How To Write A Synopsis
Here are @cbcreative tips on how to write a really good one-page synopsis of your novel:
Put your title at the top, even if it’s still just a working title.
State what genre you’re writing in: eg, romance, science fiction, fantasy, crime thriller, psychological suspense … If you’re not writing in a clear genre or you’re not sure what your genre is, just skip this. If you’re writing for children, you should indicate the age group you’re writing for..
What you definitely need at or near the top of the synopsis is your pitch line. This is usually the key question, dilemma or driving force of the novel – or the heart of the novel, to put it another way. And if you know you have a great hook or a high concept, that should be your pitch line. Writers understandably get very worked up trying to get their pitch lines right – but remember that you’re in any case going on to say more about your story all the way down the page – it’s not all about this one line.
Some people like to include a quote from the novel: quotes can offer a glimpse of the tone of your novel as well as teasing and enticing the reader. It can be a good way to go if you’re struggling to come up with a pitch line – but go one way or the other here – you don’t need both.
The synopsis of your novel should then go on to cover your plot in its broad strokes: Set out your story in the simplest terms. Don’t try to include everything: we don’t need all of the intricate twists, turns and subplots – just the major plot points so an agent can see what your novel is and where it’s headed.
Get your protagonist’s name in early on (if you have one clear protagonist) and the main character’s motivations. It’s good to show whose story this is.
But don’t put in too many character names. We don’t need your full cast list – in fact, we don’t need many names at all or your page will be cluttered with them. This can make your synopsis confusing and difficult to understand.
Give us the when and the where: we need to know the primary setting for the novel and the time period in which it takes place (particularly if it’s historical fiction. We tend to assume a default of ‘now’). Again, though, don’t include lots of place names and dates – keep it simple.
Should you include the ending of the novel in the synopsis? The honest (though annoying) answer is, it’s up to you. Some agents would say they need to see the ending because it’s such an important part of the story. But others say they don’t like any big twist in the tale to be given away because they still feel they like to approach the novel as a reader. You can’t rewrite your synopsis for each and every agent, so you’ll just have to decide what feels right for you and your novel.
The best synopses convey the tone of the novel as well as the plot: If you can find a way to bring the feel, atmosphere or voice of the novel into the synopsis, it will really bring it to life. It’s not essential and not worth fretting over if you can’t see a way to do it, but it just adds that little extra zing.
Don’t heap praise on your own novel: The synopsis is not the place to say you’re going to be a huge international bestseller, or even to comment that the novel is gripping or funny or moving, etc. Leave it to others to make judgments about its top-ten-bestselling or award-winning potential.
Don’t cram as much as possible onto the page: One page is a good, readable, concise length. Aim to be succinct – and don’t attempt to wedge in more words than really fit onto a page by making your font, spacing or margins tiny. That just makes the synopsis difficult to read, which is the opposite of what you want to achieve.
Don’t include chapter breakdowns or mini-summaries of the content of individual bits of your book. This isn’t your working plan – the agent or publisher doesn’t need to see all that stuff.
Go for a story rather than ‘themes’: Tell us what drives your novel but don’t give a list of themes or imagery with the idea that this will make it seem more deep and meaningful. It’s only worth mentioning themes if your book explores a big issue or if it’s majorly concerned with – for instance – grief, as the driving force of the story.
Don’t talk about unreliable narrators: People often make an issue of their first-person narrators being unreliable. Essentially any and every first-person narrator is unreliable, so it’s not worth highlighting.
Unusual narrative structures: It’s possible that your novel really is impossible to summarise in the way I’m advising here – because it’s so experimental, its cast of characters is enormous and without any sort of centrality; its plot is so unconventional as barely to exist. If your novel is really so extraordinary and unconventional, then you actually won’t be able to produce a ‘normal’ synopsis for it. If that’s the case, see if you can write a page that gives an idea of what you’re trying to do in the novel, and which talks passionately about your novelistic endeavour. Or perhaps try a page from the perspective of a specific character to entice the agent and draw them in – even if it’s not actually an overview of the story in a conventional sense.
