Synopsis

syn·op·sis   [si-nop-sis]

noun, plural syn·op·ses  [-seez]

1. a brief or condensed statement giving a general view of some subject.
2. a compendium of heads or short paragraphs giving a view of the whole.
3. a brief summary of the plot of a novel, motion picture, play, etc.

This doesn't sound like a big deal. This doesn't sound like it should be a hard thing to do. But for some reason, this is something that I have been avoiding. When looking at submitting one of my novels, I see that I must send a synopsis to many of the publishers. So then the question before me is how do I summarize and condense all of those words into a few short pages or paragraphs? What can I say about my story that will make an editor actually want to read it?

This is similar to when someone asked, “What is your novel about?” I find this a very difficult question to answer. I am sure that given time and practice I might be able to more easily answer this question. Just as writing a synopsis will likely become more easy. But for me, writing the words of my story was easy. It was fun. I enjoyed this time. This, what I am doing now, is work. But I suppose it is something I must learn to do if I have any hope of actually doing this thing. Baby steps.

Yesterday I started making an outline for my story, chapter by chapter. Yes, this might seem backwards. Shouldn't I have written an outline before I wrote the story. Well, my answer here is, maybe. But I didn't. At one time I had all of the pieces written on notecards so that I could move them around to see how best they fit together. If I knew where those cards might be it would have been easy to use them for this outline of my synopsis.

So the last two days I have worked through my story, pulling out the most important bits. All in all it didn't take that much time. 15 minutes here, 20 there. Last night I finished the last chapter. I guess this means that today, I will have to start putting the words of the outline together and see what I end up with. Hopefully it won't be something horrid.

Hehe.. So what is my story about anyhow? Well, it is about this girl, who... I think it still needs a little work.