How to get good at writing synopsis ?

[valiant12]

I need a synopsis for my WiP novel, but I have no idea how to write a decen sinopsis.
How can I improve my synopsis writing scills. Should I write several sinopsis for my novel and use " the best " or its better to practice writing several difrent for difrent books or maube I should read more writen by other people who are good at this.
Are there some words that should be avoided in a sinopsis?

 

[Chessie]

How To Write A Sizzling Synopsis by Bryan Cohen.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Per Bull Durham: Don't call the umpire a rooster-sucker.

Other than that, another good thing to go to is over at agentqueryconnect.com where you can look at a bunch of synopses. Reading other people's efforts can be enlightening. Also, there is a technique below that is a good starter system, answer the questions and work your way from there.

How To Write A 1-Page Synopsis | Pub(lishing) Crawl

But in the end, the synopsis will likely just torment you nearly as much as a query letter, heh heh.

 

[Penpilot]

I just finished writing a query letter synopsis for one of my books like a couple of hours ago.

I'm assuming this is for a query letter. From my research a synopsis should be around 200 words. You can go over and under a bit. But generally, they're 200 words. I googled up a bunch of successful queries, and almost all the synopses were between 200-250 words. There were outliers that were as short as 150 words and as long as 400 words.

As for the content, focus on the main character, their main conflict, and what's driving that conflict. You don't want to get into every last detail.

IMHO part of writing a synopsis is to show the agent that you really understand your story and that you can be concise. The less you know and understand your story, the more difficult it will be to write the synopsis.

So part of the trick is to really understand your story. The other is to write, rewrite, rinse repeat until you get it as right as you can make it. When you run into trouble, google is your friend. There is tons of info out there, examples, advice, etc. You just have to sort through some of it.

To get you started off, here are a few links you can check out.

Examples of successful queries.

Successful Queries | WritersDigest.com

Here's some links to some general advice.

AgentQuery :: Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher
Query Letter Synopsis Tips: Keep It Tight With These Four Steps
Back to Basics: Writing a Novel Synopsis | Jane Friedman

 

[valiant12]

As for the content, focus on the main character, their main conflict, and what's driving that conflict. You don't want to get into every last detail.

I have 3 main characters.

 

[skip.knox]

You get good at this the same way you get good at any writing. One, write. Two, get feedback. Three, edit. Rinse and repeat.

I'm terrible at writing synopses. I bang away at it like someone who learned to play the piano using color codes. No sense of rhythm. But I do practice.

My practice consists of writing synopses of books I have read. I write three different lengths: a log line, a blurb, and a 250 word synopsis. Those correspond to the log line I'd use in a tweet or under the title in a list of books, the summary you'd read on the back of a paperback (but can be used in other contexts), and the summary found on an Amazon entry. There is also the query letter, but that's a bit of a different animal, and I've not tried writing a query letter for a known novel because there's no way to get meaningful feedback.

 

[Penpilot]

I have 3 main characters.

That's fine. Then you have to either keep what you have to say about each's arc very brief or lift yourself up out of the trenches and tell them what the story is about as a whole from a higher point of view. I mean, if you have three main characters, then there must be a story thread that connects them all, no?

Let's look at Game of Thrones. How would I write a synopsis of that? Here's what I came up with, 37 words. Obviously, it's not uber gripping, but there's 150+ words of play here that could be added to spice it up. Again, it's all about knowing the story well and what the true conflicts are without getting caught up in the nitty-gritty details.

The lords of the land find themselves in a civil war for the crown as winter approaches. Will they anoint a King in time to prepare for the long winter ahead and the coming of The Others?

 

[Demesnedenoir]

In a query with 3 "MC"'s you're going to be better off picking one as a focus... but a synopsis is a different beast. Even then, one is probably the true MC. It's a bit like a football team with 2 quarterbacks and the cliche, if you've got two, you've got none. One will have the greater arc, one will be written stronger, one will etc. etc.,... the strongest (and it might not even be the one you think or intend) and that should be your focus for a query/synopsis of the plot.

 

[Russ]

Heard a good tip from an experienced pro on this top today.

When describing the plot try to replace the word "and" with either "But" or "therefore".

So you don't write "Y happens and then X happens" you instead write "Y happens but X happens" or "Y happens therefore Z happens" which demonstrates that your plot has both proper causation and reflects that many efforts of the protagonist may well fail.

 

[skip.knox]

I agree with Russ. It's also a good way to work up a synopsis of something you have already written (in draft). The places where you can't say Y but X, or A therefore B, are places where you need some plot patching.

 

[carroll]

Examples of successful queries.

Successful Queries | WritersDigest.com

Here's some links to some general advice.

AgentQuery :: Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher
Query Letter Synopsis Tips: Keep It Tight With These Four Steps
Back to Basics: Writing a Novel Synopsis | Jane Friedman

Thank you for sharing!