Mastering the Art of Writing a Synopsis

Mastering the Art of the Synopsis Season 3, Episode 5

Hello, aspiring authors! It's Beth McMullen and Lisa Schmid, your trusty navigators on the sea of publishing. In our latest episode,we dive deep into a territory that even the bravest writers often fear to tread—the dreaded synopsis.

Crafting a compelling synopsis is no less than an art. It's often the first window into your work for agents, publishers, and readers. So how do you distill the essence of your novel into a single page or two? Here's the wisdom we shared in this episode:

1. Length and Format
Your synopsis should be concise—about one to two pages, single-spaced. This isn't the place for your narrative to sprawl. Think of it as the elevator pitch of your manuscript.

2. Clarity and Focus
Cut through the clutter. Your synopsis should be a clear, focused narrative that distills your story to its essence. Skip the industry jargon and complex language; simplicity is key.

3. The Whole Story
This isn't a teaser like a back-cover blurb; a synopsis must reveal the entire plot, including how things wrap up. Leaving the ending a mystery in a synopsis is a cardinal sin.

4. Main Characters
Introduce us to your protagonists. Give us a glimpse of their desires, conflicts, and motivations. We should know who they are and what's at stake for them.

5. Key Plot Points
Walk us through the milestones of your story. From the inciting incident to the climax and resolution, make sure we understand the journey.

6. Emotional and Thematic Arcs
How do your characters grow? What are the broader themes or messages? These elements should be woven into your synopsis to give it depth.

7. Unique Selling Points
Does your book offer something out of the ordinary? Highlight the aspects that make your story stand out.

8. Style and Tone
Your synopsis should be a reflection of your book's voice. If your novel is humorous, let that humor sparkle in the synopsis too.

9. Proofread and Edit
Your synopsis is a reflection of your writing skills. Make sure it's polished to perfection—no typos, no grammatical errors, just clear and engaging writing.

10. Tailor to Your Audience
Are you sending this to an agent or publisher? Tailor your synopsis to fit their submission guidelines and preferences. This shows professionalism and attention to detail.

Remember, a synopsis is more than just a summary—it's your chance to showcase your storytelling prowess and hook your reader.

 
A Sparkling New Website
Visit our brand new, sparkly website at WritersWithWrinkles.net 

Up Next
Stay tuned for our next episode featuring agent Kaitlyn Sanchez. Our agent episodes are always a hit, and we're excited for you to join the conversation.

Until our next literary rendezvous—happy reading, writing, and listening!

Transcript

Beth McMullen: 0:30

Hi friends, I'm Beth McMullen and I'm Lisa Schmid, and we're the co-hosts of Writers with Wrinkles. This is season three, episode five, and today we're wandering into the dreaded synopsis zone. I say that because everybody hates writing them. That's a universal. In some ways, I think writing a synopsis is harder than writing a novel, but creating a compelling synopsis is an essential skill for authors, as it often serves as the first impression of your work for agents, publishers and readers if you're self-publishing. Now, the reason that we're doing synopsis or synopsis we've had a big, long debate about which one is the plural and we still don't know. But we're talking about this because Lisa has been in the synopsis dreaded zone and we've brought her here today to talk about her personal pain.

Lisa Schmid: 1:21

Oh, my god, it's so true. It is so true. I only it's funny because I don't know that agents want a synopsis. I mean, when I was queering I just did a pitch. I wonder who requires the synopsis that much other than maybe a publisher, which is what I'm doing it for.

Beth McMullen: 1:46

I remember writing my first one for Lee when she was pitching to the publishers. So she wanted the whole hit and caboodle and I was like, well, I don't know, because I needed to do. You know, it was being pitched as a series, so what's going to be the second book? And I had no idea, none, and it was like terrible. It was such a stressful situation because I had no idea what I was talking about.

Lisa Schmid: 2:18

Well, and I think that's it. I think a synopsis is more when your agent is going to go pitch a book, and that's kind of the case of what's going on with me. I've got an option with Andrews McMeal and we're sending over basically the first 10 chapters of my next book and the synopsis. It's hard for a couple reasons. One I'm a pancer, like I write chapter by chapter. I have like an overview of like what's going to happen in the story, in the sense I know how it's going to begin, I know how it's going to end and I kind of know what's going to happen in the middle. But I usually honestly figure it out chapter by chapter. And so I've reached the point in the synopsis where I'm like huh, what's going to happen, and so I'm kind of trying to gloss over that and like make it sound as compelling as it can be without me knowing really the nitty gritty of the situation, and then just like skipping to the end. So that's kind of what's going on with my synopsis.

