Gav Thorpe's Blog

Over the last few years I’ve run a number of writing workshops at Edge-Lit in Derby. Last year I tackled writing snyopses / pitches. Given the number of people that have been in touch about the submissions window for Black Library, in particular how to formulate their summary, I thought I’d write up my notes.

I’ll be running another workshop at Edge-Lit later in the year, subject yet to be decided.

Introduction

A ‘synopsis’ is a summary of your story or novel, while a ‘pitch’ is a very condensed version, to sell the story not to explain it. Either or both will be used for different reasons and at different times. As a plan-heavy sort of writer my synopses can be quite detailed, sometimes on a chapter-by-chapter or even scene-by-scene level. Not only does this act as a template for the story when I’m writing, it also acts as something to look back to when editing to see if I stayed ‘on plan’ when I needed to.

If you’re one of the seat-of-the-pantsers that writes first and thinks later, coming up with a synopsis is a good way of analysing what you’ve written, viewing through a different lens than you might use when reviewing the actual prose or structure.

For an editor or agent the purpose of the pitch or synopsis is to convey what you are trying to do rather than relying on them extracting it from the sample or finished manuscript. This separates the idea from the execution and allows them to be assessed accordingly – it might be a great idea poorly written, or a terrible idea beautifully presented! A pitch will often be taken by an editor to acquisitions meetings where they discuss potential titles with other editors and departments.

For meerkatters (sorry, I mean marketeers) a synopsis allows them to start thinking about potential markets, advertising and audience. Sometimes it’s even used as the basis for the sales ‘blurb’ that will be put on the back of the book and website.

Exercise 1: Write a three line synopsis of your favourite or a popular book.

Blurb for Imperator: Wrath of the Omnissiah from Black Library Website

Expand

Summarising can be hard. At a basic level a pitch or synopsis needs: character, theme and setting.

Not Plot! Not Biography!

Example: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a comedic science fiction novel in which Arthur Dent, hapless survivor of the Earth’s destruction, is given an impromptu introduction to a wider and often surreal galaxy. Through his unplanned exploits we see humanity’s strengths and irrelevances, from the petty to the grandiose.

Exercise 2: Bearing in mind the elements of character, theme and setting, repeat exercise 1.

Hone

Your synopsis needs to answer these questions, at least briefly:

Who is the main character or characters? Why them? If a group, what links them? Talk about them through story and personality, not purely biography – include how they feel about the story not just what has brought them to it. It’s the difference between ‘Harry is a happy-go-lucky truck driver who has just been laid off’, and ‘Harry is an embittered truck driver who has just been laid off’…

What is the story about and how is that explored? Explain plot through the lens of theme. Use character motivations and agenda, not abstract plot points. ‘Harry must overcome his cynicism to reconnect with his daughter and discover the true rewards of family,’ rather than ‘Harry must stop the authorities taking away his daughter.’

What stands out about the setting – in narrative terms not physical. ‘In the worst winter Missouri has seen in twenty years…’.

Exercise 3: come up with two keywords each for character(s), setting, and theme of your story. No more, no less.

Construct

Interweave the elements of character, setting and theme together using the keywords that encapsulate these components of the story. Take each element and expand outwards depending upon space. One sentence on each for a pitch, one paragraph each for a synopsis, etc. Often the use of first person inclusive, present active tense conveys a feeling of excitement and immediacy.

For example: ‘In Heartland we follow the story of Harry, an embittered truck driver who has just been laid off from work. As a cruel winter besets his small hometown in Missouri, the worst seen for twenty years, Harry battles the local authorities to keep custody of his daughter, though it is his own cynicism he must overcome if he is to learn the true value of family.’

Pitch, blurb and synopsis

Pitch – You are speaking directly to the agent or editor. You can refer to insider knowledge. Make it obvious – ‘The Hunt for Red October with an Emperor-class titan’, ‘a fantasy version of HBO’s Rome’, etc and trust the editor will know that the final story will contain more nuance. The only pitch I have had rejected by Black Library, when I was first starting out, was because I didn’t explain the story succinctly. When I talked it through with editor Marc Gascoigne he simply asked ‘Why didn’t you put that in the pitch?’* If using, inverting or subverting an archetype or trope, say so. In as little space as possible a pitch needs to inform as well as evoke. Even so, remain focussed on character, theme and setting.

Blurb – This is for the reader and uses only ‘outsider’ knowledge. Evoke and intrigue, don’t show the gears whirring beneath but stick to character, theme and setting.

Synopsis – This is for the editor usually, with more detail. This is definitely the place to make references to insider knowledge. Don’t just list events, explain them – use terminology, structural references etc if needed. For example, ‘This is her moment of glory’, ‘additional conflict enters the story in the form of a long lost brother’, etc.

