SYNOPSIS

by Glenese Facey
1st September 2017

Writing my synopsis for the first time, is very frustrating. i feel like i'm telling them about the entire story, so what's the point in them reading the book. It's like when you watching a movie and someone tells you what happened from start to finish and kill your excitement of the movie. Is there a better way to write this without giving away everything?

Replies

thanks for the advice guy's i will try my hardest.

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Glenese
Facey
270 points
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Short stories
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Glenese Facey
04/09/2017

I think the whole idea of a synopsis is for the person you are sending it to, to be able to see if they might be interested in either representing you, or publishing you. They have to have a clear idea of what your book is about.

Hide nothing. Be precise.

These people are not intending to buy your book, what they are intending to do is to satisfy to themselves that other people will want to read it, ie, the buying public.

If they do not like your synopsis, they won't need to read your book, and unless you self-publish it no one else will see it either.

When I did my synopsis the first effort came in at 1700 words. After a lot of effort I got it down to less than 600. Then to submit it to one agent, they wanted just 250 words.

That was a struggle but I got there. It must have been rubbish though as I never heard from this agent again.

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Jeremy
Gavins
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Jeremy Gavins
03/09/2017

Hi Glenese.

A simple synopsis: premise, rising action of conflict, climax, character growth, resolution.

A synopsis is not a blow by blow summary of every single plot point in your book.

it’s a skilful weaving of your characters, and the major plot events that hurtle them from beginning to end.

You must include the outcome, whether your protagonist achieved, partly achieved, or failed to achieve their aims.

To help you condense your synopsis, I suggest you take note of how Blurbs are written.

Blurbs introduce the protagonist, the main conflict, and place the protagonist in an almost impossible situation. Though blurbs do not show whether the protagonist will succeed because that would be spilling the beans, completely.

Think of your synopsis as a series of Blurbs.

I hope that helps.

Good luck.

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Adrian
Sroka
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Adrian Sroka
01/09/2017