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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

S is for Summarize

I have posted on this subject once before. I was reaching then, and I am reaching now.
 At that time I was struggling with my synopsis for Courtly Scandals in order to get it to RWA's Golden Heart in time (btw, today is 3/18 and I will not know if I am an elated finalist or a dejected looser failure sucktastic unpublishable wannabe  non-finalist until 3/25).  I was having trouble highlighting the romance vs. the mystery -- I was frustrated and felt defeated, so I turned to my good friend Bill Gates for advice.

Word's Auto Summarize can be found under Tools. It takes the most used phrases and words and compiles them into a document summary based on your specifications.  At this point in time I am working on chapter 12 of my W.I.P. Courtly Abandon (about 36k words).  My 100 word summary today is as follows:

“Good God, Jane!  Jane sighed. Jane stated blandly. “Mistress Jane!”
Jane groaned inwardly. “Master Percy.”
“Jane.” Jane offered.
“Jane! Oh, Jane! “Come now, Jane.” Jane was astounded. Jane sighed. Jane was stunned. “Mistress Jane!”
“Jane! Jane interrupted. “Percy?” Jane was silent. Jane blinked. “Oh, Jane.” Jane felt sick. Jane nodded. Jane grimaced. “Master Percy!” “Jane?”
Jane.”
“Percy…”
Jane shook her head. Jane laughed. Percy understood Jane’s bereft look. Jane rolled her eyes. Percy smiled. Jane sighed. Jane spat. “Jane, are you well?” Jane whispered her words.
Jane sighed. “Master Percy?” “Jane.” “Percy?” Jane shook her head.


Oddly, this time Auto Summarize has been useful.  It tells me my book is more about Jane than Percy.  I have learned, the hard way, that the hot guy needs almost equal face time because the reader has to fall in love with him.  The good news is it's not too late to fix it.

Watch out Percy! You're screen time just went up and you have seduce my demographic.  I think you have it in you; after all you look like Hugh Dancy, speak like a poet, love Jane for who she is and not just for her breasts, and let your inner passionate beast run wild when the time is right.


2 comments:

Mojo said...

Percy sounds like quite a guy already - Jane has spectacular breasts...

I thought summarizing was a specific sort of weatherizing until I read this blog. Interesting to see what auto-summarize does to a work, too. You're full of clever ideas like that.

As usual, a pleasure to read you.

Erin Kane Spock said...

Jane's breasts are pretty fabulous. And, if Percy's sensitive enough to look up to her face, then he's a heckuva man. :)

I look forward to catching up on your blog now that I have a little time.

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