*Looking back, I should have started the pitch with ‘This is the story of Heart of Darkness / Apocalypse Now set in the underhive of Necromunda’. With the return of Necromunda to the GW shelves, I might get a chance to pitch it again after a twenty-year gap!

There is no exercise 4 – you are ready to have a go at writing the synopsis for your story!

You can see all my blog posts about writing pitches and synopses by clicking this link. Good luck to all those who are submitting to Black Library – let me know how you get on.

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

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Listen to my interview with Forge the Narrative where we talk about writing Aeldari, and I try to avoid spoilers for Ghost Warrior.

Interview starts at 34:38.

Listen To The Interview

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

My Author’s Notes for Ghost Warrior
The Rise of Ynnead (a bit of history)
Listen to my Forge the Narrative interview from 2016

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

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For the last two years I’ve published my PLR (Public Lending Rights) top 10, and as I’ve just received the latest statement, I’m doing so again. I’m officially calling this a tradition. The number in the brackets is last year’s placement.

For those who don’t know, PLR – Public Lending Right, is the mechanism by which authors are recompensed for the free loan of their books through public libraries in the UK.

1 (6) The Emperor Expects

2 (1) Ravenwing

3 (-) The Beast Must Die

4 (8) The Primarchs

5 (4) Deliverance Lost

6 (3) The Unforgiven

7 (5) Master of Sanctity

8 (9) The Doom of Dragonback

9 (7) The Curse of Khaine

10 (10) Angels of Darkness

Another highlight from this year’s statement is a steady stream of loans for the three books in my Empire of the Blood series, along with some love for two of my oldest books – The Heart of Chaos, and Kill Team.

As noted last year the number of loans is still reducing significantly – less than half of the loans that were recorded five years ago. This article on The Bookseller last month paints a bleak picture for the future of British libraries:

“Fresh figures have shown the “catastrophic” scale of library closures in Great Britain continues unabated, with 105 closed last year. Meanwhile, the services continue to be bled of funding, with £66m slashed from libraries’ budgets over the course of 12 months.”

If you’re an author make sure you register with both PLR and ALCS (the international equivalent) to make sure you’re not missing out on any money owed.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

My 2016 PLR figures
What is PLR anyway?
Authors get money from ALCS too? What’s that all about?

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

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Watch my interview with Ryan and Brynley from AusHammer. We talk about my history with Games Workshop, my thoughts on Age of Sigmar, handling reviews (good and bad), and I try to identify some plastic booty!

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

My slippery slope back into the world of Games Workshop
My interview with Paint All The Minis
What exactly do I do all day?

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

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This is a compilation of questions that have been emailed and messaged to me recently. Part one of the December Q&A can be found here.

I’ve been posting Q&As for a while now, so if you’ve found this one interesting, you can look back at previous Q&As here.

If you want to ask anything, you can post a comment here or get in touch through the contact page (and newsletter subscribers can just reply to any of my emails).

Dmitry asked on Facebook: Hey Gav a question for you, in regards to how the Aeldari are now interacting with the Imperium is it still openly hostile or has Yvrainne’s assistance in the resurrection of Guilliman created an understanding between the two sides.

I’d say a little more understanding in some quarters, but bear in mind that the Ynnari are quite divisive within eldar society itself, including their contact with Guilliman. This may form one of the themes to book 2 [Wild Rider, book two in my Rise of the Ynnari series].

And another from Dmitry: Gav this is something that just popped into the warp storm which passes for my brain. Did Corax share the information of what occurred with the Raptors with Guilliman? particularly the aspect of improving on the Adeptus Astartes. It stands to reason that Guilliman sought out Belisarius Cawl for his radical stance and provided him some form of criteria in terms of what was possible. In this regard we can see the Raptors as the first generation attempt at the Primaris. This in turn can also be connected with the cursed 21st founding as potentially being an attempt by Cawl to see if his experiments had worked…..all leading up to the Ultima founding where we have our new genetic monstrosities. …..and all this from the Alpha Legion screwing with Corax dreams

I don’t know if he would have shared the Raptor project with any of his brothers, considering he regarded it as a cursed failure. As far as anyone knows, the labyrinth remained intact on Terra, its secrets still for the taking.

Kevin asked on Facebook: Sanguinius is factually the greatest primarch. Why can’t any of his nipple headed brothers see his all encompassing greatness?

I think most of them do, to be fair. It’s just that some love him, others are just jelly.

Rory asked on Facebook: What Loyalist Primarch do you see yourself as?

I think I’d be more like Sindermann – shaping people’s view of the universe

Listen to my interview with Kenny over at the Combat Phase podcast, where we talk about Jain Zar: The Storm of Silence and everything Eldar.

