Writing Tips

Synopsis - Part Two

The easiest thing to do when writing a synopsis is to first break it down step by step.

Get (or make) your outline:

First, you must distill the story into something more concentrated, more measurable--something you can grasp easily with just a glance.  It will help you to pinpoint the most important plot points.  If you have filled out the Four Structure outline before you have ever written the book, you will already be in good standing.  You will know what the most important points of the book are, and what points are only for emotional effect or subplot.  But, if you have written your book first and never even created an 'after you wrote each scene' summary or outline, then you are going to have to read over one chapter at a time and write down a very short description of it.  Condense each chapter into one to two sentences.  These are the things we need to know:

Main characters

MC's goals, outlook, default action, hidden emotional need (usually shown in fears)

Obstacles and antagonist (and why)

Failures, successes, consequences

Resolutions

Take note of any themes

Take note of dramatic questions (Will the unicorn get its horn back?)

Think of the beginning and ending of each of your chapters as cause and effect.  You may not have listed all of the above items on each part of your outline, but you will certainly need to have written most of them for each of the four sections, as defined on my outline posts.  As a reminder, these are the four outline sections that make up the entire book's outline:

Opening to Inciting Incident

Inciting Incident to Midpoint

Midpoint to Black Moment

Black Moment to Ending

You can find a lot of helpful information on the Three-Act Structure and some basic terminology from @CJLyons's wattpad book WRITE YOUR NOVEL: Tips from a NYT Bestseller.  She does a wonderful job explaining a lot of technical terminology, breaking it down into usable tips, helping you to pinpoint what is important in each chapter or scene.  She even reveals the best place to insert the inciting incident, more or less.  I learned a lot from her, and I began creating my own techniques after I understood her methods clearly.  It's shown me quite a few weak spots in my current stories, and how I can go about tightening them up.

Once you have the outline finished, you will be ready for the next step.  Just don't transcribe the outline directly into paragraph form for the synopsis.  If you do, it will be a dry and boring bare-bones creation that will probably mummify your reader's eyeballs.  It will have that ugly linear appearance of  "First this happens, then his happens, then this happens..." 

The Opening:

First, you must create the opening for the synopsis.  You will need to give the same information the first chapter did, or will, introduce--but it will need to be simplified so the agent / publisher has a foundation to stand upon when he or she reads your synopsis.

Look at the outline you have created.  From the outline, you are going to be looking for a way to convey the setting, crises, and character.  Briefly.  Very briefly.  Just a couple of sentences.  We need to know what the character must do, which will set him on the journey that will change his life.  We need to know WHAT put him on that journey, and we need to see what kind of character he is, as well as get a glimpse of his ordinary world--the world before Crap Happened.  The inciting incident should crop up very quickly, probably by the end of the first paragraph, or by the beginning of the second.  (That would be approximately 10% of the way into the novel itself, usually, which means it's also about 10% of the way into the synopsis.)

Here is an example of a ridiculous, silly opening that has what it needs, and you'll notice it is NOT a "First this happens, then this, then this...etc.":

PAULI is a talking chicken ghost who haunts an orphaned girl, MINDY.  Pauli's ability to see into the future has encouraged her to protect Mindy so the child genius can invent a machine that warps time and brings Pauli back to life--as a human.  She has always dreamed of being at the top of the food chain.

Make sure the flavor of the synopsis (voice) matches that of the book.  Here is the list of what is needed for the opening again:

Motivation

Emotion

Setting

Inciting Incident

Theme

Now I will go over a few more things that you will need to write into the synopsis.  It will be followed by another post with an example synopsis and a broken down version of it.  Many people learn best by seeing examples, so I figured I would make one for you.

Plot basics to put into the synopsis:

Setting - Give the agent something to stand on.  Show main character, personality, default action (how they act in their normal lives before they need to change and adapt in order to survive through the story.)  Consider themes and how to write them into the story and synopsis.  Example themes: Trusting Others / Is Money Everything?  Think about lessons we learn in life, and address those which are vital to the center of the story.  Also think of dramatic questions, which are the things written in a story that make readers turn pages, looking for the resolution.  Say, the MC has been shoved into a trunk at her sister's wedding, where her sister's husband was shot.  We're gonna want to know why, all the way up until after the MC escapes, does some digging, has a lot of fighting to do, and finally makes it back home and solves the mystery that's not only haunted the character, but the reader.  Those are dramatic questions, and they're every size and shape, strewn across the plot.  Sometimes for the sole purpose of character growth, sometimes to further the plot, and sometimes for foreshadowing or intentional red herrings, or other reasons.

Inciting Incident - This begins the MC's journey and reason to change and reveals the MC's default actions, thoughts, reactions, and goals.  It shows how he cracks under pressure the first time, how his world changes about him, propelling him into a need to evolve.  Most often, he resists change at first, and what worked for him before no longer works for him.  The mentor figure offers advice or pushes the character in a new direction.  Sometimes the main character clashes with the mentor.  Relationships may be one way at the beginning of the novel, change drastically in the middle, and mend or completely break by the end.  Reveal this if it is pertinent to the main plot of the book.

Events - Reveal obstacles, antagonists, and other opposition to the main goals.  This is where the character tries a new approach but it fails.  The old approach is worse, however, and finally, he learns he must rely on help, or some new event occurs and pushes the character into another attempt to change. 

Climax - This is the final event that determines whether or not the MC's goal will be achieved.  (Maybe the character NEED is the one that is met instead, in which case you should make it obvious.  Something must be learned.  And remember that desires and needs are two separate things which often clash and even cause tension.)  At the climax, all hell breaks loose and the character hits a black moment where all seems lost.  The goal is unattainable, relationships are fractured, everything--or the most important thing--seems helpless / useless / worthless.

Resolution - Show us whether or not each goal was achieved.  Sometimes the resolution mirrors the setting in some way; however it always shows the character has grown / learned a valuable lesson.  The character either fails or accomplishes his goal, or he meets an unknown personal need that teaches him to live life a new way.  His is either better off because of what has happened in the book, or he is worse off than when he first began.  Reveal the emotional effects of the character's journey.

Now you may move on to the next post, where I will reveal an example synopsis, and then I will break it down for you.