Comments on: Writing the Dreaded Synopsis

By: Michelle Barker

Michelle Barker — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 21:34:04 +0000

In reply to Scott J. Stoops. Yes, I agree about short fiction. I rarely if ever plan out a short story. Less investment of time if it all goes wrong. Good luck with your projects. I hope the synopsis plan works for you.

By: Raymond Walker

Raymond Walker — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 18:39:31 +0000

Hi, Michelle, I agree completely, in most cases what you suggest is a particularly clever idea. One I often follow. I just wished to point out that in some cases (genres) it is difficult or impossible to follow.

By: Michelle Barker

Michelle Barker — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 17:31:22 +0000

In reply to ANGELA ACKERMAN. Definitely! That's the great thing about this exercise. You can be as detailed as you want. Even if all you do is pin down the most basic aspects of novel structure, it will go a long way to easing the process down the road.

By: Scott J. Stoops

Scott J. Stoops — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 16:40:36 +0000

Excellent post, Michelle. It is much easier to judge how well a short story will work without outlining or writing a synopsis. When looking at the novel, having a clear understanding of what the story is about can guide that story’s development. I have two short pieces that I and others feel deserve full-length treatment. I had already planned to work out the story before taking on the larger project of developing these stories. Your suggestion to write the synopsis first makes a lot of sense.

By: ANGELA ACKERMAN

ANGELA ACKERMAN — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 16:27:31 +0000

I love the idea of a synopsis upfront to test the story idea. While I know pantsers might resist that as they don’t tend to do as much up front planning, even creating a “light” synopsis to help them ensure the story is there and save them a lot of grief later.

By: Michelle Barker

Michelle Barker — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 19:03:22 +0000

In reply to Mindy Alyse Weiss. Thank you, Mindy. I hope it does help people. That was my intention.

By: Michelle Barker

Michelle Barker — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 19:02:39 +0000

In reply to Raymond Walker. Thank you for this thoughtful comment. I write historical fiction, and while such novels are bounded by what really happened, there's still a fictional story that needs to be planned. I used this method for my novels and found it worked very well. But of course, what works for one person might not necessarily work for others.

By: Raymond Walker

Raymond Walker — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 16:16:18 +0000

I agree but think that this piece suits only specific genres. For example, in historical fiction it could be impossible. Whilst you are playing only with the facts of what happened and simply putting words in existing characters’ mouths. Also, In Hard Sci-fi, the protagonist may not even exist. Fantasy may hold multiple protagonists and scenarios all vying with one another.
That said this is a great post, and I agree completely it is good advice if you hover around mystery, romance, detective or general fiction and we all tend to author articles about what we know.
Good rules for the right genre.
I would like to say, however, were you to follow these rules when writing Sci-fi (other than YA) high fantasy or certain types of horror novel (again, other than YA) then you would fail.

By: Mindy Alyse Weiss

Mindy Alyse Weiss — Tue, 26 Jul 2022 12:00:45 +0000

This post is going to help so many writers, Michelle. Thank you so much for sharing your synopsis tips with us.

It can be hard to write a strong synopsis, but this shows exactly why it’s so important…and that doing our homework before writing the manuscript could make the book and synopsis stronger. 🙂