Young Writers Society

Say I've not written one of these, and when I come to try and explain what happens in first part at least. I can't decide which events are the most important. So really I need help and advice on writing a synopsis. How can I make a decent one?

I'm sorry if this has been done before :/

But I really need it and nothing seems to be there. So brain storm and tell me or give me advice on writing a synopsis.

Write out what happens right at the beginning. Write out what happens right at the end.

Then fill in the gaps with the bare essential events which move one thing onto another until you reach the end.

You could try summarising each chapter in a sentence or two. That's a good way of picking out the main events too.

Don't forget usually it should be no more than two pages long (I say usually, because there are those odd difficult people who say so many pages per word count etc) but two pages is usually adequate.

Remember that you never leave it on a cliff hanger. It must include the ending. Don't get too wordy, and keep it concise. Think of it as a lesson in conciseness.

They are tricky things to write. I for one can write a full length novel fine, but find the colour draining from my face when I think that I have to write a synopsis. They frighten the hell out of even the most experienced writers.

But don't despair. You will get there in the end. It's not as hard as it feels like it is when you first start out. After all, it's simply a blow by blow description of what happens in your book, and as long as you do know what happens in your book, you should get round it eventually.

Write an outline for your story. No, not the one that you had originally, because odds are that it sucks. Rewrite your outline and see what's important. Then flesh out the outline.

And make it sound interesting.

But yeah. Synopsises are slightly different from summaries because while a summary will have a paragraph that is not so spoilerish, a synopsis is TOTALLY spoilerish. So, if I were to give you a synopsis of FREAK, you would kill me because I lay out exactly all the plot twists and why they happen and who does what. So yeah.

Hope that helps!

Ironically, I get the synopsis done before I get the full length "novel" done. It's basically just my way of outlining events for the story.....

A 5-10 pg outline can easily become the synopsis