Beth McMullen: 3:16

I'm going to try to cover it as best as I can, but it's hard, it's really hard and you definitely nailed it, that those of us who write chapter by chapter or don't do outlines are definitely on the struggle bus for a synopsis. Because if you're like a big outliner and you love outlining and you're one of those outlining people, then you just write it Because you already know what's going to happen before you write a single word. But if you're, you know those of us who are cloud gazing and la, la la, what's going to happen in the middle? I don't know. I figure it out when I get there. Then it's painful.

Lisa Schmid: 3:50

I'm definitely on the struggle bus. I'm sitting in the back of the bus wadding up pieces of paper and throwing them at the driver.

Beth McMullen: 3:57

No, you're throwing them at the people who outline.

Lisa Schmid: 4:00

Yeah, all the smarty pants is at the front of the bus. I'm like throwing at the back of their heads. It's hard, but you know what it's? Just it's another aspect of publishing that's hard. It's funny.

Lisa Schmid: 4:11

Yesterday I had I felt like yesterday was a snapshot of publishing, so I had three calls. Yesterday were actually two calls and an email, so this is a perfect snapshot of publishing for everyone. So the first call, or the first email was message was from a friend who, like, messaged me and said I'm giving up hope. I'm now I'm doodling art because I can't get motivated about writing, because I'm on sub forever and nothing's happening. And you know, it's like that feeling that we all get. She's like in this horrible waiting room of doom, and so she's like, will you please read this manuscript? It's not done, but you know, at least kick my butt and get me writing again. And I'm like, okay, you know, send it over.

Lisa Schmid: 4:56

And then the next call I got was somebody whose book is coming out in two weeks and she's freaking out because you know, it's that spin out before your book comes out, like, am I doing enough? Am I, you know, have I done enough here? Have I done enough there, if I don't sell enough books. And there's something interesting that we talked about that Ingram who's distributes all the books. Like if your book isn't a hot seller it stops stalking them. So like local, like Indies can't get your book anymore because it's not available with Ingram. And so you get caught in this catch 22,. Like your book doesn't sell enough for Ingram to keep it in stock anymore, but then it can't sell because it's not in stock anymore. And like that happened with Ali a while ago. And I've just gotten to the point with, like my local, my local Indie book seller, I'm like just don't even worry about it, you know you don't need to go to my publisher, you have time, great, but it's just. It's another step for them in an already busy world.

Beth McMullen: 5:51

It's really frustrating. I think it was in the last week or so Kathleen Schmidt who we had on here as a guest, who publishes a step stack called publishing confidential that I absolutely love. She was talking about why it makes no sense for publishing to acquire so many books and publish so many books and have so many books fail because there's no marketing muscle put behind them and the old ways of marketing books are basically gone because reviews don't matter and there's so few outlets for them and you're having to turn toward an influencer culture to use that to get your books in front of people, but you don't really know how to do that. So if they're marketing the top 5% of books, maybe that's all they're doing, which means that for everybody who's just starting out or hasn't had a huge hit yet, you're just forgotten.

Lisa Schmid: 6:49

Yeah, it was surprising to me because her book it's in a, it's a middle grade. That's adorable and I love it. And she's with a very big publisher and I just thought, well, you know, always with the smaller publisher, I understand, like you know. Just it is what it is it's. You know, it was out years ago. So I don't, I've just kind of moved on from that and I'm hoping that somehow I get a bump with, you know, heart and Souls coming out, but hers is relatively new and it's already fallen off the Ingram radar and so she's like there's no, like there's nobody, there's no indie publishers or booksellers out there able to buy my book, and I'm like, yeah, Get caught in this catch-22 of we love our local indies and we'd love to go there and buy books there, but the truth is it's a physical store and it has limited shelf space and if you're not selling well, you're not gonna get that valuable shelf space.

