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The old thread on How to Write a Synopsis is gone.
Long live the new thread on How to Write a Synopsis!
It doesn't have to be painful. It *will* take time. It's not as hard as you think it is. Here's how I do it. 1/
Long live the new thread on How to Write a Synopsis!
It doesn't have to be painful. It *will* take time. It's not as hard as you think it is. Here's how I do it. 1/
First, you need a completed, revised, polished book that's ready to go on submission. There's no point in going through this process until your books is in its final form and you're ready to query. If you make big changes, you'll just have to change the synopsis. 2/
So I get out a notebook and a pen and pull up my document. I start reading. Whenever I see a plot point or an important piece of emotional arc, I write that down in the notebook as bullet points. No setting, no details. Just the straightforward facts. 3/
Example:
* Nettie wakes up bc she hears a horse whinnying
* she runs outside, finds a black mare
* Pa wants to shoot it, but Nettie wants to catch it bc she only has old, blind mule
* she chases the mare off before Pa can shoot it
* she hears a sound in the barn, finds a man 4/
* Nettie wakes up bc she hears a horse whinnying
* she runs outside, finds a black mare
* Pa wants to shoot it, but Nettie wants to catch it bc she only has old, blind mule
* she chases the mare off before Pa can shoot it
* she hears a sound in the barn, finds a man 4/
So here's why writing a synopsis feels so impossible: You have to go through the WHOLE BOOK like this, writing down the plot points. You can't guess, you can't skimp, you just have to do the work. It can be tempting to half-ass it, but that can bite you in the rump later. 5/
So this can take a whole day. It can feel tiring and like endless drudgery. I have to resist the urge to edit or tinker and just pretend like I'm summarizing a book for school. Just the facts, one step logically leading to the next, in chronological order. 6/
Once I've got my entire book written down in bullet points, I close the doc and open a blank page. Now my job is to work ONLY FROM THE BULLET POINTS to tell the story in the most no-nonsense, un-voicey, not coy way possible. Like I'm telling it to a courtroom. 7/
So, per my earlier example:
Nettie Lonesome is a 17yo girl living with her abusive adoptive parents in an alt version of 1850s Texas. One night, she is awakened by a horse whinnying, and when she goes outside, she finds a strange black mare. Pa wants to shoot the horse, but... 8/
Nettie Lonesome is a 17yo girl living with her abusive adoptive parents in an alt version of 1850s Texas. One night, she is awakened by a horse whinnying, and when she goes outside, she finds a strange black mare. Pa wants to shoot the horse, but... 8/
So I translate all my notes into a complete narrative. Every step should flow logically. I include details pertinent to the character arc (ie. Nettie starts out poor and hating herself and discovers who she really is), but only what's absolutely pertinent to the story. 9/
Think Chekhov's gun. Anything you mention should come up later. If a detail doesn't signify, leave it out. I don't say in the synopsis what Nettie is wearing until she puts on the clothes of the dead vampire she just killed bc this is important to her character arc. 10/
With this first summary, I don't worry about length too much. I get it all out on the page. Then I can see where I am--and how much I need to cut. You'll know from agent requests if they want 10, 5, 3, 2, 1 page synopsis. For now, just aim for clarity. 11/
Whatever I end up with, I save it under a new name and start cutting to get down to however many pages I need, which is usually 10, to start out with. I cut out adjectives, adverbs, and fiddling details. Remember: They're still in the book, just not in the synopsis. 12/
The goal of a synopsis is to communicate to an agent that you know how to tell a story. They need to know, quickly, if you know where to start, how to continue, how to build a climax, and how to stick the ending. And they need to know if you can follow directions. 13/
The query entices an agent to read the book. A synopsis convinces them that you have the skills to make that book worth reading. So while a query can be voicey and coy and leave the reader hanging, a synopsis openly spills everything, no hiding or cheekiness. 14/
So now it's all about cutting, making the synopsis as clear and concise as possible.
Go from: Nettie ran to the wet black mare, her long black braids flapping, her oversized old boots stumbling in the dust.
To: Nettie ran to the mare.
The synopsis is all ACTION. 15/
Go from: Nettie ran to the wet black mare, her long black braids flapping, her oversized old boots stumbling in the dust.
To: Nettie ran to the mare.
The synopsis is all ACTION. 15/
I work in waves. I take the original doc, SYNOPSIS, and save it as 10 PAGE SYNOPSIS. Then I trim it to 10 pages. Once I feel good about that, I resave it to 5 PAGE SYNOPSIS and start cutting again. With each wave, I cut out more and more of what's extraneous to get to bone. 16/
Yes, it's painful, deciding which important plot points can be trimmed away. When I get down to a 1 or 2 page synopsis, it feels like describing my entire beautiful wedding with 'we exchanged vows'. But that's what the agent needs-- a quick way to determine if you grok story. 17/
I always avoid being voicey in a synopsis. Even if the book is cheeky, 1st person POV, the synopsis is always in omniscient 3rd.
Yes: Nettie lives a hard life with her adoptive parents.
No: I'm Nettie Lonesome, and let me tell you, my life's crappier than a pile of manure. 18/
Yes: Nettie lives a hard life with her adoptive parents.
No: I'm Nettie Lonesome, and let me tell you, my life's crappier than a pile of manure. 18/
If you get really stuck & can't possibly trim away enough to get it down to the 1-3 page synopsis you need, try printing it out and letting a friend cut away the unnecessary bits. You're close to it. It's all important to you. Ask someone less invested which darlings to kill. 19/
I think folx feel threatened by writing a synopsis because it can feel like a test: MEMORIZE YOUR BOOK AND REGURGITATE IT PERFECTLY. Instead, it's like taking notes for a class at school. Do the work and and keep trimming the fat. It's just time on task. 20/
So there you have it: How to Write a Synopsis. :) As always, YMMV, what works for me might not work for you, everyone's journey is different, there is no one way to write a book or a synopsis. Good luck! 21/21
Oh! And if you've never written a synopsis before, one trick is to take a shorter book, the kind of thing you would read in 9th grade, like 40k, and synopsize that. Practice on something you don't care about, something you can see logically. Writing a synopsis is a learned skill.
Lastly (maybe?), the examples in this thread are from my own book, WAKE OF VULTURES, written as Lila Bowen. If you're intrigued, I think all 4 books in the series are currently on sale as e-books for $1.99 each.
