Writing a Synopsis: It’s harder than you’d think!

I submitted my three Inspector Ambrose stories to be independently assessed this week – a process that started a while ago. So what took so long?

Well, the synopsis took so long.

The challenging thing about presenting a synopsis is that it requires clarity. Clarity in both your understanding of a story, and in your use of language. So since the assessment called for a one page synopsis of my three novellas, I found myself toiling over something I had (foolishly) assumed wouldn’t be an arduous task. A quick Google midway through the process of writing my synopsis informed of how tough it was going to be.

The main difficulty I faced was finding a way to describe the setting and events of each story in a way that succinctly informed the reader of what to expect without giving away the major plot twists, which are central parts of each of the novellas.

I found that I actually had a very good understanding of the essence of my stories, and was able to convey this fairly well – but it took time and several revisions before I felt ready to send the synopsis off. I found that writing the synopsis was different from the blurbs I have for Amazon, as I’m not looking to sell the stories, but rather to set up the assessor so they’re in the right frame of mind.

Thankfully, on Wednesday morning, I was ready to submit my work. With a (highly) nervous click of the ‘send’ button, it was on its way.

I’ll let you know the outcome in 4 – 6 weeks.