Listen To The Interview

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

My ever-popular three-part Eldar Q&A
My Author’s Notes for Ghost Warrior, book one in my Rise of the Ynnari series
Interview with Mike “Daarken” Lim, the cover artist for Asurmen: Hand of Asuryan

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

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Sammy’s letter to Santa this year was pretty simple – Lego. But if you’re struggling for ideas, may I humbly suggest the following:

Limited Edition of Lorgar: Bearer of the Word

Exclusive to blacklibrary.com, the Limited Edition includes the following features:

240 page hardback novel encased in a magnetic presentation box
Grey cover with gold foil
Spine is wrapped with cloth with gold foil
A black marker ribbon and gilt-edged pages
Matt laminated covers include a crop of unique artwork which is reproduced in full in the interior
Each copy is uniquely numbered from an edition of 2,500 (fewer than 300 copies left)

Buy Lorgar

Limited Edition Jain Zar: The Storm of Silence

Includes exclusive short story, ‘Spirits of Tir-Namagesh’
320 pages hardback with soft touch cover and black foil
Curved & ribbed spine with red foiling, plus black and red marker ribbons
Black gilt-edged pages
Signed by the author and individually numbered
Limited to 1,250 copies (fewer than 200 copies left)
Only from blacklibrary.com

Buy Jain Zar

Print of Cover Art for Ghost Warrior

“Yvraine, the emissary of Ynnead, treads the halls of Craftworld Ziasuthra with her most trusted warrior, The Visarch, at her side.”

I really love this artwork from Anna Lakisova and hope to get a copy for my office.

They are available as prints, canvas, and a particularly lovely aluminium print. Prices start from £34.99.

Buy Ghost Warrior Artwork

I also want to give a special shout-out to a small independent book shop called Diverse Kids. We came across Diverse Kids at the Nine Worlds event last year – they have a great selection of books covering multiculturalism, transgender characters, same-gender relationships, adoption, divorce and a whole host more. We’ve bought several books for Sammy already, and Santa will definitely be stopping by this Christmas.

Visit Diverse Kids

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

Find out how long it takes to sign the Limited Editions
Read my interview with Ghost Warrior cover artist Anna Lakisova
My Author’s Notes for Lorgar: Bearer of the Word

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

Please Feel Free to Share:

This is a compilation of questions that have been emailed and messaged to me recently. December is a two-parter as I’ve had so many questions recently.

I’ve been posting Q&As for a while now, so if you’ve found this one interesting, you can look back at previous Q&As here.

If you want to ask anything, you can post a comment here or get in touch through the contact page (and newsletter subscribers can just reply to any of my emails).

Andrew asked this question on my ‘Brief History of the Deathwatch’ Blog: Which of the Deathwatch marines you outlined in your piece would be most likely to be the squad’s sergeant? Or rather, which one would take command if Artemis wasn’t around?

It would probably be Haryk as the next longest-serving member of the Deathwatch.

Michael replied to my newsletter commenting: I have to say as an aspiring author my dream is to write for Black Library one day, if not I will continue my work and at least try to write some good books… you and Graham are the best thanks for the motivation and the excellent stories…

Thanks for your message. My advice has always been to be a writer (or games designer) in the broader sense and then maybe hope to work with BL or GW. Limiting yourself to such a single narrow window of opportunity rarely works. I was just discussing this with Nick Kyme yesterday, in fact. Getting something published elsewhere – Uncanny Magazine, Grimdark Magazine, etc – lets you jump the queue a bit in terms of BL submissions, as the process is different for published authors. It’s also just good practise and experience of the editorial process for if you do get a shot with playing in the GW sandpit

A budding writer recently contacted me via my website, asking about the practicalities of putting pen to paper, and being a freelance author. I thought it would be useful to share my response on the blog for others to see.

Hi Gav

If you have the time, I would like to ask you a few questions regarding your success in the industry. You produce an impressive amount of content very quickly; I feel like every time I turn around, Gav Thorpe’s name is emblazoned across the bottom of another novel. Just off the top of my head, you have penned Lorgar: Bearer of the Word, Ghost Warrior; the Hand of Darkness and Eye of Night audio dramas and Jain Zar. Those were all released just this year! My questions, then, are these:

What goals do you set for yourself when producing a commission?
What timeline do you try to adhere to (research, novel structuring, writing, rewriting, editing, etc)?
Do you try to achieve a certain word count everyday?
What percentage of the day do you spend interacting with your fanbase on social media?
(For personal edification, not prying) You say you produce as much as you do to pay your mortgage. You have over 130 products over the past twenty years. With the royalties from those, how do you even still HAVE a mortgage?
Last of all, would you say that working as a full-time freelancer has been worth it, both financially speaking and in terms of personal fulfillment?

