Synopsis Construction
Since I’ve been working on my synopsis for a novel recently, I’ve put a lot of thought into how to construct a synopsis. Thankfully, a lot of other people have thought about this too!
Shalee McArthur offers a five-step plan for writing a synopsis that I’ve found helpful, particularly for coming up with a short synopsis by using the first step only.
Similarly, K. M. Weiland presents a seven-step plan for writing an outline that also has a first step that could be used to write a short synopsis.
Marissa Meyer’s six-step plan for writing a synopsis results in a much longer synopsis, but it really helps you see the places where you can condense a very long synopsis into something more manageable.
In the end, I’ve wound up with a couple of synopses that are too short, but might work well in a cover letter, and a synopsis that’s way too long, but like Goldilocks, I’ve used these plans to work up a synopsis that’s just the right length. Now, I’ll get some feedback and fine tune it!
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