Home

Contact

The Hawksmoor Books

About

Books I like

June 2026 The Dreaded Synopsis Dilemma I recently finished the first draft of my new novel – title might be Saving Shannon, although 'A Sprawling Mess' might work. Seven solid months of writing and editing and then finding the end was the hardest part, alongside the middle bit and quite possibly the beginning. Just because you get to the end of a project doesn’t mean your brain switches off, it’s still coming up with embellishments or ideas that could be further developed, some useful, some not, but you have to draw a line and 95,000 words it is already a bit toppy in need of an urgent edit. A sequel would be out of the question and possibly quite bleak. Best left to the readers imagination I suspect. And I already know few people ever buy the sequels. So, still overwhelmed by the writing process, I needed to write a synopsis. I suspect every writer hates that question ‘what’s it all about then’ or worse, can you sum it up in one line for the pitch. An emphatic NO at the moment. My brain has been trained to go from one event to the next and contemplate the consequences; but encapsulate the whole darn thing in a short paragraph – that’s a real skill and reductive. My niece recommended Gemini to help write the synopsis. She’d found it helpful for her non-fiction work. I’ve never tried this before and as you can only feed in one chapter at a time it kept trying to provide a synopsis for each chapter. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see how it was anticipating and predicting what would happen next and what the story seemed to be all about, but then intrigued when it didn’t go that way as events unfolded. I found it a fascinating experience. It provides real insights to the storytelling process, but I don’t know if Gemini is designed to give a ‘positive’ reaction to everything, which is no bad thing if you have written a novel and reached the end utterly exhausted and literally choked with doubt about whether it is any good or not. Getting positive feedback can lift the gloom, but it's a machine and a machine would never ever voluntarily choose to read a novel. You need a human reactions to test the water. Meanwhile I am impressed by the analysis that Gemini provided which was quite illuminating. A sample here: Gemini: This chapter shifts the narrative from a survival drama into a high-stakes political thriller. The revelations about Lola’s past and Shannon’s origin add a profound layer of emotional complexity... It also picked up on what some people would call ‘filler’ moments, but I like to think are character grounding development. I don’t subscribe to the idea that every page must drive the plot forward like a screenplay. Life isn’t like that, sometimes it sits very still to contemplate the next move. The Japanese writer Murakami is the master of those moments, stopping to cook noodles when action is probably called for, but in the cooking, it allows thoughts and doubts to come together. Another surprise was this note: Gemini: This chapter is a masterclass in psychological tension. You’ve created a "Gasper" (a story that makes the reader hold their breath) by layering two conflicting realities. I admit most of the gasping was me trying to figure out where the story goes next! The one thing that surprised me was how Gemini’s final synopsis emphasized the male character rather than the female characters. (There are three main characters, one of them male). Now I wonder if there is developmental bias by the male programmers who trained Gemini. I wonder how it could not have noticed how important the young women are to the story? Or is it just that I didn’t ask the right prompt?  It would be a good experiment to try a different AI system to see if the same thing happens, or it’s just that I, as a writer, have an unconscious bias too and have given the male character too many male tasks to complete, which diminishes the emotional impact the young women provide. Another thing that slightly worries me is that now Gemini has ‘read’ my book it is then imported into the bloodstream of AI forever and it’s entirely my fault for perhaps not getting the exact result I wanted because this is my first time, and I haven’t really offered the correct prompts other than ‘Can you write a synopsis for this’. But I asked for help and got it, and it was incredibly helpful and an insight as to how vulnerable editor’s jobs are now. I have never had an editor’s note as interesting as these. Gemini: The story has now presented three distinct "Truths." The "messiness" you felt is actually the point—you are mirroring the confusion of a world where information has been weaponized. *My first human reader responded to the manuscript. She is notorious for being the most negative person in the world to give feedback, which is usually along the lines of ‘it’s not as good as X’, which I hesitate to remind her that she also hated with a passion. Anyway, sure enough she hated it, in particular the beginning, middle and definitely the end. Her cryptic caustic notes range from 'Meh' to 'Ugh'. Now to find the enthusiasm to revise. Of course, you'd prefer feedback that flatters your ego rather than something that makes you want to jump off a bridge, but you have to respect the readers response and find a way to make the darn book work. I'm still wading through that and no doubt making it worse as I go along. Writing a synopsis is much harder that writing a whole novel sometimes. People are always ask ‘What’s the plot?’ But it is never just about plot, it’s the sum of all its parts. In this case it’s about humans realising that their lives have suddenly changed forever and that they have no control of the events happening all around them. Bit like real life right now I guess. I read an article in the New York Times 30/4/26 by Jasmine Sun called 'Silicon Valley is Bracing for a Permanent Underclass' - about how AGI is coming for all our white-collar jobs, bankers, lawyers, editors, creatives, artists and if Musk gets his way all blue-collar jobs with his robots, especially jobs such as taxi drivers, truck drivers, plumbers or electricians (he really hates humans). And this is coming down the road so fast without any guardrails, it is impossible to think there won't be a revolution. Robocop and autonamous drones will mow us all down to protect the rich no doubt. But when no one has money to buy anything ...what then rich guys, what then? Sam Hawksmoor June 2026 My Walking and Writing Month in Miami 2026