it's murder, I say

[007 fan]

Okay, writing a query is hard enough, but writing a synopsis is going to be the death of me.

I'm starting on my first synopsis ever, and it's torture. I just had to complain, you know, the whole misery loves company thing.

Four hours in and I have half a page of too much detail...what a shock that a person who wrote a 211k+ first draft is struggling to condense a novel to one page...why the is this so hard?

If you all don't see me anymore, it's because my synopsis murdered me. 

 

[Pandean]

We will miss you dearly and say good things at your funeral. -solemn nod-

[TerryRodgers]

We will miss you dearly and say good things at your funeral. -solemn nod-

 

[TerryRodgers]

I know it's silly, but I query as many agents as I can that don't require a synopsis before querying the ones that do.

[Sarah Ahiers (Falen)]

lord I hate synopses

[quiarahb]

I know it's silly, but I query as many agents as I can that don't require a synopsis before querying the ones that do.

This all the way! I'm doing that now! Lol!

We will miss you dearly and say good things at your funeral. -solemn nod-

She came, she wrote, she conquered!

[Pandean]

We will miss you dearly and say good things at your funeral. -solemn nod-

Man, I should come on the forums more when I'm half-unconscious from klonopin. I say the weirdest things.

In all honesty though, synopses suck and if there were ever a query writer hate rally it would probably focus on synopses.

[Falthor]

ECE I'd try and work it to a 2 page synopsis first...   a lot of agents will ask for a 2 pager, and it gives a better feel for the book.  once you have that, then work it to the one page.

I remember when i first wrote the Synopsis for "entangled" I had a hell of a time, but it was because I didn't understand exactly what a synopsis was or it's formatting.  then it clicked, and the last couple have been pretty easy (don't hate me).

[violet]

Forget adverbs. The road to Hell is paved with synopses.

Sympathies, ece007.

[gckatz]

Synopses are the worst.

That said, I've yet to have an agent or anyone else give me negative feedback based on a synopsis, so it's not something to kill yourself over. If it's a) the right length, b) tells the most important things that happen in your story, and c) is grammatically correct, you're pretty much good to go.

[Doggy Teng]

Yes, synopses are definitely evil.  

Here's my suggestion: if you have a crit partner you've swapped manuscripts with, each of you can write the other person's synopsis.  (Assuming, of course, that they've recently read your entire book and know it fairly well.)

Even if it's pretty rough, having a draft that someone else wrote will get you unstuck and give you a framework to start with.  Then you can tidy up the details and change up the wording here and there to put it in your own voice, but the hard part -- summarizing the key points of the plot -- is done.  And as we all know, it's soooo much easier to summarize a book you didn't write yourself.

[Pandean]

Every time I write a synopsis I end up sitting at a blank word document at 2AM thinking "damn, why didn't I go into pottery"

[007 fan]

We will miss you dearly and say good things at your funeral. -solemn nod-

You have no idea how much this slayed me.   

I know it's silly, but I query as many agents as I can that don't require a synopsis before querying the ones that do.

It's not silly at all. The last time I queried, which was my first time, I only queried agents who did not ask for a synopsis.   

[007 fan]

lord I hate synopses

Dumb me thought it'd be a snap because I rewrote the one and two page synopses for one of my CP's and it was a breeze, not taking into account that he had most of the right pieces in place and he doesn't have the bazillion subplots I have.

ECE I'd try and work it to a 2 page synopsis first...   a lot of agents will ask for a 2 pager, and it gives a better feel for the book.  once you have that, then work it to the one page.

I remember when i first wrote the Synopsis for "entangled" I had a hell of a time, but it was because I didn't understand exactly what a synopsis was or it's formatting.  then it clicked, and the last couple have been pretty easy (don't hate me).

I think that's excellent advice. Thank you. I should try that first.   

[007 fan]

Forget adverbs. The road to Hell is paved with synopses.

Sympathies, ece007.

Thanks for the sympathies. I had no clue they were so hellish.   

Synopses are the worst.

That said, I've yet to have an agent or anyone else give me negative feedback based on a synopsis, so it's not something to kill yourself over. If it's a) the right length, b) tells the most important things that happen in your story, and c) is grammatically correct, you're pretty much good to go.

Oh, okay. These things sound like something I should be able to handle. haha I'm trying to look at the one-pager as a longer query but with more details and the ending. It took time away from the computer for me to come to that realization. I just for the longest time thought the synopsis was where I could finally add all my juicy subplots that were left out of the query, but nope. No room in a one or two page synopsis for those. Dang.