Synopsis: the novel's overview
The synopsis is literally the overview of your novel, most of the time it's the only thing that a publisher reads to decide if you are worth of publication or not, so… not pressure at all. Just joking! Writing a synopsis could seem a titanic effort but some easy tips can help you to evercome the fear and write a good one.
The synopsis should be from 2000 to 4000 characters including spaces, it depends on the length of your novel. A short synopsis doesn't describe your novel, on the contrary a long one bores the reader. This is an approximate range that can help you to stay into the limits, don't panic if you are distant from them. Write it down, if you are under 2000 characters you can add something that you consider less important but that can fit in and if you are over the limit, you can cut the less relevant information.
You should start writing who the major character is and what he/she wants; who the major antagonist is and what he/she wants. Then you can proceed with the plot.
How can I summarize an entire book in two thousands characters? You can start writing two sentences per chapter (maximum a paragraph) that describe what happens without major spoilers. This trick helps you to focus on the sequence of the plot. Sometimes it's hard to structure how to describe what happens in a book; have you ever tried to explain a novel (or a movie) to someone? Usually you describe facts that happen in chapter one, then ten, then back to chapter three and so on. This happens because you follow what you discover on the novel, not what really happened on it; something that you don't understand in chapter one can be explained in chapter ten and it reminds you something happened in chapter three. You wrote the novel, you know what is important in every chapter, you know which facts describe the plot and in which chapter they are in; just follow them from chapter one to the end.
You can conclude the synopsis talking about the main theme of your novel. What does it talk about? Is it an epic love story or a chick lit? Is it a rebirth/new life for the protagonist or is it a struggle to achieve exactly what he wants? Which is the main emotion that tie all chapters? Hate, love, honor, justice or something else?
Once that you know those things and you write them down, your synopsis is already done.
The synopsis should be from 2000 to 4000 characters including spaces, it depends on the length of your novel. A short synopsis doesn't describe your novel, on the contrary a long one bores the reader. This is an approximate range that can help you to stay into the limits, don't panic if you are distant from them. Write it down, if you are under 2000 characters you can add something that you consider less important but that can fit in and if you are over the limit, you can cut the less relevant information.
You should start writing who the major character is and what he/she wants; who the major antagonist is and what he/she wants. Then you can proceed with the plot.
How can I summarize an entire book in two thousands characters? You can start writing two sentences per chapter (maximum a paragraph) that describe what happens without major spoilers. This trick helps you to focus on the sequence of the plot. Sometimes it's hard to structure how to describe what happens in a book; have you ever tried to explain a novel (or a movie) to someone? Usually you describe facts that happen in chapter one, then ten, then back to chapter three and so on. This happens because you follow what you discover on the novel, not what really happened on it; something that you don't understand in chapter one can be explained in chapter ten and it reminds you something happened in chapter three. You wrote the novel, you know what is important in every chapter, you know which facts describe the plot and in which chapter they are in; just follow them from chapter one to the end.
You can conclude the synopsis talking about the main theme of your novel. What does it talk about? Is it an epic love story or a chick lit? Is it a rebirth/new life for the protagonist or is it a struggle to achieve exactly what he wants? Which is the main emotion that tie all chapters? Hate, love, honor, justice or something else?
Once that you know those things and you write them down, your synopsis is already done.
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