I hope it would not be too greedy to ask this wonderful community, who have done a lot to help me with my story, to also help me with its synopsis. I have to admit that, as much as I enjoy writing stories, I would rather spend a week hanging by my toes in Guantanamo than write a bleeding synopsis.

I’m saying this because every bit of advice I’ve read so far about writing those loathsome things made me hate that task even more. It seems to me that what I have to do is to strangle the fun and suspense out of my story and shrink its corpse into something that would fit within one page. Or so is what my synopsis-hating soul would like to believe.

Anyway, my question, the one I need your help with, is as follows: Is it necessary, when writing that bloody thing, to adhere to the same sequence I followed in the chapters of my story? Or can I write it using a totally different sequence, as long as a full and conclusive summary is presented?

Let us assume, for instance, that my story is about a girl who accidentally discovers that her beloved father is a sex-crazed serial killer. And let us assume that my first chapter is about a crime being committed, and the second chapter is about a cop who is trying to find out the identity of the killer, and that the girl, around whom the whole story revolves, doesn’t show up until, say, chapter three.
Let us also assume that, due to the YWO’s 7000 words limit, only the first two chapters were submitted and thus the girl, though mentioned in the first chapter, did not really show up in the excerpt.

Is there some papal bull that obliges me to begin my synopsis with the crime, then the cop then the girl, and so on? Or am I free to follow whatever sequence that pleases me? Even if I start with the girl in order to emphasize her central role?

Your help will be highly appreciated.

Hello John

I'm also struggling with this and probably for similar reasons.

I am not sure if I'm supposed to give the reviewer confidence that the entire novel is plotted out carefully and allude to the plot-twist and denoument.

Or, whether I'm supposed to write it as a synopsis of the 3 chapters they will be reviewing. Am I offering a precise of what they will read, or what the novel will be in its entireity?

Worry, worry....

You can email me if you want to do a mutual support/edit/review-of-synopsis/counselling session!

Congratulations by the way

On turning fact into fiction: African Violet blogpost on Sue Howe's site: http://howesue.wordpress.com/

My feelings exactly. Hate writing the bloody things. Trying to do one now for my current novel, which presents the challenge of trying to condense two parallel narratives - one present day, one in 1980. That's fun!

Someone on here suggested a good way to do it is to start with a long synopsis of maybe three or four pages, covering all the major plot points in a fair amount of detail. Then, condense that down to a two page synopsis and from there, down to a one page outline.

Doing it in stages is perhaps less daunting, and also, whatever an agent or editor requests you've covered all bases.

Best of luck.

x
'Stay away from your potential. It's like your bank balance. There's never as much of it as you think.'

Thanks so much from me On turning fact into fiction: African Violet blogpost on Sue Howe's site: http://howesue.wordpress.com/

It is and it isn't. I read one agent who a family member of mine is with, state that the synopsis is absolutely the last thing she reads in any submission. "A,B&E", "Not In My Name" and "52FF" (flash fiction anthology) all available on Amazon Kindle

"How a psychopath makes sweet love. I can get you ringside. Royal box even."