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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& #39;t have to be painful. It *will* take time. It& #39;s not as hard as you think it is. Here& #39;s how I do it. 1/
Long live the new thread on How to Write a Synopsis!
It doesn& #39;t have to be painful. It *will* take time. It& #39;s not as hard as you think it is. Here& #39;s how I do it. 1/
First, you need a completed, revised, polished book that& #39;s ready to go on submission. There& #39;s no point in going through this process until your books is in its final form and you& #39;re ready to query. If you make big changes, you& #39;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& #39;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& #39;t guess, you can& #39;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& #39;m summarizing a book for school. Just the facts, one step logically leading to the next, in chronological order. 6/
Once I& #39;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& #39;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& #39;s absolutely pertinent to the story. 9/
Think Chekhov& #39;s gun. Anything you mention should come up later. If a detail doesn& #39;t signify, leave it out. I don& #39;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& #39;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& #39;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& #39;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& #39;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& #39;s extraneous to get to bone. 16/
Yes, it& #39;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 & #39;we exchanged vows& #39;. But that& #39;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& #39;m Nettie Lonesome, and let me tell you, my life& #39;s crappier than a pile of manure. 18/
Yes: Nettie lives a hard life with her adoptive parents.
No: I& #39;m Nettie Lonesome, and let me tell you, my life& #39;s crappier than a pile of manure. 18/
If you get really stuck & can& #39;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& #39;re close to it. It& #39;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& #39;s like taking notes for a class at school. Do the work and and keep trimming the fat. It& #39;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& #39;s journey is different, there is no one way to write a book or a synopsis. Good luck! 21/21
Oh! And if you& #39;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& #39;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& #39;re intrigued, I think all 4 books in the series are currently on sale as e-books for $1.99 each.
