Writing a literary synopsis -- the short road to a long tale

 In my previous post about writing literary query letters, I teased the possibility of one of their complements, a story synopsis. At last, I'm willing to discuss synopsis writing. In fact, I just wrote one myself.

But not entirely by myself. Because once again I climbed on the shoulders of other, better writers of this form. As with the previous post, I urge actually reading the complete words of wisdom from writers Caro Clarke (The synopsis: what it is, what it isn't, and how to write it) and Susan Dennard (How to write a 1-page synopsis).

Are there whimpers of panic at the mention of one page?

Unless our agent insists on a single page, synopses can run a bit longer, maybe one to two pages. But remember, as with agent gripes about too-lengthy query letters, their patience can run short on the overly-long.

First, a little housekeeping. As previously mentioned, the query letter itself should be written in third person to avoid confusion about which words are the author's and which are the character's. The synopsis, however, is strictly first person. The only words it contains are those of the author (although giving glimpses of a main character's voice may be OK).

Image by Melanie from Pixabay

Did I neglect to state what a synopsis is? It's an outline of the story, although without Roman numerals and all that stuff we may have learned in high school English class. It's not the novel's themes, relevance, or even comparison titles. Just the facts, ma'am. What actually happened, all the way to the end. Spoilers included.

So, we've got a several-hundred-word novel to boil down to one (maybe two) pages. How is that even possible?

For this, I particularly love Dennard's outline, imagined as a movie:

1. Opening image -- setting the stage for the story
2. Protagonist intro -- a few words about the main character and what they want
3. Inciting incident -- what prompts the main character to take action
4. Plot point 1 -- the first action/decision that changes the story's direction
5. Conflicts & character encounters -- new life, new people, plus antagonist/villain
6. Midpoint -- the 180 degree change from which there is no turning back
7. Winning seems imminent, but. . . -- the main character thinks they'll win but oh no!
8. Black moment -- the main character must find the guts to get through this nadir
9. Climax -- the final struggle between the main character and the antagonist
10. Resolution -- happy ever after (or not), plus typing up loose ends
11. Final image -- has the main character succumbed or built a new life?

Sounds a lot like the Hero's Journey we probably took a class about, yes?

Dennard's outline is based on her favorite movie, Star Wars (A New Hope). But not every story needs to feature do-or-die stakes or light saber-flashing action. To steal another example from the book How to Tell a Story, courtesy of public radio's Moth narrative experts, what the main character wants can be as simple as "I'll get these pretzels out of this (expletive deleted) vending machine, even if I have to break the glass!"

Finally, a few more housekeeping issues. Avoid subplots unless there's a half-page of blank space (as if!) at the end of your first page. Ditto, limit named characters to the protagonist, possibly a side kick or love interest, and the antagonist (Evil Vending Machine?).

If any other characters must be mentioned, use only their titles/descriptors (alien princess, repair person, etc.). Some writers (agents, editors, etc.) want the first mention of characters' names to be ALL CAPS/BOLD FACE. When in doubt, check the agent's/editor's website for specifics.

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Still to come -- comparison titles. I blogged about agent Amy Collins' takes on these in my March 3, 2023, post, "From manuscript to published book: Part 2," but other agents have suggestions as well.   

From manuscript to published book: Part 1

 If writers think getting a literary agent's eyes on our manuscripts is tough, wait till you hear how many eyes the agent has to get to sell that precious opus. A bunch, according to Amy Collins of the Talcott Notch Agency, speaking at the DFW Writers Conference. (Which, yes, was last fall, but there was so much to cover I'm still digesting it all.)

Amy Collins herself knows the publishing industry from multiple perspectives -- as agent as well as a book buyer, sales director for a non-fiction publisher, and founder and president of one of the largest book sales and marketing companies in the United States. Oh, and she's also a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. 

Here's the trail Collins laid out for her audience:

• Author -- wants to convince the agent they can make her lots of money
• Agent -- wants to convince her boss -- the acquisitions editor -- that this book will make lots of money
• Acquisitions editor -- wants an amazing book to take to editorial director of their publishing house
• Editorial director -- wants an amazing book that will make lots of money to take to the house's Pub Board
• Pub Board -- wants positive answers from teams for sales, marketing, production, distribution & art (at least!) before approving that amazing manuscript (which will make lots of money!).

Image by PollyDot from Pixabay

Of this chain, Collins noted, the Pub Board is the most important but least known link. Its members spend a lot of time thinking about money (strange how that word occurs so many times!). Because 20 percent of all traditionally published books actually lose money for a publisher, Pub Boards are always looking for something to take up the slack.

To that end, the Pub Board will ask questions from the most obvious -- have books like this sold well recently -- to the mundane -- how many of these books will fit in a shipping carton. This last consideration goes to a question writers often ask about the importance of page counts. Books need relatively standard sizes to fit in shipping cartons. Which is one of the prosaic reasons shorter than usual books, such as novellas, as well as much longer than usual tomes can be tough sells in traditional publishing.

Only when the Pub Board has received affirmative answers from all the remaining teams does the author's amazing manuscript get OK'd for printing and sales and distribution to bookstores. (Who also want money to keep the lights on!)

The point of Collins' talk was that every link in the publishing chain is effectively doing the work of the next higher link.

"My job (as agent) is to keep my relations with my (acquisitions) editor happy," Collins said.

And that acquisitions editor's job, effectively, is to keep the editorial director happy. And so on, up the line. Each worker bee's job is to do the work of the next higher been in the chain of command.

Knowing all this, what can we writers do to help boost our manuscript up the levels? The answer lies in our superpower tool -- the query letter. I've heard a lot, from a lot of sources, about what needs to be covered in a query letter. But what exactly does that entail? And why? 

Amy Collins had an answer for that, coming in Part 2, The Query Toolbox Homework

(And, in case you've wondered, the DFW Writers Conference is scheduled to return October 7-8 of this year!)