Craft Chat Fantastic Synopsis Writing Guide

[Chase Gamwell]

I've said it before, but I feel like writing and editing a novel is easy compared to putting together a decent query. But another difficult task that faces every author is the dreaded synopsis!

Out of all the things that need to be done THIS is probably my least favorite. I find it impossible to squeeze everything I want to into a one or two page document.

"Why must I? Why?!" I scream to the heavens. (But I never get an answer...)

Today, I was searching online for guides on how to do this and found a FANTASTIC source. Everyone has a different way of writing, but I find that this particular strategy worked very well for me. Basically, this person answers a series of questions, then combines all the answers into a one page synopsis.

Here's the guide: How To Write A 1-Page Synopsis

This definitely helped me and I hope it can help someone else.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Thanks for the post. I have to tackle writing a synopsis of my third novel soon, and though I'm not dreading doing so, I find that I resent the process.

It reminds me of that aphorism about explaining a joke, which is attributed to various authors including Mark Twain:

'Explaining humour is a lot like dissecting a frog, you learn a lot in the process, but in the end you kill it.'

I write the synopsis, and it starts to look like a post-mortem, making me doubt why I wrote what I did—how could such trite ideas make a decent story—you nincompoop!

 

[Robinne Weiss]

This is great. I'll try this for my next synopsis.

 

[Paul Mackay]

I've just tried this for my current wp and it works! Obviously, it's still rubbish, however, it's alive and can grow and improve as time goes on. Cheers, mate.

 

[AgentPete]

Hello @Chase Gamwell,

We are changing the status of this ticket to closed as we have not heard back from you in 7 days.