Writing a Synopsis Is Not Fun—Why You May Want to Anyway

An itty bitty turtle with a shell about the diameter of a quarter outside our garage early this summer.

I recently volunteered to help out a book coach in training. She’s working on her third practicum, which includes giving feedback on a synopsis and query letter.

Query letters are kind of fun, I think. They’re short and tight and a compelling challenge. How do I write about my novel in a way that grabs an agent’s attention and persuades them ask for more?

A query includes a quick peek at the story, like the flap copy on a book jacket. When I look at books at a book store or a library, I always read the flap copy. It’s easy to grasp who the story is about, what they want, and what’s at stake.

But the synopsis? Ugh.

When I was actively searching for an agent, I deliberately avoided querying agents who required a synopsis because I dreaded writing one so much.

A synopsis is supposed to reveal the whole story, including the ending, in roughly 500 words or so. (See Jane Friedman’s blog post, How to Write a Novel Synopsis for great tips.)

No one reads synopses for fun. And while I suppose some writers might enjoy writing them, I do not.

So I thought volunteering with someone who will give me feedback on it would force me get it done.

Why write a synopsis if you don’t have to?

If you already have an agent or simply don’t need a synopsis as a marketing tool, there is one other reason to write one. Because it can be a useful revision tool.

For several weeks, I’ve been in the midst of revising my dog novel. My MG zoo mystery has been on the back burner. I thought writing a synopsis for it might help me think about it a little differently.

Over the weekend I wrote a 600-word synopsis of my 60,000-word mystery. I used my most recent inside outline to help me identify what to include. The outline is just over 5,000 words long and includes a brief description of every scene in the novel and each scene’s point.

It’s obviously way easier to skim 11 pages of text for the main plot points than 200 manuscript pages. Having the “point” right there with each scene description also helped me weave in a bit of character emotion.

I’m pretty sure this first draft synopsis is terrible, but that’s okay. That gives my book coach in training plenty to work with.