WRITING THE DREADED...GROAN...SYNOPSIS

My husband has been querying agents for his detective series. He is now the proud owner of enough rejections to make a full sized shower curtain. Both sides. Despite all that, he has also gotten a lot of positives and some real constructive revisions, suggestions, and encouragement that he has a good idea and to continue on.

Yesterday, he told me that he has a request from an agent for a couple of chapters and…drumroll…the dreaded synopsis.

“Is this like an outline of the story?”

“Um…no. The synopsis isn’t as stark as an outline. It should give the flavor of your story enhanced by your voice to hook them.”

“Huh?”

“Think of it like telling a friend what the story is about and you’re hitting the high points or the arc of the story (plot) and filling them on the main characters and how they fit into the plot of the story. You touch on the goal, motivations, and conflicts of the main character(s). You also want to give the black moment—when all seems lost and then the how the hero wins the day.”

“Goals, motivations, and conflicts? That sounds too complicated. I don’t think you really need that.”

“Sure do. Every good story has that. Let me put it another way. Goal - what your Hero wants (both internally which gives the character arc; and externally—plot). Motivation—Why they want it (both internal and external). Conflict —why they CAN'T HAVE IT (both internal and external)”

“In two pages? Isn't there just a formula or something?”

Are we having fun yet?  

Once I stopped laughing over that last plaintive question and wiped my eyes, we sat down and discussed whys and hows. Yeah, I tried to give him a formula.

• What is the hook?  Another way to look at it is what’s the story in a sentence? A friend of mine, Nancy Parra, demonstrated this well with her book, Mr. Charming: 

A single mom with a secret past finds herself embroiled in a playboy’s murder. 

It shows the story and hints at the external and internal conflict and it gets your attention. This is a very short first paragraph.

• What is your hero/protagonist’s Internal Goal Motivation Conflict and External GMC? What does he want, why does he want it, and why he can’t have it? Internal shows the character arc, external defines the plot. Keep it brief. For romance, of course, we give both hero and heroine's and for other genres it would be protagonist A and B, or main characters. And you'd set this as two paragraphs. If you include the GMC for the villain then there would be a third paragraph. 

• What is the Plot? What happens in the story? Get the plot down in a clear concise manner. You want to include enough important plot points to convey the story. Once the plot path is clear in your mind then weave in why the unfolding events in the story are important. You can mention the secondary plot—as it impacts the primary—but the story is your main plot. That's what you need to focus on. This will be your biggest section of your synopsis.

• What is the Black Moment? This is the moment when, despite the best effort (or maybe because of his efforts) of the protagonist/hero, all seems lost.

• What is the Resolution? The protagonist/hero usually has to pull something from him/herself (character arc) to accomplish the resolution and win against the odds. Goals motivation and conflict are usually tied into the resolution. He's changed from what he/she was when the story began. The events of the story have taught him/her something.

You want to write the synopsis in PRESENT tense and be sure to give the ending. Be a professional. Make every word count. Putting your voice into the synopsis, you're giving them a taste of the story while they're reading for content. Your voice can also act as a hook.

Hubs will be working on this today. Hopefully, it will go smoothly. Once he writes it we have two guinea pigs to read it and give their feedback. We figure if it makes sense to someone unfamiliar with the story and they "get it" then we can declare it a success.

• How do you handle writing synopsis? Any suggestions?

Writing the Successful Synopsis

~Sia McKye~

Most of us have heard the groans of authors when it comes to writing a synopsis. I don't think I've ever heard or read of an author saying, "Oh, that's easy. You just do this, this and that—it's done." Uh, right. That's why we hear grown people almost in tears over it. Also why some authors won’t query agents or publishers requiring a synopsis.

I've look at a lot of sources—agent websites, writing websites, books and some pointers from my writing group. None of who have said, "Oh, easy-peasy." I admit that I've allowed that negative connotation influence me. I think the problem is, we have to confine our synopsis to one, maybe two pages. That should be simple, right? Two pages max. The problem comes in when we are talking about condensing a hundred thousand word document into one or two pages. Tell the story in one or two pages? Are you nuts? At that point we're looking at a mountain we have to take down with spoons and put it into two wheelbarrows. Not so easy.

I read an interesting quote by the author of A Higher Justice with regards to writing one. He said, "The goal is not to explain the entire book. The goal is to get the editor, agent, or reader hooked enough to read the sample chapters and see the market potential." I was always under the impression that we were supposed to tell the whole book and that was my stumbling block.

To overcome that mental picture of a mountainous mass to condense, I've decided to break it into workable sections. I'm only looking at it section by section. Not quite so daunting then.

From what I understand, a synopsis should have five key elements, according to the book, Give 'Em What They Want:

The opening hook—the opening sentences should pull the reader into the synopsis.

Plot highlights—detailing major scene of the story. Incident, reaction, and decision. There were some suggestions under this point, which I found interesting and helpful, in identifying those major scenes.

Quick sketches of the main characters—their motivations and conflicts, especially with each other.

• Do I need this scene to make the primary plot hang together?
  
• Do I need this scene for the ending to make sense?
  

Core Conflicts—No conflict, no story. Makes sense to me. There were some traditional categories of conflict, which I'd never heard of.

• Person vs nature
  
• Person vs society
  
• Person vs self
  

The Conclusion—tying up the loose ends without a cliffhanger. Editors and agents are not fond of guessing. You have to spell out your ending.

The argument is, if a writer can address these key elements, the synopsis shouldn't be too hard to write. I'm not convinced of this, but I'm going to try it. For sure, these points outlined here help an author to be sure all the essentials are addressed in your story, whatever the length of it is. I'll work on the elements and then when I'm comfortable with that, I'll work on the structure.

What are your thoughts on this? What have you found that works in writing a synopsis? Any good resources you’d recommend?

Any success stories?

***
I'm married to a spitzy Italian. We have a ranch out beyond the back 40 where I raise kids, dogs, horses, cats, and have been known to raise a bit of hell, now and then. I have a good sense of humor and am an observer of life and a bit of a philosopher. I see the nuances—they intrigue me.

I’m a Marketing Rep by profession and write fiction. I have written several mainstream Romance novels one of which I’ve out on a partial request. I’ve written and published various articles on Promotion and Publicity, Marketing, Writing, and the Publishing industry.

Aside from conducting various writing discussions and doing numerous guest blogging engagements, each week I promote and share authors’ stories, on the laughter, glitches, triumphs, and fun that writers and authors face in pursuit of their ambition to write—Over Coffee.