too as I've said before
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you're on a journey just as your
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characters are on a journey so you know
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no words are wasted even if you end up
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going back and rewriting a certain scene
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again you just need to find the way that
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works for
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you and you'll probably find that as
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you're writing a longer synopsis you'll
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come up with other ideas so this is
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really again just really helpful for you
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know bringing in weaving in lots of
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those ideas that we looked at in the
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first lesson for inspiration as you
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start developing you might even find
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that your character is develop too and
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you know you might decide that you need
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some different settings so it's all just
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really really helpful before you start
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writing just to get a really good idea
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of the sort of thing that's going to
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happen in your novel and obviously in
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the synopsis you should have those five
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key scenes like a minimum of five really
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cool key scenes that you're just so
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excited to write so list these in detail
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in your synopsis as well it might be
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helpful if I show you the short synopsis
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that is appearing on the back of my next
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book Only Love Can Hurt Like This so
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I'll I'll take you through that
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now if you've got a title fantastic in
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fact you need to come up with a title
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even if it's something that you end up
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changing but when you send your book out
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to people it needs a title so my title
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as I've already explained came from a
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song Only Love Can Hurt Like This and it
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just ties in really nicely with The
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Emotional Love Story and the themes of
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my novel so I've talked to you about the
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importance of those first couple of
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pages that's all about encouraging the
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reader to read on it may be that those
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first two pages don't even feature on
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the back of your book it might be the
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big idea itself is what your publisher
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will end up focusing on when it comes to
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marketing that's the case for my book we
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ended up focusing on this life
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shattering secret a life-changing love
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story and so that is the tagline which
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I'm highlighting now if you can come up
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with a tagline for your novel I think
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that's really really helpful too just a
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way for your publisher to start thinking
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about how they might sell your novel how
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they might try and get readers in my
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case a life shattering secret a
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life-changing love
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story but then if you go back down to
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the first line when Ren realizes her
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fiance is in love with someone else she
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thinks her heart will never recover so
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this ties into the first two pages this
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is my life-changing moment and you'll
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notice that as I go through the synopsis
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it ties in with the structure of my
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story so here in the first line we have
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that life-changing moment that changes
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everything for Ren takes her out of her
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comfort zone and sets the story in
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motion I think this line is really
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important because straight away it gets
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across the fact that this is a love
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story we've introduced the main love
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interest and given him a little bit of a
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backstory and a sense of intrigue for
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the reader so you might want to consider
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doing
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that in the third paragraph again
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referring to the story structure these
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lines are talking about the building of
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the characters and the development of
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the story so Ren hopes that spending the
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summer with her dad and step family on
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their Farm in Indiana will help her to
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heal there amid the cornfields and
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fireflies she enanders cross paths and
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the worlds are turned upside down again
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also this paragraph introduces a sense
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of place so the reader can really know
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what to expect when they pick up this
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novel they're going to be reading about
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a landscape in Indiana with cornfields
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and fireflies and they can really start
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to Picture This romantic sort of setting
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so it's quite nice if you can include
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something to do with your setting in
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your synopsis as well
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and then we get to what forms the basis
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of my big twist which is but Ren doesn't
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know that Anders is harboring a secret
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and if he acts on any feelings he has
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for Ren it will have serious Fallout for
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everyone this gives a hint to the reader
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that something is going to happen which
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hopefully will make them want to read
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the book to find out what the problem is
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and then finally walking away would hurt
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Ren more than she can imagine but
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knowing the truth how could she possibly
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stay so this is the resolution at the
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end of the book the readers will know
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from the fact that that Ren doesn't know
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that Anders is harboring a secret this
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is kind of the All Is Lost moment
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walking away would hurt her more than
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she can possibly imagine it doesn't hint
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towards whether or not there will be a
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happy ending or not in my books readers
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never 100% know it could be a bit
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Bittersweet obviously I'm not going to
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spoil it for you in case you end up
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reading it but you will deceive from the
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synopsis and your own synopsis the one
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that you write just for yourself should
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also reflect the story structure so you
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have that life-changing moment that
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building of the characters and the way
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that they might meet the main love
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interest and the main character some
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sort of climactic moment when the worlds
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are turned upside down again and then
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this All Is Lost moment which may be in
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your case a big twist or a sort of a rug
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pulling moment you know where the
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character just doesn't know what's going
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to happen and then ultimately you can
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write your resolution or you can just
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leave it for your imagination this will
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be one of the key scenes that I'm sure
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you will daydream about so whether or
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not you want to write it down it's up to
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you but the purpose of doing a synopsis
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mainly for yourself is to just outline
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your entire book so you can iron out any
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potential Stu uming blocks before you
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get to them and I do think it's a really
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really helpful thing to do but make it
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as long as you like like I say it could
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be a th000 words it could be 5,000 words
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when I wrote my debut novel Lucy in the
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Sky I got the book deal based on my
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first three chapters and a 3,500 word
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synopsis so that longer synopsis was
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really helpful for my publisher just to
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see that I really did know what I was
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going to end up writing but in most
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cases you will have written your entire
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book before you get a book deal so
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hopefully the synopsis will really help
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you get there
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in the next lesson I'm going to give you
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some final words of advice for when you
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finish your novel
16603
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