Yup, what a hellish part of the writing experience. You sit there, having come to the culmination of a year or so slog, and some faceless company now wants you to rewrite your whole novel, only 500 pages shorter!

So, you got one page buddy - two at max - to 'sum up' your genius. You got 'one shot' to 'squeeze in' all the drama and emotion of your artistry, in order to 'make it sell'.

There's something really soulless about a synopsis. Especially when, for the life of you, you can't condense the plot into anything less that four pages without making it illegible.

Help!

JB

PS: Next time, I think I'll go for something simple, plot-wise. TA has so many offshoots and subplots it's like a battle zone in there!

It's the worst job in the whold writing process, isn't it. I always end up feeling that the novel is complete rubbish, unoriginal, trite, perfunctory, plodding, to long, too short... and am tempted to tear it up and take up something less traumatic, like brain surgery.

The only solution I've found is to think of it as an extended blurb, which is more about making the main characters sound compelling and their initial situation ripe for exciting change, and then hinting (no more) something about the ways in which these changes come about. I save the blow-by-blow scene-by-scene synopsis, that makes me want to cut my throat, for catching up the members of my writing workshop. They're the only ones who need to know every last characters and their threads.

Emma

<Added>

whold? I mean whole

JB, I've asked DB to clear a space for you in the S&O group, if you want to join up for the duration.

Dee

Thanks Dee, I've put myself forward for selection.

Emma - I really want to get this thing pegged. I guess I need help, so I'm relying on WW for this!

JB

Welcome to the group, JB.

Dee

I'd certainly say, don't give away the ending, and give a flavour of the style of the voice/s - perhaps with a line or two quoted from them, if one explains things as well as you could do. And the thing I never do enough is to put in something about the subtext, and your authorial comment, and the patterns of ideas and images, alongside a very streamlined version of the plot.

It's also so hard to write prose that's as compelling as your novel is, but it's so important. This is a marketing tool, not a précis, and you need to prove you can write, and explain in sufficiently arousing way just why the whole novel is so exciting.

Emma

<Added>

JB, I'm not sure your description of the plot needs to be legible, or even all that comprehensible, just intriguing. I've just checked the last synopsis I wrote for Shadows in the Glass (shortly to be renamed, if Headline have their way!), and realise that of 1 side of A4, 11pt Times, only about 2/3rds is actually about the plot at all. And this for a novel of 140,000 words.

Hi Emma,

Well, there is still a fair amount of editing to do as some sections are a little 'wordy'.

Thanks for your comment. It's strange, but I have read and recieved exactly the opposite advice. I understood that you had to effectively show exactly how you got from A to B, a little about the isnpiration of the book (though that is usually in the covering letter) and never - I mean never - keep an agent or publisher in the dark about finales! The writers and artists yearbook states that quite clearly. If you play mystery games with them, they are likely to just pass it over.

Personally, I think a concise synopsis helps only if the story is easily explained. There is no point cramming a complex plot into three paragraphs. It will just seem illegible, and that is far far worse than too long.

The synopsis for my first novel was three pages long, and I recieved three compliments from agents and publishers about it. It explained a very compex story in an undersandable snippet. My new synopsis is currently four, but too long for what it is I feel.

My idea is to have a lengthier synopsis for where it's allowed, and then have an edited version of two pages for the agents requesting that.

JB

Yes, I've heard both versions too. All I can say is that I've tried my version on various agents and editors, and they've agreed with it, so there must be some who like it that way. I don't actually think you want to not give away the plot, just its final resolution. My novel is 140,000, with two entirely separate plot strands, each with a full set of characters, complicated patterns of imagery and ideas, and then a set of letters which exist in both narratives, and a series of nightmares. I don't think I left out any important elements. But it took longer to draft than any 500 words in the novel itself!

Emma

Garrrgggh, they are annoying. Mine is currently 1500 words. Much too long. I'm going to post it in synopsis soon, and we can all tear it apart.

JB

JB, it doesn’t sound as if you’re too far off.

The Winter House is 113,000 words, 408 pages. Its synopsis is 1,400 words, 3 pages single spaced.

My last agent was happy to accept single-spaced synopses and I once heard Teresa Chris saying that most agents are the same.

Post it up and let’s have a look.

Dee

I don't think any agent/editor minds single spacing for a synopsis. I do mine in 11pt, which helps to make it look shorter, and no one seems to mind that either. They only want double spacing on a MS because they might want to scribble on it.

Emma

Thanks Dee my lovely

My book will be about 140,000 words , probaly more like 130,000 once it's edited. Editing is fun. Editing is fun. I just keep telling myself that.

Anyway, I'll post it this weekend.

JB

Just skimmed through this, but all this talk of condensing work got me thinking about a Woody Allen joke; "I just did a speed reading course. I read War and Peace in less than half an hour. It's about Russia."

Colin

Wonderful Colin! He certainly had some good 'uns!

I like these ones:

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
Robert Heinlein

Television has raised writing to a new low.
Samuel Goldwyn

Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you.
Cyril Connolly

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
Thomas Mann

The last one is very applicable to the synopsis!

JB

Any beads of blood forming on your brow yet, JB? That's one of my favourites.

Emma