I’ve been writing for publication for nearly a quarter of a century and have had the good fortune to meet many other authors. Yet, I’ve never met a single person who loves to write a synopsis. When I started, I didn’t even know what a synopsis was for or why I was required to write one—I submitted the entire manuscript.
Good fortune smiled upon me, and I was able to sell to a publisher. However, the more I learned about the business, the more I realized I did need the dreaded synopsis.
After much introspection, I came up with a unique method. It was simple and easy. After completing a story, I printed out the book with two pages on the same sheet of 8.5×11 paper. Then, I summarized those two pages. The final step was to delete redundancies and anything that didn’t move the story forward. It takes time, but like any skill, the more you do it, the more proficient you become.
Stay tuned for what’s next—you might learn something that never crossed your mind.