The joys of synopses...

[martinlivings]

I've been asked to submit a one-page synopsis for a book. It needs to be done by Friday.

Fine, I thought, how hard could it be? [1]. So I sat down yesterday to skim through the book and quickly synopsise it.

I just finished now. Then pasted it into Word, so I could get a page count.

Seven pages.

Fine. Now I just have to cut it down by eighty six percent and it should be fine.

Sigh... I hate synopses...

[1] - somehow, I hear Richard Hammond scream "Don't say that!!!"

Comments

[amandapillar.livejournal.com]

I was just discussing this with Pete Kempshall. He said the more detailed the better - but I've found agents etc want just 1 page. What do you do?!

[angriest.livejournal.com]

Only use verbs and nouns.

Man. Space. Drives ship. Explosion! Wakes. Moonbase. Aliens invading. Sneaking. Hiding. Bodies. Runs. Fights. Wins!

[martinlivings.livejournal.com]

I like that. Next stop - haiku synopsis!

Harry and Yana,
Find the past wants to kill them.
In the end, they win.

Hmm... not bad... ;)

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

awesome! I'd read this book!

[ashamel.livejournal.com]

A very small font

[martinlivings.livejournal.com]

Summarise. Then summarise the summary. Then summarise the summary of the summary. Repeat until at the required length.

If nothing else, it forces you to see what's really important in the book. It's almost more a pitch than a synopsis, tell the essentials of the plot without too many specifics.

I usually write a chapter-by-chapter outline, then shrink that into a synopsis. The one I sold Carnies with was four pages, and I thought that was tough. This is going to kill me.

Current status - four pages and falling.

[petekempshall.livejournal.com]

Well I said the more detail the better, but that's from the point of view of someone who'll be critiquing the story before you submit it ;)

As to what agents want, I imagine that's a very different matter ...

[punktortoise.livejournal.com]

I presume 3-point font is out of the question? Even if you staple a magnifying glass to the page?

You *could* try pasting it into Excel, in seven-word lines, with spaces as column delimiters. As long as you only accept one word per row, on average, you should be able to synopsise the synopsis down to an acceptable length.

[martinlivings.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's geeky even by my proud standards. ;)

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

Seriously, I reckon writing the synopsis is way harder than writing the book itself.