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?!

[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.

[catsparx.livejournal.com]

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