Synopses.

The Long Then The Short Of It.

Welcome back to this week’s #TuesdayTip.

If there is one thing authors love to moan about, it’s writing synopses. The distillation of your beloved 300+page book baby into a couple of pages or fewer is a chore that only the most masochistic writers enjoy.

But, like taxes and Bank Holiday roadworks, they are a necessary evil.

If you are submitting to an agent or to a publisher, then they are going to ask for a synopsis of what you have written. The first thing I have to emphasise is just how important it is to follow their guidelines. It doesn’t matter how good you think you are, if you don’t follow the agent/editor’s instructions you are falling at the first hurdle. There are literally thousands of wannabee authors submitting every day and over-worked agents and publishers are looking for an easy way to cull their towering reading pile. Somebody who submits a four-page synopsis, rather than the requested 500 words is going straight on the reject pile, sight unseen.

Resist the urge to cheat! Pretty much all submissions are electronic these days, so you can no longer hide behind a tiny font size to give them 1200 words rather than 1000 words. MS Word has a wordcount at the bottom of the screen and as they scroll down the document, it’ll helpfully tell them you chose a font-size of 11.2 to squeeze a few extra words on the page. You have been warned!

What is a synopsis?

Within the submissions world, the meaning is quite clear. It should be a complete account of the story, including any twists and the ending. As writers, our instinct is to tease without giving away spoilers. Unfortunately, that isn’t what they are looking for. They need to know, straight off the bat, whether your book will deliver a satisfying story that works, and that includes the payoff at the end. I feel a little sorry sometimes for editors and agents, as they typically know who dunnit before deciding to read the complete manuscript – they don’t get the pleasure of a first-time reader being blown away by that last-minute plot twist that turns everything on its head.

How long should the synopsis be?

Now we’re getting down to the nitty gritty. It all depends what the agent or publisher want. Some are very prescriptive (1000 words or no more than 2 pages), others less so (a “short” synopsis or a “full” synopsis). For full, you can probably get away with a couple of pages. For short, perhaps one page. Who can really tell?

So how do I approach this?

First of all, this is not something you knock out in an hour. It is not a last minute job. You’re going to want to set aside a day or two to get it right.

It will also take several steps – each of which you should save as a separate document. You’ll see why later.

Draft One – the complete, nothing spared synopsis.

This is a complete account of the book. It needs the all the major plot points, red herrings and twists. There should be some basic background on characters and perhaps the B-story (eg the characters’ strifes and struggles). It’ll probably be several pages. That’s fine, because nobody else will ever see it. SAVE IT then start a new document.

Long synopsis

I find it best to now start the trimming. Aim for 2-3 pages. What don’t you need? Is all the backstory relevant?

This is probably still a bit long for submission, but hang onto it, as you never know … SAVE IT then start a new document.

One-two page synopsis

Now the pain starts. This is where you need to make some decisions. How important is the character development and backstory? The plot is likely to be the main driver here – because for genres like crime fiction, it’s all about the story. However if there is something really unique about your central character that you think may be a selling point (murder mysteries solved by talking horses are a woefully under-represented sub-genre) or perhaps the location (everything takes place in a windowless bathroom), then you must take care not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. SAVE IT then start a new document.

One page

This is a common request. Everything on one page. By all means get rid of wasted space (Word’s current default seems to be white spaces between paragraphs), but don’t be too clever – they’ve seen all the tricks.

Use the most sparing language – make your prose descriptive and efficient. They will get a feel for your beautiful turns of phrase when (if!) they read your opening chapters. SAVE IT then start a new document.

500 words

I know! Crazy, right? Suck it up, give them what they want. Dig deep. Major plot beats only. Every word and every sentence fights for its place. What’s the plot twist or clever bit of deduction you are most proud of? Can you distil it into a sentence? SAVE IT then start a new document.

Two paragraphs

Yeah, you read that right. After the pain of distilling my book to 500 words, with all the steps in between, my wife consoled me with “well at least you now have versions of the synopsis for every eventuality”. Then I came across this particular publisher. There was swearing; there may even have been a couple of tears. But I did it, and you can too.

Quick wins.

Cut out invisible words such as “that”. See Tip72 for more on this.

What do you think of writing synopses? Have you any tips you can share? Are you one of those oddballs that actually enjoy the process (I’ve heard they exist, but won’t believe it until I meet one).

As always, feel free to share here or on social media.

Until next time,

Paul

PS: If you are a writer with a tip to share, or fancy writing a fictional interview between you and one of your characters, please feel free to email me.