Random Acts of Language: Writers, Books and Everything. To Snyopsis or Not Synopsis

By Nick DiChario

            I recently went through the process of judging a novel writing competition for aspiring new authors. The preliminary round of judging required the entrants to write a brief synopsis of their novels. A fairly simple task, one would think. Briefly describe the plot, the main characters and what they want, and the problems they will face along the way. Give a hint of setting, voice, and tone, don’t forget to suggest a theme, and make sure your grammar is up to snuff.

            Well, all right, it’s not as easy as it sounds, as anyone who has tried to write one knows, but I was amazed to discover how badly many of these synopses were written. This got me thinking about the entire process and whether it was worth it for authors to study it as a separate art form. I concluded that it was, for a couple of very simple reasons.

            First of all, if you’re submitting a synopsis of your novel to agents or editors (often required), it might be the only thing they bother reading. If you blow it, the buried treasure that is your novel will get stuffed back into a return envelope with nary a glance.

            Secondly, a good writer can actually sell a book on a synopsis if it’s impressive enough, even if the execution of the novel isn’t all that great. That’s right, believe it or not, lots of poorly written books get published every year, and one of the reasons for it is that the subject matter is so stunning or the idea so interesting and original that the agent or editor wants to work with the writer regardless of the book’s inherent flaws.

            In short, the synopsis is not just a means of introducing your writing talents and your writing project to prospective buyers, it can also give you a fighting chance in an extremely competitive marketplace, or open a door or two that might have otherwise have remained shut.

            During the judging of the contest, I had a chance to read sixty or so synopses all at once, one after the other, and it became clear after just a handful that I could easily categorize the well written, well organized synopses that had something to say into one pile, and the ones that were poorly fashioned into another. I imagined an over-worked editor performing this same dismal task first thing in the morning, over a double espresso no doubt, just before writing a few dozen rejection letters. Suffice to say, whether true or not, it was much easier to decide whether the novel was going to be well written and well organized if the synopsis came through.

            I can see, now, why so many of my writer buddies have feared the “dreaded synopsis” for so long, and why two type-written pages can bring night sweats and panic attacks to even the best of them.

            You don’t have to share this fear. Get a good book on how to write a synopsis (or read a good chapter on it), jot down what I said in the opening paragraph, and write several drafts of a synopsis of your book to see how it feels. Then show it to some readers you can trust. (This last might be the most important part.) If your readers aren’t absolutely dying to check out the novel after reading your synopsis, you’ve failed, and you need to go back to the drawing board.

            Whatever you do, don’t overlook the synopsis process. It just might lead to that big break you’ve been waiting for. There are too many good resources available for me to list them here, but below is a link to one reference article that I found helpful:
http://www.fictionwriters.com/tips-synopsis.html

Nick DiChario lives and writes in upstate New York. He has published science fiction, fantasy, mainstream and mystery stories in several magazines and anthologies, including the The Best Alternate History Stories of the 20th Century, The Mammoth Book of Miniscule Fiction, Crime Through Time, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Nick has been nominated for the John W. Campbell Award, the Hugo Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He has taught creative writing at universities, and he is the fiction editor of HazMat Review (http://www.hmlr.org), a literary journal that encourages socially and politically aware poetry and prose. Magic Feathers, a collection of his collaborative short stories with Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Mike Resnick, has been published by Obscura Press. Nick is also the owner and operator of the Writer OnLine official bookstore, The Write Book and Gift Shop, Inc. (http://www.Writebookandgifts.com)