Stuck on Synopsis? Write a Syn-NOPE-sis

By Allison K Williams

Ugh, synopses. How on earth are we supposed to capture the story, mood and creative vision of our book in 750 words or less? And do we hafta?

A synopsis is the key scenes of your memoir or novel, summarized in terms of action, reaction and impact, written in the order they appear in the book. Unlike the query letter, a synopsis includes all major plot twists and the ending. Agents often require a synopsis to accompany a query; book proposals for memoir and nonficti...