If you have the time to answer any of these questions, I would be overwhelmed by your generosity. Thank you, sir. Have a wonderful day!

Hi Jon

They are tricky questions to answer, as my process and productivity has changed over the years as I’ve gained more experience and understood my own writing style better. That said, I’ll give it a go.

Thorpe Central – Hamster not necessary to becoming an author.

My current aim is to type 2,000 words a day, four days a week, which works out at 10 weeks to finish an 80,000 word novel. I add a week at the beginning for fleshing out the synopsis into a chapter and scene plan on Scrivener, and a week at the end to read through and edit. I get another chance to edit when the edits come back from Black Library, but hopefully at that stage there won’t be any significant changes I want to make. You’ll note that I’ve used the word ‘type’ specifically to refer to the time putting the story down on paper (keyboard). The process of coming up with the story happens over a longer period of time from initial idea pitch, through synopsis, and then daily as I’m actually ‘typing’ the novel.

All of the above are the goals I set myself, but there hasn’t yet been a project that works out that neatly. At any one time I’m usually working on 3-6 projects (writing fiction, video games consultancy, games design etc) so depending on deadlines I might end up having to write more words a day, and writing on evenings and weekends. There are also endless reasons a project can get behind too – illness, family emergencies, the Rugby World Cup to name just a few. Usually by the end of a project I have to write 3-4,000 words a day to meet the deadline. I’m a fast writer so there have been times when I’ve written upwards of 6,000 words a day.

I wouldn’t aim to match these timescales yet however, they are derived from over 20 years of writing, about topics that I’ve lived with and written about for a long time. It’s also very different to when I started out – back then I was writing in my spare time, while working full-time for Games Workshop. Back in 2010 I wrote a blog post called “What Do You Do All Day“, which will give you more of an insight into my (then) typical day.

A typical writing day (originally created in 2010)

The time spent on social media is a difficult one to judge. I have a blog, newsletter, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. I also receive a fair bit of email from fans, and contacts via the website. The reason I only plan to write four days a week is that the fifth day is spent doing all this associated admin. I’m probably on Social Media for about an hour over the course of each day, but that’s fairly easy to do when I’m waiting for the kettle to boil etc.

There are other work related things that take up my time too. This week I’ve got three podcasts, a book signing, and a written interview to respond to. It’s typically only this busy around the release of a new book (Ghost Warrior at the moment), but as you mention in your question – that happens quite frequently for me! Have a look at the Interviews section of my website to get an idea of how many I do.

Biggest benefit of being a freelancer – spending time with Sammy

Working as a full-time freelancer has definitely been worth it in terms of my personal fulfillment. My work life balance is great – I get to choose my own hours, don’t have a daily commute, and am now at a stage where I can pick and choose projects that appeal to me, rather than just having to take anything that pays. The biggest benefit however is the quality time I can spend with my son and partner.

If you want to become a writer for the millions it will earn you, you might want to rethink your career path; it’s one of the reasons I also have to work on video and tabletop games (actually, the tabletop games work is more for the love of it – you don’t see many games designers driving Ferraris). There are a very small number of authors who reach the big time – people like JK Rowling who are now household names and can, I presume, command good royalties for their work. There’s a great blog post from Kameron Hurley that will give you some stark figures about book sales and royalties. Hopefully that will explain why I still have a mortgage to pay off…

I hope that has been useful for those considering a career as a writer. I’ll add again that it has taken me 20 years to get to this stage, and my process is still evolving, so don’t expect to find your perfect routine straight away.

If you want another view of a writer’s life, and to love Aaron Dembski-Bowden just a little bit more, check out part one and part two of his ‘Day in the Life’ blogs.

As always, if you have any writing related questions, leave a comment below.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

‘Things I Always Do’ writing tips
Planning your workload, and what to do when it goes wrong
Why you should ignore all my advice…

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

Please Feel Free to Share:

I had great fun chatting to Dan over at the Paint All The Minis Podcast – we cover everything from my beginnings in the Design Studio, through to my current writing for Black Library. If you’re looking for something to listen to while you paint, there are also great interviews with Rick Priestley and Andy Chambers, among many others.

Listen To The Podcast

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

Read my Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything)
Interview with Combat Phase, discussing Lorgar: Bearer of the World
Read my October 2017 Q&A

**To make sure you don’t miss out on any blog posts, you can keep up-to-date with everything Gav by signing up to my monthly newsletter. As a bonus, every other month I randomly pick a newsletter subscriber to receive a free signed copy of one of my books.**

Please Feel Free to Share: