REFLECTIONS: Synopsis and Sample Chapter - Book Writing for Beginners: Develop Your Ideas on Paper

Synopsis

REFLECTIONS (Working title)

JADE MCKENNA has travelled down to South London from her home in the north of England. Single and middle-aged, she prefers her own company, together with that of her dog, NANOOK.

The purpose of the trip is to attend a reunion at the school Jade attended from the age of five to eleven. More anxious than usual, she wonders how her former classmates will receive her – it’s over 50 years since they last met. The years have seen substantial changes in Jade, and she wonders if she will be remembered.
For assorted reasons, Jade initially decides to introduce herself as a friend, representing herself, feeling it likely that everyone will have changed beyond recognition anyway.

Whilst at the school, Jade accepts the offer of a tour. The old art room evokes memories, and allowing herself a visit to a storage area, Jade comes across a framed mosaic she had made in her final year. Curious, she examines the artwork, and finds, taped to the back, an envelope containing a metal key.

Shocked the key still exists, Jade hurries away from the school in a state of uncertainty and fear. Long buried memories stir in her head and as she wanders aimlessly through her old neighbourhood, she recalls sights and sounds she had thought buried and lost.

She recalls her youth and childhood friends and starts to remember. The key unlocks memories of the rundown buildings of the time and in particular THE SHELTER.

Meanwhile, decades earlier, 10-year-old JACK JACOBS is making a camp in an open space on the council estate adjoining the school. With his friend, FREDDIE HARRIS he finds a key lost in the undergrowth. They discover the key unlocks a door in the ruins of a nearby air raid shelter, left over from the war.

The boys unlock the door and enter a room which looks as if no one has been there for many years. On the far side is another locked door. The key fits that also so they open it. Venturing out, the boys find themselves on their familiar estate, but it looks different to what they know.

Excited, the boys leave the shelter and decide to explore. They have not yet realised it is now 1944 and it will be weeks before they find their way back to their time and they will need the help of Jade to do so.

Slowly, Jade realises that her memories are of real events. Anxious and afraid, she resolves to uncover the past and rediscover what happened all those years ago. Did the events take place and how did the boys get back?

To solve the questions, Jade decides it is necessary to reconnect with friends from the past and realises that, to do so, she must reveal her identity and disclose the fact that, although she is now Jade, she was, in fact, once Jack.

NB I'm afraid this is nearer 500 words than 250! That said, it's my first synopsis so I need more practice!

Sample Chapter (Chapter 1)

London - January 2022

She didn’t know why she had chosen to go to this particular park, was it a conscious decision or was it involuntary, like so much else in her life over the last few days?

She had been in a daze, a state of shock even. All she knew was that she had just walked, and walked, until she could walk no further. Physically and emotionally drained, she had sat down on the bench. Looking around, she realised where she was. It was a place she knew well from her youth, her childhood even. It was her father’s park, not in a literal sense, but the place he enjoyed visiting, especially in the later years of his life. The time when he was no longer able to drive to the more distant places, where so many memories had been made and then lost, one by one, as the ravages of Alzheimer’s Disease slowly overwhelmed him. Then they were gone, lost to him as he was now lost to her. She missed him, and desperately wished she could talk to him, even if only for a few minutes. ‘Dad would know’, she thought to herself, ‘he would be able to make sense of it all’

Her father had enjoyed visiting the park, it was near to where he lived, within walking distance and easy to get to, for a while at least. He could walk there and find his way home again without too much difficulty. It was if he had an in-built satellite navigation system to guide him. The time came though, when his sat-nav began to fail, first going on a loop, the park and back, the park and back, and then ceasing to function altogether and he got lost. The day came when it was decided he couldn’t live at home anymore. He was sent away, into residential care. Away from the park, where he loved to walk and admire the flowers, plants and trees. Where he loved to talk to other people as they strolled, as he did, along the paths that crisscrossed the park. Where he loved to sit and watch the children play on the swings and roundabouts. ‘He’ll be safer’, they said, ‘we’ll look after him’. He wasn’t safe though and he didn’t go to the park again.

‘I’m sorry dad’, she said aloud, not really caring if anyone heard.

It had been a long morning, that day in late January. It was still cold, the morning frost had lingered, and the green grass glistened with white shards of icy moisture in the bright sunlight. She glanced up, squinting in the glare, and noticed how the sky was a deep blue and there was not a cloud in sight. It was a beautiful day, a strange day, she thought.

Although it was cold, she was perspiring, sweating. She shivered and drew her grey woollen coat more tightly around her petite frame, hoping the shivering would stop. Rivulets of moisture ran down from her forehead until they dripped, one by one, from her chin onto the folds of her coat. As they descended, the beads of moisture stained the pale makeup she had so carefully applied to her face just a few short hours earlier. Shivering again, she felt that she must look a mess. Glancing around, she was glad to see there was nobody nearby, nobody to see her streaked face.

Were they drips of perspiration, or where they tears? Perhaps a combination of both, for she was emotional too. Tired and emotional, it had been a long morning. She had to sit, to sit and to think.

The day had started well enough. She had woken early, her thoughts a mixture of excitement tinged with anxiety. Jade had hoped for a good night’s sleep, as she was exhausted after the long drive south from her home in the The Lakes the day before. The main route to the capital was one she knew well but didn’t particularly like as it involved the M6 and M1 motorways. Jade didn’t like motorways. Her small Japanese coupé felt vulnerable amongst the myriad of cars and trucks thundering along, helter-skelter, to whatever destination they were headed. The M6 was the worst, she had thought, as truck after truck has sped past in the rain which had fallen incessantly mile after mile.

The longest motorway in the United Kingdom, and the busiest, the M6 snakes for 230 miles down the western side of England, from the border with Scotland to Rugby in Warwickshire. Driving southward, Jade, noted that for each articulated truck which left the motorway, two seemed to join it adding to the incessant noise and spray which made driving so difficult.

She tried to drown out the noise with music from the car sound system, ‘Highway to Hell,’ by Chris Rea was her favourite album to listen to while driving on the M6 but yesterday she had favoured Meatloaf’s ‘Bat out of Hell’. It seemed appropriate, given Michael Aday had died just a few days earlier.

As her little car ate up the miles, Jade had subconsciously ticked off the cities as they passed. Lancaster, Preston, Manchester, Liverpool, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and Coventry. Relieved to eventually join the M1, she knew then that it was less than 90 miles to the northern outskirts of London.

The rain had played havoc with her planning, Jade had hoped to reach the end of the M1, at Staples Corner, early, before the beginning of the evening rush hour, but it was now 4pm and the winter evening light was fading. That, and the heavy traffic meant it took a further two hours to travel to Croydon and the budget hotel where she had booked a room for the next two nights, with the option to stay longer if she needs to.

As Jade drove past Camberwell and through to Crystal Palace, she glanced around, taking in the landmarks along the way. ‘Some change’s,’ she thought, ‘not many though, it still looks the same’.

‘I didn’t think I’d ever see Croydon again,’ Jade mused as she eventually reached the Premier Inn at Purley. Just south of the Old Town, the small hotel was one of a chain that she often used when travelling in Britain. Economical, but clean and comfortable, she had always felt at ease during the various occasions her travels had involved an overnight stay…