|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
There’s one thing an author dreads more than anything else. Synopsis writing. Of course there are those sick puppies who love to write them, but we won’t talk about those people.
So, where do you start? Start with the characters, and what has put them on this path they’ll be following in your book.
Here’s an example from Spring Fever:
Debbie Brown is 28 years old, and dreaming of retirement. Her job at a mental health facility might drive her insane, her mother wants to marry her off, and the most gorgeous, and frustrating guy she’s ever met just moved into the house next door.See, that was easy, wasn’t it? We just gave a few insights to the characters. We know their ages, what they do for a living, and what’s going on in their lives when we, the readers become voyeurs.Assistant record producer, Gerald Holmes just turned thirty. He also just moved to a new city, lost his girlfriend to an old pal, bought a new house, and met the most bizarre woman he’s ever seen.
Now the events. All you have to do is lay down the bare bones of what moves the story along. Most publishers prefer one page for every ten-thousand words.
Let’s sneak a peek at Debbie and Gerald again, shall we?
One Monday morning, Debbie awakens to find she’s out of coffee, the cure all elixir. After her shower, she busily chips petrified instant coffee with a steak knife. The doorbell interrupts her, and clad in her bath-towel, she answers the door brandishing the steak knife.Here we have the highlights to most of the first chapter, and the first meet that gives Gerald a strange first impression of our heroine, and his future wife.The startled, yet attractive man on the other side of the door asks if she has lost a cat, or knows where the white long-haired animal in his arms belongs. Debbie suggests it belongs to the old neighbors, and returns to her coffee carving.
From here, all you have to do is condense the high points. I suggest writing one paragraph about each scene. Then if that is too much, pick out the most important scenes.
What are the important scenes? The scenes that keep the story moving toward the happily ever after, introduce a conflict, or give some information that is tied to the ending.
Remember to keep your voice in your synopsis. Use words you used in the manuscript. This will help you maintain the tone. You wouldn’t want a romantic comedy to turn dry and dull in the synopsis, or any kind of romance for that matter.
Next all you have to do is wrap it up. I won’t show you Debbie and Gerald’s happily ever after. The book is coming out in May of 2005. You can read it then, but I will show you another story, that hasn’t yet been published.
Samantha realizes she left her purse in Mark’s office when she stormed out. What kind of explanation could she give him for leaving it, much less coming back? She’d already showed him she was a fool. He gave her reasons for his actions, and she couldn’t accept them. He was telling the truth. She knew it. She was lying. She knew that too, but he’d never understand the truth.TADA! There is the resolution of the black moment, and the happily ever after. This was actually the last chapter and epilogue. Believe it or not, you just read 20 pages of manuscript compressed into a few paragraphs.After debating it with herself aloud in the ladies’ room, Samantha hatches a plan to get her purse, and never have to look at Mark’s wounded brown eyes again. She could be out of his life forever.
Mark holds her purse in his hands. She was in such a hurry to get away from him, she’d left it behind. What could he do? Mail it? Hand deliver it, and get the flat side of her hand across his face?
Candice (Mark’s secretary) enters his office and holds out her hand for the purse. He knows Samantha has come back for it. He shakes his head, and charges out to the woman he knows he has to have. But the office is empty.
Mark asks his secretary where she is. Candice clamps her mouth shut and shakes her head, while pointing to her desk.
He slowly walks around to the chair, then quickly peeks under. A sheepish Samantha is sitting under the desk pulling her mini-skirt to cover what she now showed.
Down on his hands and knees, Mark explains that he knows about her arrest. He knows about the time she spent in jail, and he also knows she was framed. She had struck out of his office too fast to hear him out.
Later that year Samantha and Mark sail off to the Bahamas for a much deserved honeymoon, and Roger Crider looked out from behind bars for embezzlement, lying under oath and obstruction of justice, also much deserved.
Notice that the tense is always in the present. A synopsis should be immediate, and to the point. If the synopsis meanders, the editor will be more likely to lose interest. If the editor loses interest, there is a rejection in your future, and I don’t need a crystal ball to tell you that.
Another thing to remember is to keep it short and sweet. Most publishers want one page for every ten-thousand words.
So, here’s a run down: