Margaret West
Tricks to write a shorter synopsis
You have edited and polished your manuscript to death and now you need to send off a stack of query letters to different agents/publishers. The dreaded synopsis is finished…BUT…
…it’s six pages long. That’s okay in some instances, but what happens when you come across someone who wants a ONE page synopsis? Shock, horror, how can you condense 6 pages into one?
Here are a few of my tricks.
1. The page should be single spaced with one space in between paragraphs and are right-aligned with no indents and 1-inch margins.
2. Reduce the font to Times New Roman 11pt. Yes; it is small, but still
readable!
3. Go through the synopsis and find the turning points. Remove any
extraneous sentences.
4. Think about rewording. Can you make some sentences smaller. For Example.
Abigail doesn’t want Justin to touch the child. He might kill him.
change to
Abigail fears Justin will kill her child.
Here you have just got rid of five words without changing the meaning of the sentence. It will also make the synopsis sharper – more concise.
5. Remove flowery description. You don’t need it in a synopsis.
6. DON’T repeat full names. Put in the action and emotions, but leave out what the place they are in looks like. Unless it’s haunted or something more that needs to be highlighted about the room.
7. You’re telling whoever reads this synopsis what the story is about, so don’t include dialogue.
BIO
Born in England, Margaret moved to the Kent countryside five years ago to get away from the busy life in London. She married with two grown up children and has worked in various fields of work. She is a Clairknowing medium, Crystal Therapist, Parapsychologist and Psychic Development tutor.
She’s been writing over 20 years and has numerous short stories, novels and articles published. Margaret writes romance and paranormals. Incorporating her spiritual experiences, into her books.
@AngelaKayAustin
September 27th, 2010 at 10:02 am
Thank you for having me here today Angela.
September 27th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Oh wow, Margaret.
Great tips. I always sweat buckets writing both synopsis and querys. I’m going to copy this and save to my “tips on writing” file. Ahem, now can you give us some tips on querys?
September 27th, 2010 at 10:50 am
What a good post, margaret. I copied and pasted your ideas. Hope you don’t mind
September 27th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
Margaret, thanks for dropping by. These are some great suggestions. I will definitely keep them in mind the next time I write a synopsis.
September 27th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
wonderful tips, margaret.
September 27th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Actually Lorie, I do have some tips for querys. I’ll save that for another blog!!!
September 27th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Good advice, Margaret, but I wonder about the font size. Don’t agent’s demand a decent size to spare their eye-sight?
September 28th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Great tips Margaret. I agree, writing synopses and queries are nerve-wracking! Trimming wordiness is a definite plus.