Hi Fellow Story-Tellers
I need to write a one page synopsis of a children's novel I've written but how do I condense 20+ thousands words into 1 Page? Is this something others have come up against and what techniques did you use to help you?
Many thanks
Mark
Writing a synopsis takes practice, Mark. I've written three novels - none picked up by an agent as yet! - each of them over 90,000 words. My shortest synopsis - as demanded by an agent's submission guidelines - was 300 words. Richard
Mark, as Scott Pack says, 'A synopsis is a simple summary of the (central) plot...your synopsis is cold and direct and functional.' Richard
In reply to Writing a synopsis takes… by Richard
Blimey, Richard, a 90k word into 300 words and still be able to tell the story - that strikes me at this stage as almost being impossible!
In reply to Writing a synopsis takes… by Richard
One way you can do it is to write a single sentence synopsis of each chapter as a template and then pad it out so it flows correctly. That's assuming you haven't got loads of chapters. If you have 57, you have a problem.
Excellent suggestion, Victoria. I'm actually starting the synopsis tonight and that's a great idea for how to start it. Thanks. Mark
In reply to One way you can do it is to… by dividedheart
It's 17 Chapters so not too much to contend with!
In reply to by markjbra_21449
That one sentence per chapter idea is really helping, Victoria. I'm already half way through my synopsis and the story still makes sense in its condensed form.
In reply to by markjbra_21449
Telling the whole story to its conclusion in few words is an awful job to have to do. In the two I've produced so far i started with a paragraph outlining each of what I considered the critical scenes, which were far more numerous than I'd imagined . Then I cut down each scene again and again and again...and again. And dropped a few completely.
In a way, it's worse than writing a blurb where you have to tell the story without actually giving anything away :(
I'm with you on this, Jonathan! The thought of a synopsis does actually fill me with dread but I have to master it as it's such an essential requirement.
In reply to Telling the whole story to… by oldchesn_4270