anyone else having synopsis issues?

[lexcade]

i can't wrap my head around this.

it should be easier than i'm making it, right?

any advice/suggestions? cause i'm not making any headway.

[Dankrubis]

I've never written a synopsis since I wrote a book report, but I've got an idea.

Actually, right now I'm going through multiple novels and dissecting them scene by scene. For each scene, I'm making a note card and writing one or two lines describing what happens in the scene. (It's a plot exercise from James Scott Bell's Plot & Structure).

I've finished three novels so far, and I imagine if I took each note card and wrote down the general recap from them in order, I'd have myself a synopsis. Give it a shot with your novel?

[J Koyanagi]

I've heard many people recommend writing the synopsis as if you're telling your story to a child. Makes sense. Keep it simple and hit the major plot points.

I also found it helpful to write the "long" synopsis (mine is about 1000 words), then trim that down to a shorter synopsis (mine is 500 words), then trim that down yet again to a one-page synopsis. Then you'll have all three to choose from depending on what each agent wants.

I also found Nephele Tempest's blog post about the one-page synopsis quite helpful (click here).

Good luck!

[charity_bradford]

Formatting and Submitting Your Manuscript also has a great section on this topic. I agree that it is much easier to write the long summary first and then pare that one down for the short.

[kristi]

I've heard many people recommend writing the synopsis as if you're telling your story to a child. Makes sense. Keep it simple and hit the major plot points.

I also found it helpful to write the "long" synopsis (mine is about 1000 words), then trim that down to a shorter synopsis (mine is 500 words), then trim that down yet again to a one-page synopsis. Then you'll have all three to choose from depending on what each agent wants.

I also found Nephele Tempest's blog post about the one-page synopsis quite helpful (click here).

Good luck!

I agree with this -- it worked for me too. I also found that writing my synopsis before I finished my book helped formulate my direction for the story. Of course, I ended up with a different ending but then it was easy to change the last part of the synopsis. After you do it once, it'll get much easier. :)

[Dakota388]

I, too, struggled with my synopsis. I'm just finishing my best one yet and this is how I got over my hump. For my latest and best draft, before I started writing a single word, I made sure I knew in my head what my main character's story arc was (as opposed to my manuscript's storyline). Then I wrote his and only his story like I was writing a short story about him. I skimmed through each chapter to make sure I didn't miss anything important but I kept it only about him. In fact, I have probably 20,000 words about an important aspect of my book but it didn't directly involve my main character. Being that it was crucial to my novel as a whole, I broke that entire 20,000 words into one sentence that fit my character's story arc. In other words, I found a way to mention it and with the rest of my synopsis, hopefully, the reader understands its importance. After writing my synopsis, I began cutting it. For instance, I only name 3 characters even though there are many important ones. Also, I was careful to leave only enough minor details to show the uniqueness of my story without bogging down the flow. So basically what I did when I was struggling with this process was to stop looking at the entire book and focus on one character. Then I started writing. My latest draft blew away all of my other drafts once I looked at it that way. And it didn't seem so overwhelming.
I don't know if that approach will help you since I am completely an amateur but there you go. Good luck.

[Joel Q]

I hate writing a synopsis...

But here's what I can tell you. I just judged a writing contest and all of the submissions I judged had bad syns.

Motivation, goals are needed. Not just what happens, but why... then how does this impact your main character?

Leave out as many characters as possible. Only include the main character, and one or two characters that impact the main character's goals/motives.

Suggestion. Write a one pager, then a two pager, than a three pager, etc.
This will help you control what details are needed.

Too many syns have way too much detail or events and people, but little to nothing on the importance of such details.

Tell us about the main character, enough for us to know who he/she is without going to deep.
Include the darkest moment, and the other important story shifts (more of them as your pages increase)
Make sure you tell us the ending and the significance of it.

Hope that helps.
JQ

[lexcade]

thanks, guys! this is quite a bit of helpful information. the forum people are smaaaaaaaaaart!

[jordynface]

For me, writing a synopsis is absolutely the most difficult thing to write. However, I've written a few, and my suggestions are:
1. Know the characters you need to include, and don't include any that aren't necessary. (Especially for a short, 2-page synopsis.)
2. Have an outline of the "major" events that happen in your novel, what leads to them, the motivations behind them, etc.

Write the synopsis using those two main things and then read it over to see what you've left out or what isn't necessary. In my experience it's a trial-and-error process; I don't do many novel drafts, but I do tons of synopsis drafts.

[BlancheKing]

I find it helpful to summarize each chapter into one to three sentences, paste them in sequence, and then delete everything the reader will probably forget by the time (s)he gets to the end of the book. That way, there won't be any unnecessary details distracting the agent.