It's the first thing an editor or agent sees, it's a vital part of your submission process (along with your covering letter), and it's fiendishly difficult to get done!
In some ways, it's easier to talk about what a synopsis isn't. It's not a book blurb, designed to entice you in and leave you hanging. It's not a blank canvas for you to use your most exciting words on. It's not a chapter plan, going on for pages and pages.
A synopsis should be:
- One side - or at most two - of A4, single spaced
- A complete plot summary (including twists, turns and the ending)
- Easy to follow
- Include all your main characters
And why are they so hard to write?
Well there are two main reasons I see authors struggling. One is that they are just too close to their novel to be able to describe it - and they find it hard to work out what the editor needs to know. The other is that in writing the synopsis, they realise their plot isn't going how they want it to.
If the first of those strikes a chord, try writing a synopsis of a published book - see what events you automatically prioritise and which you leave out. Concentrate on getting the whole story told within a tight word count, and you will learn ways of summarising facts neatly.
Plot troubles need a different approach: try going back to your chapter plan - or writing one if you haven't already - and see where the arc of the story is going adrift. Once the plot is clearer within the novel, the synopsis will be much easier to write.
Good luck!
Cressida
(editorial consultant)
I don't yet have a synopsis written. Though similarly to Tea, I have a document which details the key events in my story as an outline so that I know where I am working towards.
Some events have changed in the sequence of events, but not much, just at the time of actually writing it the flow of the book seemed to fit better with a slight re-ordering. I guess sometimes you can over-plan?
I found that writing a synopsis is even more difficult for a memoir - how do you write it in present tense when the events happened years ago, and how do you write in the third person when you have obviously written the book in the first person?
Dorothy Khafaji
Cressida,
That is a very good explanation and very useful for anyone wanting to know more about synopsis. Since writing my first synopsis for Penguin earlier this year, I’ve worked on several others for other book ideas. I have to say I don’t find it as difficult as you describe, at least, no more difficult than writing an individual chapter.
As for chapter planning, I had no idea that was a commonly used method for writing. I had developed it myself to outline book plots even if I could not write them at the moment. It seemed like the right thing to do and sure enough, it was!
Xean
11/28/2010