I have a feeling I may have posted on this topic before, and even used the same header. If so, apologies to regular blog-followers if I start to repeat myself. I’ll try not to.
Synopsis.
Why is a synopsis so hard to write?
On the face of it, it’s straightforward: a one-page (or two-, or five-page) summary of what happens in your novel. Most writers should be able to manage that, surely. But you know what? I’ve never met a single writer, and I’ve met a lot, who finds it easy. No one looks forward to it; some actively dread it; for many, it’s the most difficult part of the job.
I suppose writing a synopsis is not a million miles from George Bernard Shaw’s famous quote about writing a long letter because he didn’t have time to write a short one. And when I used to review theatre, to a very tight brief because the show opened the night before print day and my piece had to be dropped into a specific space about five minutes before that week’s deadline, I often found that paring down my initial 400 words to the required 200 took twice as long as writing the 400 in the first place.
So one theory could be that a reason authors hate writing a synopsis is the same reason they chose to write a novel in the first place, instead of a short story, or, heaven forfend, something called flash fiction. (If you actually write that flash stuff I apologize for casting aspersions; I’m sure there’s a skill to it. But I’ve never quite understood how a hundred, or even two hundred, words can possible qualify as a fully developed narrative.)
I’m going to have to gather my strength/gird my loins/take several deep breaths very soon, in order to jump in and write a synopsis of my own. I’m in the process of revising a novel I wrote too many years ago to contemplate, and since I can’t call myself a writer unless I send it out to seek its fortune, and whatever track record I have happened a long time ago, I’ll need to create the package publishers want to see. The first ten thousand words is the easy part; the CV (resumé) I can do. Which leaves the synopsis.
Part of the problem, I’m sorry to say, lies with publishers themselves. If they all wanted the same thing it might be easier. Well, a little easier. But some want 500 words; others ask for 1000; the really ambitious ones demand 5000. (Ironically, the as the George Bernard Shaw quote suggests, 5000 is the easiest.) And I’ve just found one that asks for 200, would you believe? I’ve written longer back-cover blurbs.
Yesterday I helped another writer pare down about 900 words to the 500 required by the publisher she’s planning to target. It wasn’t easy. But as every author knows, unless you’re going to take the do-it-yourself route, publishers hold all the cards, so writers have to give them what they want.
But mostly, I’ve decided after a period of mature reflection, the problem is that a synopsis isn’t really about the novel, except in the most literal sense. No one writes a synopsis from choice. It’s a sales tool: an essential device to attract a publisher’s attention. And writers are writers because they’re writers, and not salespeople. If they wanted to sell for a living they’d work in a department store, or go on the road with a box of brochures or samples, or sit in a telesales office wearing headphones and working their way down a list of phone numbers. But they don’t do any of the above, except reluctantly, as a day job to pay the bills while they’re battling their way to a career doing what they’re good at: sitting at a desk and producing wonderful narratives.
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