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 And since this particular contest attracts many published as well as unpublished authors, I want to make sure my entry doesn't give away my amateur status before the judges read a word.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.

Thanks, deb!

Pas probleme. My only caveat there is that my synopsis are the sales pitch version: one page, fast summary, teaser, summation - basically what you'd see on the back of the book jacket. Thing is, they're one page single spaced. I don't know that a 1.5 spacing is a good idea if you're going ten pages.

For this, I think I'll do single space. Now I just have to write the damn thing.

Susan, just to chime as someone who used to read synopses daily, when I was acquiring, I was always happy with double-spaced. Unless, like Deb said, it's a one- or possibly two-page thing, double-spaced is really going to save an editor's eyes.

But then I was also never one to quibble about format, unless a manuscript came in single-spaced, or in some really weird font.

Aaaand, AmyLiz nails it. My computer actually defaults to MS settings in Word. So with synopses - and I do stress, all of mine are the kind you could put on a book jacket, because I don't think a synopsis and a book summary are the same thing, and it sounds as if what they're asking for is more of a summary - I actually have to remember to change from double to 1.5, and not to indent paragraphs, the way I do in novel or short story format.

I've already marked this series of posts, just in case I ever kick my terrified muse in the head and make her finish that original novel.