I'm nowhere near writing a synopsis for my work in progress, but Emma's (very good) answer in the 'Nameless' thread about agents preferring the synopsis as 'a plain-vanilla, neutral, 3rd person description of what happens' made me think. (I didn't want to hijack Geoff's thread, so I thought I'd start a new one.)

Are you supposed to describe the plot as it unfolds, or the story as it 'really' is? What do you do if your narrative is unlinear, non-chronological and jumps around all the time?

In the same vein, what do you do with an unreliable narrator? Do you describe the story as it appears at first sight, or as it 'really' is? What if it isn't clear what 'really' happens?

I'm curious...

Yes, it's awkward when you've got a non-linear plot. I'd be inclined to describe the plot as it unfolds, fitting in what's discovered as it's discovered. 'Meanwhile' is a good flag, as is, 'Only now does Richard find out that...'

As to unreliable narrators, you can always flag them: 'To Richard, it seems as if Anne is scheming against him...', or 'Richard describes the party as a disaster, but...' and the reader will know it may not really be like that, even if you don't or can't say what actually happened.

But I think the besetting sin of synopses by the author is that they're too long - it's so difficult to decide what and who to leave out, and such agony to do it - and you may find after you've struggled to express every thread that it reads better if you extract one or more whole subplots. Particularly if it means you can reduce the number of protagonists you mention to the bare minimun, and give yourself a bit more space to describe the important ones' characteristics. I know I said 'plain vanilla', but you do need to keep publishers' blurbs in mind; it's got to be enticing too. Personally, on how much you give away of the ending, I take a middle road, and take the story right up to the end (unlike a blurb) but probably not give away exactly how it's resolved - 'And in meeting Anne again, Richard is finally forced to confront the past.'

Have you thought of joining the synopsis group? There's nothing like having other people look it over.

Emma

Thanks, Emma -- that's very helpful!

In my case, the problem is that the novel is a sort of 'faux biography', but the biographer misinterprets many things... so the biographer's narration is the complete story; it has holes in it, but the alternative story, or 'real' story, is never revealed and can only be guessed at (even I'm not quite sure about it!). This seems a bit difficult to explain in a synopsis, though hopefully not impossible...

I'll certainly have to join the synopsis group when the time comes!

Ouch - yes, awkward. Sounds fascinating though. I guess you can still flag up that he can't be trusted/believed as a narrator, and leave the rest to the reader's imagination, which is what you're doing in the novel. I don't think you need go to great lengths to explain what isn't explained in the novel - the sample chapter/s should establish how it all works for the reader.

Emma

I confess, I can't write a synopsis. Well, I haven't been able to yet. I had one up for comments, which Terry Edge kindly replied to with such a good response that I have saved it into a word doc for reference. But I still have no confidence. And I have been thinking about why and I think it down to reading.

I read. A lot. Both at work on technical documents, and in my leisure time: novels, philosophy, popular science and so on. ONe thing always gets to me when reading people's advice on here is they always say, what to me is obvious, read. Read read and read. Why else write, except if you want to read after all? And by reading we learn things about the novel, about characterisation, about plot, about theme and so on and so forth. But I don't think I have ever read a synopsis. I mean, one that is been tested and come out tops. I just do not know, beyond the facts, what should be in one and how is should be written. I don't have a clue.

Maybe Writewords or someone knows of a website that has examples that we could all read. I mean, if you don't read, you don't learn and that is currently is what I am suffering from.

JA

James, it's a good point. I suspect we all re-invent the wheel rather when we learn to write synopses, and that ought not to be necessary. There is the Synopsis group here on WW, which is a good forum for discussing these things as well as having examples, but apart from that I don't know.

I suspect one problem is since a synopsis could make Macbeth sound dull, cliche-ridden and unoriginal, most published authors would hate to think of anyone beyond the trade reading theirs. As the kind of person who, when reading the plot of the opera in the programme before it starts, has to fight down an urge to leave, because it's clearly rubbish, I know I'd be nervous of people reading mine.

Emma

This is one of those "I'm glad to know I'm not alone" moments.

I always (ha! for the last 12 months, that is - as long as I've known they were needed) understood a synopsis to be an outline intended for a publisher or agent. For that reason, I tend not to have any qualms about revealing my endings or my surprise twists. After all, if these people really want to be surprised, they can read the damn manuscript (I wish).


Alex

I had an idea while I was sleeping last night. Take a group of writers, each of whom has difficulties writing a synopsis. Make them all read the same novel (preferably a short one). Then each writer tries to write a 'marketable' synopsis of the book; when finished, the different approaches are compared.

Probably a bad one, as ideas in one's dreams tend to be, but I don't think my sleeping self was entirely misguided -- this kind of thing might teach something about the dynamics of synopsis-writing that reading & commenting on each others' synopses, for novels you're not familiar with, cannot.

I'm getting better at writing them. Don't be afraid of using phrases such as 'the action then backtracks to' etc. I always let the agent know what's going on, and later say this or that part of the plot has been 'revealed' to a certain character.

JB

Don't be afraid of using phrases such as 'the action then backtracks to'

I'm sure that's right. At (almost) all costs you need to make it clear how the story is structured, because that's the main thing an agent/editor can't tell from the sample chapter(s). How you handle characters, dialogue, voice etc. should be abundantly clear from the sample (if it isn't, what on earth are you doing sending it out yet?), but structure and to some extent plot is the one thing that won't be obvious.

Emma