Came back and found the old Synopsis & Outline group mothballed due to neglect, so I propose we start a new group called Synopsis and Query, dealing with that old bug bear the synopsis, but also short pitches found in US-style Queries:


http://www.writewords.org.uk/groups/proposed_groups.asp?group_id=55

Wow, you're back, Naomi. Lovely to see you again. :-)

I'll join, Naomi - feel a bit bad that I haven't been contributing very much recently due to pressure of rewrites, but determined to make a better showing this year

Glad to see you here, Naomi.

Welcome back, Naomi!

Ooooh, good idea Naomi, and lovely to see you back!

Well we'll see how it goes. If there's not enough interest I'll go back to Authonomy ( the Wild Wild West of writers forums) and you're welcome to find me there.

Welcome back Naomi! You've been much missed.

I'll join because I'm really not very good at synopsis. Maybe I'll learn a thing or two.

I don't know anyone who likes doing a synopsis - they're utter pigs to write, and I'd always comforted myself with the notion (not plucked out of thin air, I read it in various books/blogs)
that agents looked on the synopsis as a sort of afterthought.

However, I went on to have a report done on my submission package, and it was made very clear to me that the synopsis just wasn't pulling its weight. I revised it (for what felt like the hundredth time), and not too long afterwards, I bagged an agent!

I'll never enjoy writing a synopsis, but I've learned my lesson, and from now on I'll pay it proper attention!

I see the synopsis as something best done at the start of the editing stage to help you edit the completed manuscript, not left until the last minute when you're gearing up to submit to agents, because by then writers are loath to make any of the necessary structural changes it throws up.

I've talked to a lot of writers about what makes a successful synopsis/submission package (and by success, I mean ones that have sold the book in question or at least received clear acknowledgement from publishers/agents that they've worked, even if not in the specific moment). I've sold several books and lots of stories myself through a submission process I've put together over the years, and which is constantly changing. I was just today talking to a writer who's sold four books via his own submission package. What he said is that he doesn't follow any particular rules because he believes what's most important is enthusiasm coupled with the air of knowing what you're talking about.

I agree. There's a line, I think, below which you can have all the technical knowledge in the world, of what's supposed to make a good synopsis but if it's not accompanied by what comes above the line, it's never going to work. What's above the line? Well, at the moment I'd say it's a seamless blend of desire, professionalism, deep knowledge, right kind of humour, leadership, and the aura of success. Okay, what do you do if you haven't yet had any success? Assume it. Project forward, into the kind of writer you want to be, and work back out from there. The last thing you want to do is spend your time practising writing synopses or even studying them. That's all below the line stuff.

Because the last thing any editor or agent wants to read is a synopsis that's technically perfect but lacks any kind of buzz, drive, creativity.

The last thing you want to do is spend your time practising writing synopses or even studying them. That's all below the line stuff.

Terry, you have masses more experience than me, and I do get what you're saying, but the synopsis has to be up to the standard of the rest of the submission package, surely? And in my case - and that's all I can legitimately talk about - it definitely wasn't.

So I really do think there is a case for having a few practice goes at a synopsis - and then getting trustworthy feedback on it - before sending out submission packages.

Welcome back, Naomi, it's great to have you here again. Happy New Year!

Terry, you have masses more experience than me, and I do get what you're saying, but the synopsis has to be up to the standard of the rest of the submission package, surely? And in my case - and that's all I can legitimately talk about - it definitely wasn't.

Of course it does. But what I'm trying to say is that 'standard' means in terms of containing the same passion and drive as the manuscript. And studying techniques, formats, rules, etc, is only going to kill that. You're a great writer, and I know it sounds tough, but the key to a great synopsis lies more in freeing the creativity in yourself than it does in nailing down the form. You can always do form later. And the clue to that lies in what you're really trying to achieve with your writing.

It goes a bit like this, I think:

FORM - CREATIVITY/FREEDOM/ACCOMPLISHMENT/REASSESSMENT OF WHY YOU WRITE - FORM

In the middle section, you abandon form and rules, trusting to ability and courage (to explore creativity). Then you come back to form when you want to explain it to anyone else.

What you don't want to do is get stuck in form at the first stage. One way to do that is to spend a lot of time studying what other writers do with their synopses, or following agents' advice, etc.