Hi, sorry to bother, but given that I am somewhat of a Luddite, I can't seem to find a subcategory for synopsis writing, nor Agent Pete's video on the subject.
Any help greatly appreciated
Mark Cherrington
Hi Mark,
Congratulations on reaching the point where you have a work that requires a synopsis.
Now the hard truth: writing a synopsis sucks. You have to sum up in a page or so your entire work, convey the style of writing, characters that are interesting, their arcs, and, while you're at it, try not to make it sound stale, like a blow-by-blow call from an old sports caster, well past their prime.
I don't know where Pete has his advice, but I have paid a lot to have the advice of a veteran in the arena of publishing, and I've also done a lot of research, prior to writing three for the trio of my novels, I've managed to submit to agents so far. That's well over 500 agents I've submitted to with no luck so far, so keep that in mind as you hear what I have to say.
So, I'm going to give you some advice. Take it or leave it. I'll be honest, I don't care which. See the image of my avatar for details.
Spend no more than 300 words outlining the bare bones of your story from start to end. Don't skip the ending, nor any twists. This is just a (typically dry) description of what happens. Unless your story has very few characters, you're going to have to skip a bunch of B-plot story lines to get this done.
Now, add the names of a few (preferably up to three, but certainly no more than five) characters who are the main protagonists or antagonists of your tale, where they appear in the story you've just outlined. If they're not main enough to get a name, they get something like "a detective", and no more.
Not "Peppy, the young, enthusiastic, handsome baker of a thousand pastries, with dreams of making it in Paris, and finding true love, to escape the horrors of his dark past." You don't have enough space to say this much. "Peppy (22), a pastry chef with dreams, running from a nightmare" is probably all you can afford, and likely, not even that much.
You have 500 words, maybe a couple of hundred more if you're writing fantasy, as agents know that the first book of fantasy needs some space to world-build.
For a few of the critical "beats" (you don't have the word space for more), you should try to convey the why your characters did or said what they did, and if you're able, the way this is conveyed in your writing.
Again, you're not going to have the words to get verbose.
"Stepping out of the darkness, Peppy slid the knife out of the block, advancing slowly, each foot sweeping past the last, to avoid slipping on the spilled bowl of guacamole, as he fixed determined eyes on the head chef, and wished him dead for what he'd done to Louise," is 49 words.
"Done with the head chef's evil, Peppy stabbed with venom,' is ten, and probably at least three more than you can afford.
"Furious, Peppy stabs the head chef," is just 6, and may be all you can afford.
"So about that arc", I hear you cry, and well you might, as fitting that in is going to be hard. Worst case, supply at least the end of the arc, in the style of your novel.
"Peppy takes the severed head of the chef and walks past the body of Louise, barely looking down. Then, knowing he'd failed to live up to his mother's dream, he walked on, out of the kitchen and into the darkness of the alley beyond." 44 words. Nope. You have to do at least this much with far fewer.
"Walking into the alley, Peppy knows he has failed his mother." Is 11 words.
"In the end, Peppy has failed and knows it." Is 9, but we can do better.
"Crushed by failure, Peppy walks on." There, 6 words, all as dark as any that came before.
No descriptive words unless absolutely critical. No filler words. No guff.
Best of luck, m'man.
Gatchemo.
P.S. None of my novels involve a murderous pastry chef.
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