I’ve been squirreling away at a grant application for the B.C. Arts Council. These grant applications always require 20 pages of sample text, which is good motivation. If there were a deadline every two weeks, all year, then I’d end up with a novel written and no grant would be required.

The 20 sample pages are the easy part, though. And usually, I have an up-to-date resume and bibliography on file. So the only difficult requirement is the two-page synopsis.

If I were a computer whiz, I’d develop a program especially for writing these. You could plug in the names, strengths, and weaknesses of your characters, fill in the blanks for a few major plot developments, and out would come a synopsis that made your project sound fresh, edgy, and enlightened, all at the same time.

Alas, there’s no program. So back I go to attempt to perfect a summary of a book that doesn’t yet exist…

Wish me luck!