Writing a Superb Synopsis--The Short Synopsis
Despite the torture, you wrote your long synopsis and lived to tell about it. The hardest part is over. You have summed up your book in three to five pages. What remains now is editing and fine-tuning.
You are now going to pare down your synopsis even more, so that you can offer a one- to two-page synopsis to agents. That may sound impossible, but it’s not. As in our other lessons, we are going to simplify this by using steps. On a piece of paper or in your word processing program, write the numbers one through five. You are going to go into your long synopsis and identify these five things.
1. Hook
2. The main conflict (should be one, but no more than two)
3. Extraneous characters
4. The main resolution
5. Summary and ending
Using these five steps, you will go through and delete all the portions of your synopsis that are not vital to your plot. They may help to move your plot forward, but if they don’t connect directly to the conflict or resolution, they can be removed from the synopsis. We start, of course, with the hook, which you should already have summed up from your query letter and long synopsis. This should not change. If you go through this exercise and determine it doesn’t fit, then you have not properly summed up your book. This exercise works two-fold, to make sure that your hook is strong, and that it also really does sum up your plot.
1. Hook. We have already discussed this in detail. This should be one sentence, no more than two.
2. Identify the main conflict and sum it up. What one conflict drives your entire plot? If you have a complicated plot, you can use two conflicts, but if you have more than that, you should consider if you have overwritten your book. Or you might want to sit down and ask yourself if these conflicts are actually offshoots of your main conflict, in which case they can remain, but should not contribute to the synopsis.
3. Delete all extraneous characters. This does not mean that you need to remove them from the book (although you should consider whether or not they are cluttering up your plot), however, if they are not vital to your plot, they should not be mentioned. If it is necessary to mention them, do not give them names. It gets too confusing in a one- or two-page synopsis. As you go through and delete these extraneous characters, you will find yourself deleting a lot of your synopsis they show up in.
4. The main resolution. How is your conflict resolved, and how do your main characters survive?
5. What is the final outcome? The agent needs to know how this book ends. This is not the time for a teaser. They want to know your plot, and they want it summed up neat and tidy.
Now your job is to go through your synopsis and apply each of these steps. If you find yourself having trouble, ask a valued friend or writing colleague to help you. It is often easier for someone (an outsider) to tell you if something is essential to your plot than it is for you yourself. You know your plot very well. You know the characters. It is too easy to leave something out, not realizing that you have, because you know exactly what has happened. This is not nearly as painful as the long synopsis. In fact, you may find yourself enjoying it as you come close to a tight, barebones synopsis.
Once you feel confident about your synopses, then you are ready to query an agent. And once again, we go back to the proverbial question, “What are agents really looking for?”
You are now going to pare down your synopsis even more, so that you can offer a one- to two-page synopsis to agents. That may sound impossible, but it’s not. As in our other lessons, we are going to simplify this by using steps. On a piece of paper or in your word processing program, write the numbers one through five. You are going to go into your long synopsis and identify these five things.
1. Hook
2. The main conflict (should be one, but no more than two)
3. Extraneous characters
4. The main resolution
5. Summary and ending
Using these five steps, you will go through and delete all the portions of your synopsis that are not vital to your plot. They may help to move your plot forward, but if they don’t connect directly to the conflict or resolution, they can be removed from the synopsis. We start, of course, with the hook, which you should already have summed up from your query letter and long synopsis. This should not change. If you go through this exercise and determine it doesn’t fit, then you have not properly summed up your book. This exercise works two-fold, to make sure that your hook is strong, and that it also really does sum up your plot.
1. Hook. We have already discussed this in detail. This should be one sentence, no more than two.
2. Identify the main conflict and sum it up. What one conflict drives your entire plot? If you have a complicated plot, you can use two conflicts, but if you have more than that, you should consider if you have overwritten your book. Or you might want to sit down and ask yourself if these conflicts are actually offshoots of your main conflict, in which case they can remain, but should not contribute to the synopsis.
3. Delete all extraneous characters. This does not mean that you need to remove them from the book (although you should consider whether or not they are cluttering up your plot), however, if they are not vital to your plot, they should not be mentioned. If it is necessary to mention them, do not give them names. It gets too confusing in a one- or two-page synopsis. As you go through and delete these extraneous characters, you will find yourself deleting a lot of your synopsis they show up in.
4. The main resolution. How is your conflict resolved, and how do your main characters survive?
5. What is the final outcome? The agent needs to know how this book ends. This is not the time for a teaser. They want to know your plot, and they want it summed up neat and tidy.
Now your job is to go through your synopsis and apply each of these steps. If you find yourself having trouble, ask a valued friend or writing colleague to help you. It is often easier for someone (an outsider) to tell you if something is essential to your plot than it is for you yourself. You know your plot very well. You know the characters. It is too easy to leave something out, not realizing that you have, because you know exactly what has happened. This is not nearly as painful as the long synopsis. In fact, you may find yourself enjoying it as you come close to a tight, barebones synopsis.
Once you feel confident about your synopses, then you are ready to query an agent. And once again, we go back to the proverbial question, “What are agents really looking for?”
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