Plotting a novel and hammering out a synopsis is tough. Too much time is spent in keyboard hand-wringing, in worrying about whether plot A slots into plot B, and whether what character #1 does in chapter 15 is logical and meaningful.
But it’s an essential process (and I know some authors don’t do full chapter breakdowns or outlines, but I think you can tell in the finished product), so it’s just a case of madly typing everything out that you can think of, then editing it and crafting it into a proper story.
I’m about halfway through the plotting of New Gods, and having got the basic beginning-middle-end down, I wrote a fake back cover blurb for the bestselling superhero novel you might pick up at your local bookstore. It’s only a draft, and it’s too long really, and no doubt the story will work out slightly differently, but here you go:
San Ventura, California. A bustling seaside metropolis, a jewel of the Western Seaboard. A city gripped by a reign of terror instigated by the superhuman hooded criminal, the Cowl, and his accomplice, Blackbird.
But to the New Gods, the Pacific Coast’s self-appointed guardians of justice, it’s all just a game. Having eliminated every other threat in their territory, they’re reluctant to take down the last remaining supervillain and put themselves out of a job. Caught in the middle, the San Ventura police department fight hard to protect the city while cleaning up the trail of death and destruction left by the Cowl, and more often than not, the New Gods themselves.
When store clerk Tony Farrell wakes up one day to find himself suddenly the most powerful superhero on Earth, he wonders if he can stop the Cowl and bring peace back to his home town. His new girlfriend, Jeannie, certainly thinks so. But with power comes both responsibility and temptation, and Tony isn’t sure he can handle both alone.
But a new menace is coming, something hidden deep the annual Caprotinae meteor shower. And when the night above the city is lit with the celestial fireworks, it is not just the people of San Ventura who are looking to the sky. For Tony and the New Gods, defeating the Cowl may soon be the least of their problems…
I’m curious about your choice of California setting for New Gods. What made you decide to set it there? It is in my view a bold and daring decision. I mean, if an American author wrote a novel set in contemporary Auckland without having lived here, I’d be highly sceptical about their ability to make the setting authentic.