Beth McMullen: 7:42

It's just business. It's nothing personal, right, but the truth is that you're you're not going to be in most indie Bookstores now unless you're a big name, and I mean honestly. That means the company that's selling the most of your books is Amazon, and everybody hates Amazon. But if they're the only people who are selling your books, what are you gonna do?

Lisa Schmid: 8:05

Yeah, and that is a hard cold fact that you know and I do. I love my local indie. I love her to pieces. I go in there, that's where I shop for my books, and I'm not even I'm not upset that she and I know how specific she is I'm like she doesn't have time to like reach out to my publisher to buy my books and I don't even bring it up because I just I love her so much and I'm just like you know what she's exactly. I mean, it is what it is.

Beth McMullen: 8:29

You can't expect to walk into a small indie bookstore that's out of your Neighborhood or your region or whatever, and expect to find your book, your B-list author. Chances are you're not showing up in that indie because they just don't have room for you. You're not gonna move, you're gonna sit there and gather dust and they can't afford to do that. You know it's a small business and that's it.

Lisa Schmid: 8:54

I think you know I see so many people Get like upset about like save for Barnes and Noble that they've had to make a shift in their business model. I get that it's like they're everyone's trying to stay in business and they're trying to find a way to stay in business to sell books. So that's that, you know. We can make it in there eventually, or hopefully make it in there. And so like I go into my local Barnes and Noble and they still carry my book, I'm like, oh, that's, you know that always surprises me.

Beth McMullen: 9:21

I'm like thank you.

Lisa Schmid: 9:23

But they're a business and it's to not take it personally.

Beth McMullen: 9:26

It's not personal. The books that we create are very personal, so it feels Like that is elevated, but it's not. It's there in the business to publish and sell books and if your book is not selling most of them don't Then what are they gonna do? I mean honestly. I come back to what Kathleen said. It should be a different model. They should take 10% of the books that they take and they should sell the hell out of those.

Lisa Schmid: 9:53

Right, the last thing I had to add because people will be like what was the third thing? So my friend called me yesterday and there are hope for rhyming picture book authors everywhere. She just got an agent yesterday or a rhyming picture book. Yeah, she's a rhyming picture book author and so I was so excited for her. I was in the middle of my synopsis and I'm like, yes, the reason to jump up and celebrate and not work on this. So I can't. Obviously I can't say who it is, but I'm big, big.

Beth McMullen: 10:26

Congratulations to her success into your excuse not to to do any work.

Lisa Schmid: 10:30

That's pretty classic. I went running down the hall Like are we meeting? Like a champagne, what's?

Beth McMullen: 10:37

happening. I feel like any sale these days is worthy of a glass of champagne and some fireworks or something. Okay, we have right. We have Ignoring why we're here because the synopsis sucks and we don't want to do it, but we have to do it. So we have gathered together some guidelines to help you over your synopsis hurdle and lessen your personal pain, because we do not want you to be suffering out there in the synopsis jungle. So we have a list of about 10 things, kind of a laundry list, in no particular order. First, this one is super important to keep in mind because it's going to impact how you write the synopsis and the level of detail that you include, and that is length and format. So ballpark two pages, single, spaced, brief, yet comprehensive, like make sure you're hitting all the important plot points of your story and of your characters. So it's a comprehensive overview, but it's not epically long. So think about length and format, try to reign yourself into two pages and make sure that you are not missing anything critical.

Lisa Schmid: 11:55

Number two clarity and focus, Something I don't really need.

Beth McMullen: 11:58

I need that in like my whole life, rather than just as an office.

Lisa Schmid: 12:02

I know Again, I was so grateful for all the distractions yesterday Ensure that your synopsis is clear and focused. It should convey the essence of your story without unnecessary details, avoid jargon or overly complex language, and that's like that can be a real challenge for you, because I know I want to throw in stuff that I think is like cute or funny like as part of the synopsis, and so I've been like taking it out. It's like you want that character's voice to come through in the synopsis, but you also don't want it to be.

Beth McMullen: 12:36

This isn't the time to be like have too much in there, yeah, and it's hard to narrow it down because you've been living in this world of great detail and now you're really pulling back, so you're kind of taking a bird's eye view of the story, rather than being in the weeds where you've been for the whole of 300 pages or however long. It is the next one and this one. I didn't understand this when I first started out that you need to cover the entire story. It is not a back cover blurb where you're just trying to tease the reader into buying the book. The synopsis needs to cover the entire plot, including the ending. So if you have important reveals, those need to be explained. You need to give all the details. You're not trying to tease, you're trying to show the whole thing. So that is an important thing. That took me a while to figure that out.

