How to Write a (Bloody) Synopsis

Yet again, I grit my teeth and show you a real life example from my work

Last week I submitted a new manuscript to my agent. EXCITING, right? Well, yes, right, it is. But she just asked for a synopsis. 

ARGH. 

I bloody HATE writing synopsises. Everyone hates writing them!! But they are REALLY important, so let’s suck it up and get started. I’ll take you through my process of writing the synopsis of my current WIP to illustrate the steps.

The purpose of a synopsis is for an agent (or editor, or other industry professional) to get a detailed overview of the action of your novel. They will combine this with your writing sample to assess whether they want to read the whole novel, or pass on it. This might seem terribly unfair - what if your third act looks messy in summary, but on the page you really nail it? Sadly, it isn’t and you won’t. This really is enough information for them to make this decision. If you’re genuinely clear on your thinking and development in the draft, you will be able to write a clear synopsis, even if it’s difficult and time consuming. If you genuinely can’t, you probably need to do more work on the shape of the full length manuscript.