Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Time for the Synopsis

I've finished my edits and revisions in my current WIP. It's printed, and my four trusted readers are flipping through my pages as we speak.

Now comes the hard part. Condensing 55,000 words into a 5 page synopsis. UGH! Have I told you how much I detest writing these things?

I've never been good at summarizing. I'm much too long winded for that. I remember writing book reports in grade school where I always ended up retelling the whole story in nearly the same length as the book. Fortunately they were shorter books back then.

One submission I made to an agent required a one page synopsis for my first manuscript. ONE PAGE! for my 88,000 words!

So, what did I do?
I searched the internet and found this great webpage with directions for writing a one page synopsis. The directions are written for screenplays, but works just as well for novels. If you ever find yourself needing to write one of these beasties, check this webpage. I found it extremely helpful.

1 comment:

  1. Great link. Synopsises (synopsi?) are hard. I've done two pages before, but it's tough. Keep paring down and paring down. Or, take the two paragraph blurb from your cover letter and keep adding.

    ReplyDelete