I'm working on a synopsis for my novel, and a couple of comments I've received on a tentative early draft have been made regarding my style/tone/voice, and have said that the tone in the synopsis does not match that of the book.

And it got me thinking, should the voice be the same in both or should the creative story-telling voice be reserved for the story, and a professional voice used in the synopsis? Or should we be trying to give the agent or whoever's going to be reading the synopsis a taste of our author's voice in the synopsis?

Looking forward to your opinions.

Cheers,

Nik.

I think a synopsis shouldn't be in the tone of the book, unless the book itself has a very cool, third-person, omniscient narrator. What a synopsis is doing is showing that you can develop and finish a plot and how you do it, and it needs to show that as efficiently and neutrally as possible. It can still be lively, while being neutrally written; you could think blurb, if it helps. It's the sample chapters that should be showing what your and your characters' voices are like.

(On the other hand, anyone whose prose in the novel sounds too like a synopsis has probably got some work to do, unless they're Michael Crichton, in which case a Hollywood contract awaits. )

Emma

Hey Two-desks! (Sorry!)

That's what I thought and what I was aiming for.

This is where I'm up to at the mo - any thoughts? I'm worried I'm heading towards it being too casual.

ANITA AND THE WOLF-THING
Synopsis

A book for 8-12 year olds.


The night is filled with surprises.
One minute Anita Stewart is walking home after school hockey practice. The next she is lying beneath a snarling wolf-thing called Abbot, who, it turns out, has just saved her life.
On Abbot’s instruction, she runs home to her father,
but when she arrives she discovers he is not there and neither is Meagan, her cat. Instead she is confronted by a terrifying bird and appears to be staring death in the face.
Abbot comes to her rescue and whisks her away, over the garden fence, through the fields, through a lake, to Volgende, a world which sits next to Earth.
Anita finds out, through Abbot, that her father knows a secret which, if revealed, would spell the end of the world. He has been imprisoned in the Ruby Tower, a monument to magic which he designed, by the very person he was trying to keep the secret from. It is down to Anita, Abbot, and Arabella, a mother she never knew she had, to rescue him. With a little help from her cat, Meagan, and a mysterious gift she is given.
But the quest to save her father turns into a mission to save the whole world as well, and to do it she needs to fulfil an ancient prophecy, one that says Anita can travel in her dreams and is able to drive away the darkness that has hung over the words since she was born.
Through her journey Anita learns about herself, her family, forgiveness, promises, trust and friendship.
It’s a lot for a twelve year old to do, but Anita’s not your average girl…

While not being written in the style of the book itself, I think a synopsis should if possible give a 'taste' of what the book's like - via its tone, or perhaps a quote or two. I don't think your synopsis yet manages to convey Anita's very special qualities, Nik.

Frances

<Added>

However, Emma knows whereof she speaks!

It's a difficult question, Nik and i agree with Emma, any potential agent is going to read your letter, read your synopsis and then sit back and wait to be grabbed by the actual manuscript itself.

For my writing the answer is easy, as i don't think my humourous chick-lit style would be appropriate for the synopsis which is the agent's first taste of me as a professional, after the covering letter.

As i'm sure you're aware, sometimes on an agent's website they will say what they want from a synopsis.

Based on my very limited experience, i do feel your's is maybe a titch factual, and maybe you could try and impregnate it with some of the magic of the story, some of the mystery?

Hey, sod the 8-12 year olds, i want to read it!

Sammy

Thanks for your help everyone.

I've had another crack at it. If anyone would like to offer any more thoughts you can find it here:

http://www.writewords.org.uk/groups/show_article.asp?group_id=80&article_id=14473

Thanks again,

Nik.

I'm not at all sure I do know of what I speak, specially as I've zilch experience of writing for 8-12s, or of synopsising them, (the writing, not the 12yr olds) but I know what Frances means about giving some kind of flavour of it. I have used quotes - to give the voice - darned into the neutral narrative:

He writes of his soldiering life, but, as he tells her, the images of the past that I carry with me are eaten away by the bitterness of that day on St Peter’s Field.

so you don't necessarily have to opt wholly for one or the other. And yes, I want to read Anita too...

Emma

Ah, thanks Emma. You're too kind!

Good idea about adding a quote. I'd have never thought of that. Mmm, he ponders!

Cheers,

Nik.

I hate synopses – they ruin the plot

- says Emma Barnes, publisher, Snowbooks (see most recent WriteWords interview)

Haha. Too true!

Nik.

I would think that a synopsis should not be written in the tone of the book, but it should reflect it somehow. I would expect a synopsis for a fast-paced blockbuster with lots of locations and a big cast of characters to use different language and pace to one for a very considered literary novel with pared down language, for example. I've recently written a synopsis for the former type of book, and it was really hard, but I did find that thinking in terms of blurb and the general 'feel' of the book, helped me to pitch the tone at the right level.

Yup, I couldn't agree more, Jess. Thanks for posting.

Nik.

No problem Nik, I've added a few comments to your synopsis thread, hope they help a little.

Ah, cheers, Jess. I'll go and have a gander.