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Craft Chat Fantastic Synopsis Writing Guide

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chase Gamwell
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Chase Gamwell

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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.
 
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!
 
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.
 
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