Tips for Writing a Synopsis with Zoë Richards
This month’s special guest, Zoe Richards is unusual in that she loves writing a synopsis. Here, she gives us a few top tips…
TRANSCRIPTMark: You recently tweeted, “Am I weird in that I quite like writing a synopsis?” Yes you are.
Can we discuss what it is you like about writing synopses and any top tips for writing them?
Zoë: Again, I think it might be my career that helps are the reports I would write. I always had to write an executive summary to the report, so that meant that I had to take something that was anything from a three to six page report. So we are talking short compared to a novel, but often
my reports would start at twenty pages, and then I’d whittle it down to what’s the real crucial information these exactly need to read. And then I’ve got to produce something like about a one-hundred word, a summary synopsis of what the report’s about, but one that is going to make them
want to read the rest of the report. Because they receive so many reports, they’re not going to want to read it. So I do have an advantage, don’t I? Do you use, Scrivener?
Mark: I do indeed, yes. Big fan.
Zoë: So, you know, on the way I’ve set mine up, you know, on the top right corner
it has a little box that says synopsis when you’re writing each chapter.
Mark: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Zoë:So I just write a sentence or two in there about what’s the purpose of this chapter. And then once you’ve got all of your chapter one or two sentences, I mean, the idea of it being
there is for the corkboard, but actually forget the corkboard. It’s a place for you to then gather…
So I’ve just written a chapter today, and the chapter is to to raise the emotional stakes in the story. So I’ve written a couple of lines in, into that little corner box that’s headed ‘synopsis’ and then when I come to write the synopsis, I just pull all of these sentences out. If I can’t necessarily add anything to the synopsis through adding in what that chapter is about, then it doesn’t need to go in the synopsis. So is it moving it forward? But also if it’s not moving the story forward enough, do I need the chapter? So it helps me to do that kind of thing as well.
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