Maybe it's because I used to be, and Liese still is, on display? I got used to using my life for examples of what not to do -- though, that could be a function of personality as much as anything.

To be honest about a character seems more difficult. I haven't figured out why yet.

Maybe it's subconsciously the issue of choice. Saying "here's me, it's what am I" is a done deal (and not a bad one), but maybe choosing to write those parts into a character forces you to look at things you wish you could change in yourself but haven't?

Uh, amateur psychologist, out.

Although you can't get much more on display than "Hi. What's wrong with you?"

Now I feel awkward. Any way I look at it, it says "you're insecure". Not something that's exactly hidden, but sometimes I can pretend it's not emblazoned on my forehead.

on edit, that's true Erika. You get to be an "example" and you didn't get to choose.

Huh. I'm going back to saying I just don't know.

erika, what episode/season is your tag from? I can't place it, but I love it. I'm still giggling over, "Sacre bleu! Where's my maman?" from when he was provoking Janice.

wrod...I have about a million writing superstitions now that I'm trying to do it for real.AmyLiz, Season 1, "Boca"...Tony finds out Uncle Junior is a cunning linguist, and Junior finds out about Dr. M.( It is truly desert island TV, season 1... and, bwah, he is so funny when he's, you know, a dick.)

Thank you all for the feedback on my drabble! It's an almost-autobiographical bit - the emotions are real, the baby is real :) but the actual situation never happened. (I don't get to nap. :) )

But that leads me back to the discussion at hand (not the cunning linguist Sopranos though): honesty in writing.

Am I unable to be honest and impactful in fiction?

I have this same problem, but for me, I think, it's a question of vulnerability.

I realized at some point that the only way to write well is to be honest on the page, and that's why I pretty much stopped writing. It felt (feels) just way too dangerous to lay it all out there... almost like what I feel is too dangerous to reveal - makes me too vulnerable, as though if people read what I wrote, they'd really know me - and hate me! And I hate this filter on keeping my writing "safe" because it makes it very boring. But I don't know how to shut it off.

The only person I'm afraid of getting a glimpse of the stuff in the depths of my brain is my husband, because he has the most power to use it destructively (not that I think he would or anything). I don't let him read my stuff.

Formatting question:

I'm quite savvy on standard manuscript format now, but what's the standard for a synopsis? Not the short, pithy cover letter type, but a longer one? I'm entering a contest where I have to turn in a 3-10 page synopsis as well as the first chapter of my ms. And since this particular contest attracts many published as well as unpublished authors, I want to make sure my entry doesn't give away my amateur status before the judges read a word. Anyway, I know the synopsis should be third person, present tense, even though my novel is first person past. Right? And is it single or double-spaced?

Susan, my synopses have always been single spaced, unlike the manuscript formatting. These days, though, I've gone to 1.5 spacing, to make my agent (eyesight) and editor (84 years old) happier. Standard ms margins, courier 12, no indent or right justification, the usual.