Does anyone have any good tips for writing a really compelling synopsis? I find condensing this big exciting story into something that can fit on one page completely cheapens it and removes all of it's charm. The synopsis is one of the most important parts of submitting to publishers - they won't even look at your manuscript unless you have a good synopsis. So I'm kind of stressing over it because I want to get published.
Here's the synopsis I wrote for my finished novel.
Synopsis
Forest Lake is just your average family suburb in hot, muggy Brisbane, and Alexis is just your average fourteen-year-old girl living in it – well, as average as she can be; tomboyish, stubborn, defiant and hot-headed…
That is until Raven turns up and turns her whole life upside-down.
Alexis’ life kind of sucked anyway, with her abusive step-dad, bitchy sister, and a mother who seems to be just getting sick of it all and switching off. Not to mention the boys she was once close friends with who now pick on her, the best friend who she can’t tell anything to because she’d tell the whole school, and the complete lack of any one else in her life.
If all that wasn’t bad enough, then a little boy turned up murdered in the lake and Alexis’ hoodie was at the crime scene, a mysterious figure prowled the suburban roofs at night, a man was stalking her, she was hearing voices, and Raven just turned up naked in the forest and turned into a wolf right in front of her. It was all so surreal that Alexis was almost convinced she was crazy; her best friend sure was.
But none of the supernatural stuff even mattered to Alexis. The one thing that mattered was her mum was missing, yet her sister and step-father didn’t seem concerned one bit. That’s probably because they knew exactly where she was; rotting away in the garden shed, after the step-dad hit her and she accidently fell and hit her head and breathed her last breath.
When Alexis finds out the truth, she’s suddenly homeless and orphaned in a world she no longer understands - in a world where the things that go bump in the night are out to get her. Alexis’ body rips itself apart and unleashes the animal inside of her in an act of self-defence and emotional coping mechanism – she discovers she’s a shape-shifter, descendant from Native Americans, and can take the form of a wolf when the situation calls for it.
She and her new friend, Raven (a self-titled name since she can also turn into a bird), must team up to survive. With no guidance from someone older and more experienced, they don’t know why demons are hunting them, they don’t know how they’re supposed to live this life.
They sleep through the day so the demons don’t get them. At night, they run, run through the darkness, run for their lives. Will they ever see the sun again? Will they ever escape the prevailing darkness? Alexis must turn from being a victim to being a victor if she wants to make it out alive. She can’t run from them forever; one day she must take a stand and fight. And when she does… there will be war.
If you have any feedback for that, that would be lovely. And if you're interested in reading the novel, you can find it here - https://docs.google.com/document/d/13yy ... oGWRQ/edit
Any feedback on that would also be appreciated.
But yeah. Let me know your thoughts on writing a synopsis!
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