All I've been able to get out so far that sounds relatively good - albeit cliche' - is the line "Every person has their breaking point." Beyond that nothing. If there's one area of writing, that one thing I simply can not do, it's write a decent summary paragraph that is effective so I'm in need of a little assistance here. Title: Alesia Plot: Allison (birth name, legally changed name to Alesia) Connor is an ER physician in Los Angeles, CA with a substance abuse problem. As of the start, she is content with her addictions and doesn't see them as impacting her life - what little she sees left in it, anyway. The narrative opens with Alli sitting in a parking lot - alone - at night, drinking. She's planning to bite the bullet and finally end what she sees as a life of misery once and for all. After writing a note for her family/friends, she begins to drive and deliberately crashes her car in an attempt to kill herself - only things don't go as planned. Rather than waking up in heaven as she expects, she wakes up in the ICU after having been in a coma for two weeks. Of course, during the "accident" investigation her would be suicide note is discovered along with the empty liquor bottles and a small quantity of drugs. As a result her medical license is immediately suspended and she is placed into an inpatient mental health facility/drug rehabilitation program for 90-days (or longer depending on various factors.) The remainder of the novel covers two major aspects of her life: 1.) What drove her to drug use and attempted suicide. This comes out during therapy sessions and various conversations as well as narrative story. 2.) Where will she go from here? Can she get over the depression/pain that's been plaguing her since childhood? During her stay, Alli is placed with a roommate, Amy Ramierez who is an ex-US Marine with severe demons of her own. What starts out as a tentative friendship soon blossoms into something more, leading them to discover that having each other no matter what is really all they need to be happy and begin moving on. (Warning, pseudo-sappy romance content.) The narrative ends with their release and a subsequent ending which will open the door to part two of this four part series. Any suggestions on how to edit what I have here into something a bit more useful?
i see a slew of things needing a fix, alesia... starting with 'every person has their breaking point' which would read much better with 'a' instead of 'their'... but it's too much of a hassle for me to notate a piece of this length here, so if you want to send it to me, i'll be happy to do an edit complete with explanations for the changes/deletions/additions... but, first things first... what is the purpose of this 'summary'?... is it meant to be a synopsis?... is it for a self-published e-book, or will you be querying paying e-publishers with it? love and hugs, maia maia3maia@hotmail.com
Synopsis/summary for a self-publish on Amazon Kindle with 3-5 copies printed in paperback for friends and family that have said they want it in that format.
what you write for the e-book listing isn't exactly what you need to put on the back cover of the p/b... for amazon, you can have an actual summary, while for the p/b you'll only have room for a blurb, which will have to be much shorter and is generally worded a bit differently...
