If you have or are planning to write a book then at some stage you will probably have to write a synopsis, certainly if you're planning on submitting the book to agents and publishers. Even if you're writing for the sheer joy of it and are only thinking about publishing in limited circles, you should write one because it will tell you whether your book is any good. Writing a book is so full of difficult stages, it seems almost endless now I look back. Writing the synopsis stands out as being the hardest part. Writing the book took desire and time. Editing took commitment and time. Nothing was harder than the synopsis.
A large chunk of the difficulty came from the uncertainty. For a start, it's a lot of pressure, knowing an agent's decision to take on your book or a publisher's decision to print it, hinges on your summary of your book. The biggest problem I had at the outset was simply finding out what a synopsis should be. Agents often don't specify, just that they want one. I found very little useful information on the web about writing a synopsis. I didn't want a book on the subject, that would have been too much information. I wanted a pamphlet or a blog article, everything I needed to know in one page. What advice I did manage to find was very generic. Depending on where you looked a synopsis should cover anything between two and five pages. But what kind of page? The difference between American standard Letter and English A4 is about fifty words per side. That's a lot when your whittling down everything from three hundred pages to two. I own about three copies of the Writers and Artists Yearbook (successive years), which contains lots of info, but didn't contain what I needed most of all - a maximum word count. In my mind everything hinged on that. I only found out the industry requirement for a synopsis was under 600 words when I got feedback for Chasing Innocence from my editor. When you realise it has to be under 600 it actually makes what a synopsis should be, very simple.
So for the record, it is not a pitch. It is a full account of your book in under 600 words. It details what it is, when it's set and where, the key characters and their role within the story and every major theme in the story including the shocking twist at the end, including who the baddie was. You reproduce slight of hands and reveal the rabbit under the hat and explain how it got there. There should be no mystery about any element of the story once the synopsis has been read. Ideally it should read in roughly the sequence the events happen in the book. It should be written in the same style.
The last person to write your book's synopsis is probably you. You are so close to every word and nuance, how do you draw back and detail everything your book is, on two sides of A4? The answer is you have to take a lot of long steps back. You have to remove yourself from the per page and chapter perception, you have to look at what your characters and story are doing over many chapters. It isn't about the brilliance of one fight scene or the chase or the relationship, it is about why they are fighting, or chasing or building the relationship and what brought them there.
It is extremely tough but also very interesting. This is where you will find out whether your book is any good. I had spent a lot of time trying to summarise the end of act two. I just couldn't make it sound interesting. It had lots of great bits in it, but in trying to summarise the key thrust I realised I couldn't because act two lacked something. So I took two of my favourite books and detailed chapter by chapter what happened in them. I realised the end of act two lacked drama, some sense of fear for what might happen as we approach the end. Once I realised it seemed obvious. I plotted how I would add it and did.
I could fill another two blogs on the synopsis. Simply getting everything under 600 words is an art all unto itself. The key for me though, was learning the three vital lessons. I now knew how long it should be. Sure agents can specify a different word count but you now have a good base to expand or trim down and a punchy two page-sides for when they don't. I now knew I had to look at the story from a very high level to create the synopsis and not a blow by blow account of events. And most importantly for me, was the realisation that struggling to make part of the book sound interesting, meant that part of the book probably wasn't.
As I work through book two I am already seeing the themes as I write the line by line. I am pretty sure the synopsis will be a lot easier this time, and for book three I am thinking about writing the first draft before I write a word of the book.
A large chunk of the difficulty came from the uncertainty. For a start, it's a lot of pressure, knowing an agent's decision to take on your book or a publisher's decision to print it, hinges on your summary of your book. The biggest problem I had at the outset was simply finding out what a synopsis should be. Agents often don't specify, just that they want one. I found very little useful information on the web about writing a synopsis. I didn't want a book on the subject, that would have been too much information. I wanted a pamphlet or a blog article, everything I needed to know in one page. What advice I did manage to find was very generic. Depending on where you looked a synopsis should cover anything between two and five pages. But what kind of page? The difference between American standard Letter and English A4 is about fifty words per side. That's a lot when your whittling down everything from three hundred pages to two. I own about three copies of the Writers and Artists Yearbook (successive years), which contains lots of info, but didn't contain what I needed most of all - a maximum word count. In my mind everything hinged on that. I only found out the industry requirement for a synopsis was under 600 words when I got feedback for Chasing Innocence from my editor. When you realise it has to be under 600 it actually makes what a synopsis should be, very simple.
So for the record, it is not a pitch. It is a full account of your book in under 600 words. It details what it is, when it's set and where, the key characters and their role within the story and every major theme in the story including the shocking twist at the end, including who the baddie was. You reproduce slight of hands and reveal the rabbit under the hat and explain how it got there. There should be no mystery about any element of the story once the synopsis has been read. Ideally it should read in roughly the sequence the events happen in the book. It should be written in the same style.
The last person to write your book's synopsis is probably you. You are so close to every word and nuance, how do you draw back and detail everything your book is, on two sides of A4? The answer is you have to take a lot of long steps back. You have to remove yourself from the per page and chapter perception, you have to look at what your characters and story are doing over many chapters. It isn't about the brilliance of one fight scene or the chase or the relationship, it is about why they are fighting, or chasing or building the relationship and what brought them there.
It is extremely tough but also very interesting. This is where you will find out whether your book is any good. I had spent a lot of time trying to summarise the end of act two. I just couldn't make it sound interesting. It had lots of great bits in it, but in trying to summarise the key thrust I realised I couldn't because act two lacked something. So I took two of my favourite books and detailed chapter by chapter what happened in them. I realised the end of act two lacked drama, some sense of fear for what might happen as we approach the end. Once I realised it seemed obvious. I plotted how I would add it and did.
I could fill another two blogs on the synopsis. Simply getting everything under 600 words is an art all unto itself. The key for me though, was learning the three vital lessons. I now knew how long it should be. Sure agents can specify a different word count but you now have a good base to expand or trim down and a punchy two page-sides for when they don't. I now knew I had to look at the story from a very high level to create the synopsis and not a blow by blow account of events. And most importantly for me, was the realisation that struggling to make part of the book sound interesting, meant that part of the book probably wasn't.
As I work through book two I am already seeing the themes as I write the line by line. I am pretty sure the synopsis will be a lot easier this time, and for book three I am thinking about writing the first draft before I write a word of the book.
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