What is a synopsis?
Before we start…
Black Blade Literary has a lot of experience writing synopses. So, if you’re still unsure about these important documents after reading our article, we’d be happy to offer our services. Whether you want us to edit a synopsis you’ve already written, create a synopsis from your novel plan, or even read your entire novel and create a new synopsis on your behalf, please get in touch!
What is a synopsis and what is it used for?
Basically, it’s a summary of your book!
Agents and publishers may ask for a synopsis when you submit your book for them to consider. They need the synopsis so they can quickly see what happens in your full story. This might help them to identify any story-elements which might need work, they might use it to promote/pitch your book (an agent might use parts of your synopsis to try to sell your book to a publisher, for example) or it can just be a handy reminder of your book’s story and themes (it can be easy to forget or mis-remember every single book they read, after all).
If you’ve ever looked into finding an agent or publisher before now, then you might have noticed that different agents and publishers may ask for a different length of synopsis. For example, one agent might ask for a 1-page synopsis, whereas another agent might ask for 3 pages. Therefore, when searching for an agent or publisher for your book, it’s often a good idea to have several synopses of different lengths, to suit their preferences. We recommend starting with a longer synopsis (which most people find easier to write) and then trying to reduce it. It’s a bit like thickening a sauce to intensify the flavour!
Another great reason to write a synopsis, is for your personal use and development as a writer. Writing a synopsis can be tricky, but it can also train you to summarise your book more succinctly. Doing this will show you which parts of your story are necessary to tell, and which might not need to be focussed on. This process can also help you to see if there are any weaker points in the plot or themes, and you can edit your book to improve it.
Summarising your story down to a quick one-line or one-paragraph description is also a useful skill when seeking an agent or publisher, as they often ask writers to “pitch books” – which essentially means to share the bare bones of your book idea. Pitches are usually very short, even just a sentence as a tweet. And then there’s the infamous “elevator pitch”. An elevator pitch is again just a brief description of your book, based on this premise: imagine you’re in an elevator with a publisher and need to tell them about your story before they arrive at their floor and get off!
So, hopefully you can see that writing a strong synopsis is really important – a strong synopsis might grab the attention of a publisher or agent. It can also help you to find areas to improve your book, and train you to better pitch your ideas. It could make the difference between landing a book deal or not.
What should I include (and not include) in a synopsis?
The key thing to remember is: keep it simple.
That might sound easy, but many writers (including writers who have published many books) find it difficult to condense an entire novel into one page. They are so invested, involved and excited by their book that they can’t help but write out every single plot point into their synopsis.
This isn’t necessary. The synopsis should tell an agent or publisher a few important things:
· Who is the book intended for?
We think it is important to identify your ideal reader with a few brief details. You ought to mention the genre (for example: epic fantasy, dystopian sci-fi, paranormal horror), age of your reader (especially if they are kids or young adult) and length of your book (number of words, not pages).
· The key themes of your book
This doesn’t need to be a long, deep and philosophical explanation. Again, keep it brief by stating some of the key themes that your book explores (for example: family ties, fighting against inequality, nature, fear).
· The main plot points
An agent or publisher needs to know what happens in the book. Don’t try to keep it mysterious, even if you have a plot twist. In fact, you must put plot twists in if they’re important to the overall plot of the book. But you also don’t need to list everything that happens, just the most important parts. You’re essentially telling a story about your characters, so try to think of the most important things that happen to them, and how it changes them. Which brings us to the next point…
· The main character arcs
A character arc basically means “how a character changes through the story and what happens to them”. For many readers, the character arc is “as important” or “more important” than the plot/what happens. Sprinkle these changes through your synopsis: at the start, you might mention how the character lives their life and views the world. Later, something might happen to them which changes their view somewhat. By the end, perhaps they have completely changed because of what’s happened to them. Not every character necessary needs a huge arc which changes a lot about them, but they should undergo some kind of change through the story – and therefore it needs some attention in the synopsis.
· The ending
This one is simple: tell us what happens at the end of the book. Some writers don’t want to “spoil the ending” but that’s not what a synopsis is for. An agent or publisher needs to know what happens, so just tell them!
And what things should you NOT include? We’ve seen a lot of synopses in our time, and there are a few unnecessary things which some writers have included. Such as…
· Their life story / biography
· Their inspiration for the book
· Quotes about their book
· Reviews from friends and family
· Information about their other books
· Links to websites
· The list goes on…
Example
We thought you might find it useful to see a brief example of everything we’ve mentioned in this article. We haven’t shared a whole synopses (and this is not for a real book!) but hopefully this sample will give you a taste of the elements to include.
* Note: this is only a sample of a synopsis for a made-up novel.
** You do not need to break up the plot with numbers as we have in the example above, that is only to show that there are several parts to the plot description (although some writers might break their plot into chapters)