Writers Tricks of the Trade ISSUE 1, VOLUME 9 | Page 40
interested in a synopsis longer than a few
pages.
While this post is geared toward writers
of fiction, the same principles can be ap-
plied to memoir and other narrative nonfic-
tion works.
W HY
THE NOVEL SYNOPSIS IS IMPORTANT TO
AGENTS AND EDITORS
The synopsis ensures character actions
and motivations are realistic and make
sense. A synopsis will reveal any big prob-
lems in your story—e.g., “it was just a
dream” endings, ridiculous acts of god, a
category romance ending in divorce. It can
reveal plot flaws, serious gaps in character
motivation, or a lack of structure. Or it can
reveal how fresh your story is; if there’s
nothing surprising or the plot is hackneyed,
your manuscript may not get read.
The good news: Some agents hate syn-
opses and never read them; this is more
typical for agents who represent literary
work. Either way, agents usually aren’t ex-
pecting a work of art. You can impress with
lean, clean, powerful language (Miss Snark
recommends “energy and vitality”).
Synopses should usually be written in
third person, present tense (even if your
novel is written in first person). For mem-
oirists, I recommend first person, but first
or third is acceptable.
W HAT THE NOVEL SYNOPSIS MUST ACCOMPLISH
First, you need to tell the story of what
characters we’ll care about, which includes
the protagonist. Generally you’ll write the
synopsis with your protagonist as the focus,
and show what’s at stake for her. Motiva-
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tion is fairly critical here—we need to un-
derstand what drives this character to act.
Second, we need a clear idea of the core
conflict for the protagonist, what’s driving
that conflict, and how the protagonist suc-
ceeds or fails in dealing with that conflict.
Finally, we need to understand how that
conflict is resolved and how the protago-
nist’s situation, both internally and exter-
nally, has changed.
If you cover those three things, that
won’t leave you much time for detail. You
won’t be able to mention every character or
event. You’ll probably leave out some sub-
plots, and some of the minor plot twists and
turns. You can’t summarize each scene or
even every chapter, and some aspects of
your story will have to be broadly general-
ized so as to avoid detailing a series of
events or interactions that don’t materially
affect the story’s outcome.
To decide what characters deserve
space in the synopsis, you need to look at
their role in generating conflict for the pro-
tagonist, or otherwise assisting the protag-
onist. We need to see how they enter the
story, the quality of their relationship to the
protagonist, and how they might change,
too.
A good rule of thumb for determining
what stays and what goes: If the ending
wouldn’t make sense without the character
or plot point being mentioned, then it be-
longs in the synopsis. If the character or
plot point comes up repeatedly throughout
the story, and increases the tension or
complication each time, then it definitely
belongs.
T HE MOST COMMON NOVEL SYNOPSIS MISTAKE
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W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE