Sunday, June 22, 2008

Synopsis

So just in case any of you were curious about the project I was working on so furiously this past week, here's the rough synopsis I made about half-way through. I found that making up a brief synopsis of what I was working on helped me to keep focused.


Fifteen-year-old Belle is perfectly normal: normal school, normal family, normal friends. Her English teacher, Ms. Wendt, is not. Ms. Wendt is a witch. Even stranger than the fact that Ms. Wendt supplements her lessons with magic is the fact that her classroom is located behind an electric blue door that erases her students' memories of magic when they leave. Every day, Belle's class leaves through the door and forgets everything about Ms. Wendt being a witch...until they re-enter the class the next day. As Belle and her friends Robert and Esperanza try to find ways to thwart the door and remember their magical teacher outside of class, they discover that there's something much bigger going on. Ms. Wendt is a prisoner of her own classroom, trapped behind the electric blue door that ensures no one will remember her or help her escape. Belle's new science teacher hints that there may be a way save Ms. Wendt, but as Belle and her friends learn about alchemy, they begin to question whether their new teacher wants to save Ms. Wendt or use her magic for his own purposes. Either way, the first step for Belle to save her teacher is to remember her.

Also, Nathan Bransford had a great post recently about describing plot.

So basically, plot is a premise plus a major complication that tests the protagonist. It's what opens the door plus what's keeping the door from being closed.
He also has great examples of premise vs. plot...something that I think might help out with anyone working on making a pitch...

3 comments:

PJ Hoover said...

Oooh, it sounds great. Is it called The Amnesia Door?

Keri Mikulski said...

Good stuff! ;)

Unknown said...

Thanks! And yup, working title now is The Amnesia Door! :)