Lisa Schmid: 13:25

It's not a blurb. Four introduce the main characters. Highlight your main characters, their motivations and the conflicts they face. Briefly describe who they are, what they want and what stands in their way, and that's also a lot of information. But remember, you're not writing a story as much as you're trying to put together facts that the publisher or the person reading it can get a real grip on what the story is.

Beth McMullen: 13:52

Yes, when I write them, I always try to have that initial paragraph. These are the main characters. Here are two or three things about them that are important to the story Certainly not everything about them, but the things that are most intriguing, the way that you would describe them if you were only given one sentence to describe them. So you have to distill them down to a couple of traits that are critical to your story, and just keep in mind that you're not trying to present the whole character. You're trying to present the important bits that talk to their motivations and their conflicts, et cetera.

Lisa Schmid: 14:28

Right, I think in my synopsis, my first line really sums up who my character is. Bodhi lives for gaming. Bodhi Rivers lives for gaming. That's what his world is, and so now they know, going into it, what's his driving force. And now what's he going to do about it? So it's try to be just concise.

Beth McMullen: 14:46

That's a great example, because all of the baggage that comes along with saying somebody is a quote unquote gamer, you get all of that without you having to waste a single word on it. You're having the one word that stands in for a whole body of knowledge that people are bringing to it, so that's important. The next one show emotional and thematic arcs. The whole point of a story is to show how your characters evolve and you need to touch on that so that the arc is obvious to the reader. So if you have themes that you want to emphasize or the work has a larger message, make sure you're including that in there, so whoever is reading the synopsis gets it.

Lisa Schmid: 15:31

Number seven unique selling points. If your book has unique selling points or it is set in a unique world, make sure to highlight these aspects. I like that, that's like your marketing mark.

Beth McMullen: 15:45

So if you can say you can include in there this is how you publisher could potentially market this book. That's all to your benefit. Even if it ends up not being the way they do it, it tells them that you are thinking about that, which is its own important thing outside of just the you know telling of your story Style and tone. Have your synopsis reflect the style and tone of your book. Say, you're writing a funny book, let some of that humor shine through. It doesn't need to be overwhelming, it just needs to be a glimpse so that the reader understands what kind of book this is.

Lisa Schmid: 16:25

I just keep using mine as an example of what I'm doing right now because he's a gamer. Like all through my book there's gaming references and so I've just sprinkled in a couple, like maybe three, of gaming references that tie in with the story and what I'm trying to convey, so that they get the tone of the book and what his personality is and what his voice is. So again, that's like going through it and choosing sparingly what you're going to use to organically put through there so it's not taking up too many words. Proofread and edit Any other piece of writing. Your synopsis should be well edited, check for grammar, spelling and clarity and the dreaded comma Like do we all use commas too much?

Beth McMullen: 17:09

Yes, do your best Proofread, have somebody else read it, edit it so that it's tight, all of those important things. Last one and this should be obvious but sometimes isn't Make sure that you are following the submission guidelines and preferences and all of those things of whoever you are submitting it to, so tailor it to your audience. If you're sending it to an agent and they say, hey, I want you to do XYZ, do XYZ. Maybe you're sending it to a publisher unagented. What are they asking for? Give them exactly what they want. Do not be a victim of your synopsis being chucked to the curb because you didn't follow the rules.

Lisa Schmid: 17:51

Yeah, they will kick you to the curb if you're not following your guidelines because they have so many submissions. I mean, it is a really intensely competitive marketplace and if you're not following the rules, it's just like oh, thank gosh, that's one less we have to look at. Really, I mean, that is probably the mindset.

Beth McMullen: 18:08

It's a great excuse to just not read it. Do not be the person who doesn't get read because you didn't follow the rules when they gave you the rules. Okay, keep in mind. Synopsis is not just a dry summary of events. It is a tool to showcase your storytelling ability and to get the reader engaged. So have that in your head as you're working through your synopsis, and keeping all of these things that we've talked about in mind, and if you do, you will have a good synopsis at the end, I promise.

