Capitalize names

[Warren_Paul]

I've been hearing that your supposed to capitalize the names of your characters when you mention them in a synopsis for the very first time. Anyone know anything about this? Is it true?

 

[Venusian Broon]

I have read such advice and seen sample synopsis prepared thus.

I don't know if it is a universal truth of synopsis writing though.

 

[Boneman]

It was certainly true when synopses of Film scripts were submitted, and I think American Agents favour this. Let's face it, it won't really matter either way - the book's the thing that sells. But I appreciate you're trying to get it dead right. Either check the website of whomever you're submitting to, or go with what you're happiest with.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Go with the agents website - if they specify then capitalise, if not there doesn't seem to be a need to. I have had one publisher and one agent ask for it, but they don't appear to be the norm.

 

[Warren_Paul]

okay that's cool, just had to make sure. Probably just obsessing over getting it right. If I get rejected, I want it to be because the book needed more work, not because of some little mistake.

 

[hopewrites]

wait, I'm confused. (and I know i'm the worst when it comes to remembering to capitalize anything) is there a time when you wouldn't capitalize some-one/thing's name??????

 

[Venusian Broon]

If you mean: should you always capitalise the first letter of a proper name. Of course you should.

What the Warren Paul was talking about was capitalising the entire name for the synopsis (but only the first time it appears) i.e.

BOB the accountant appears in the village, a friend of SAM. He is made to feel unwelcome, so Bob goes on a quest to discover the secret vial of personality.

 

[hopewrites]

oh.... Is that so they stand out more?

 

[Venusian Broon]

To tell you the truth, I have no idea!

I'd have thought if you have a short synopsis in a page or two most things should be pretty obvious - but then if you have a pile of about 1000 of them then perhaps you need all the help that you can get to sort through them.

 

[Warren_Paul]

To tell you the truth, I have no idea!

Me either! I only learnt about it on agentquery.com yesterday, I was looking at their feedback of people's synopsis' and they were telling them to do that.

 

[hopewrites]

I suppose it would give you a quick count of how many main's there are...

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Hope, that's exactly what I was thinking! But with the clarification, a good thing to know.

 

[Warren_Paul]

I suppose it would give you a quick count of how many main's there are...

Which brings the next question? Is there a problem with having a lot of main characters?

not counting minor characters, my book already introduces 8 characters you get PoVs from that continue over the whole series.

I had to cut half of them out of the synopsis to make it easy to understand.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Which brings the next question? Is there a problem with having a lot of main characters?

not counting minor characters, my book already introduces 8 characters you get PoVs from that continue over the whole series.

I had to cut half of them out of the synopsis to make it easy to understand.

Well, there are obvious reasons why. It can be hard to keep up with so many main/major characters, not to mention that POV shifts can be very jarring and annoying. (The one thing I disliked about Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, as I've said in the past.) Eight characters isn't a big stretch whatsoever-eighteen might be pushing it, for example.

 

[Gumboot]

It's a technique that comes from screenwriting. In a screenplay character names are always in block capitals the first time they're mentioned, and block capitals are also used extensively for anything else important.

I personally use it because my background is film and I think it serves a purpose; focusing the reader's attention on the elements that matter most. I won't for example, use block capitals on a minor character mentioned in a synopsis.