Lisa Schmid: 18:40

You know what? I'm just staring at you right now because it's so hard, like I'm halfway, more than halfway through.

Beth McMullen: 18:47

But, like I said, yeah, but you know what, when you're done, your synopsis is going to be good. I know that it's going to be good because you're doing all the things you need to do. It's just the process is really painful. I mean, I am not saying the process is not going to be painful, but if you keep all of these things in mind, when you get to the end you will have something that was worth your effort.

Lisa Schmid: 19:07

You know what I would recommend doing Print this out. We'll have it in our show notes and when you're done with your synopsis, go through and check off each one and make sure that you've done exactly that, that you've covered all the finer points of your synopsis, and then you should be fine.

Beth McMullen: 19:24

Okay, this is a good place for us to talk about a really exciting new thing that we have. We have a website. It's awesome. We love it.

Lisa Schmid: 19:35

I do OK, if you were listening to the last episode, beth threw me under the bus and said I was going to go get a website, and I immediately oh my god, ok, can I talk about the WordPress thing with our name? Oh my gosh, ok. So just for wait.

Beth McMullen: 19:55

Before you do, let me say Our website is writerswithwrinklesnet.

Lisa Schmid: 20:01

And it's really good. But when Beth said that in the last podcast, I just sat there, I think I just I died a little bit inside. So I was just like I picked up Ollie that day at school and I'm like Beth's making me do a website and he's like, oh god, oh god, no, so anyway. So I started off on WordPress and I thought, ok, well, I've never done a WordPress one before. So I was like everyone seems to be on WordPress. I went on there and I created a writerswithwrinkles like blog thing and then I'm like this isn't going to work. This just isn't going to happen. So then I went on to and it's good to asking for help and looking to your resources. I belong to the Buzzsprout. There's a Facebook group. So I went there and I'm like who does everyone use for their podcasts? And a couple people mentioned this pod pages and I just thought, ok, I'll go check that out. And it was glorious, like they literally helped create this website. And all of a sudden I just looked like I was a magician and so then I went to it's so cool, it is so cool.

Lisa Schmid: 21:10

And so then I went to go you have to have your own domain. So I went to go buy the domain and this all took place in the space of maybe an hour, an hour and a half. And I went to go buy writerswithwrinklescom and it had already been purchased by WordPress or somebody that something associated. Because it's already been bought. You can buy it through this broker. And I clicked on it and it went over to WordPress and I'm like, oh my gosh, they just go out and they buy it. Like, right, when you register, they must just think, oh, we're going to go buy that. And so to get writerswithwrinklescom, I would have had to go through a broker and then pay whatever it the hostage fee was for our name, and so I just I'm not doing that. So I just went down and got writerswithwrinklesnet. But I'm so bitter about that. It's terrible.

Beth McMullen: 22:06

It's so like seedy and gross the way that it is, it doesn't feel good. No, it doesn't feel good.

Lisa Schmid: 22:14

Well, it was so quick, so don't do a WordPress thing with your. Go out right now and buy your own name before, like, you, go out and do one of those websites, because they will go out and get that and sneak it out from underneath you. Well, I was texting you and I'm like it's the man. The man they got us.

Beth McMullen: 22:32

They totally did, but it makes it easy for everybody to remember writerswithwrinklesnet. So what I'm going to do is put a PDF of these guidelines on the website. I will also include that in the podcast notes so you can find it in either place. We have now we have a blog for every episode that we're doing which hits the highlights. So if there's something that we talked about that you're like I want to remember what that is or I want to use it or whatever, just go to the website blog and you'll find it there.

Beth McMullen: 23:04

Transcripts are also available of the episode, so there's a million ways into the content other than just listening to us proddle on indefinitely here, which we will do because we like it. But anyway, we're excited about the website. I think it's going to be fun, and you can also leave a review for us there, so please do that. All right, I think we're good. I think we've covered all the synopsis, synopsis, synopsis-ing nonsense, so people can go off and write brilliant synopsises. And coming up next week, we have Agent Caitlin Sanchez on Now. Our agent episodes are always super popular, so we hope you'll join us for that. It's going to be fun and until then, happy reading, writing and listening. Bye Lisa, bye Beth, bye guys.