Synopsis Vs. Summary vis LDSPublisher

A summary is a short description of your book; think if it as a sales pitch or the blurb on the back of the book. It's 1-2 paragraphs, no longer than half a page. You hit the hook, the teasers, the main conflict. Ideally, it's what you would put in your query letter.

At a conference a few years ago, I heard an agent describe it as what you would say if you suddenly found yourself on an elevator with an agent or editor, who turns to you and asks, "What's your current work-in-progress?" You have until the end of the elevator ride to get them hooked.

A synopsis is longer and can be up to 2 pages. It's more like an abbreviated Cliffs Notes for your book. Write it in third person (even if your book is in first person), present tense, include your main characters, their motivations, conflict, major plot events, setting, themes, AND the resolution. (That means, if it's a murder mystery, you tell who dun it.)

The synopsis should be representative of your writing skill, so make it shine. It shouldn't read like a user manual or a dry encyclopedia entry. Punch it up with the same sensory based imagery, tone, and humor that occurs in your book.

As to which I would rather see? The answer is BOTH. This is particularly true for a values based publisher, like here in the LDS market. Example: A novel about a teenage coming of age story. From the summary, I might be interested. But a synopsis would tell me that in chapter 17, she discovers she's pregnant and decides to have an abortion. That just wouldn't fly in my market and I'd like to know that before I'm 150 pages into the manuscript.

Careers taking off at a writer's conference? It could happen. I know several people who've gotten that toe in the door from a conference—submitting to an agent that spoke at the conference, winning an award at the conference which got them a bypass the slush pile free card, and signing up for a actual pitch sessions. Readers—do you have any success stories you want to share?

Writing a Synopsis

This is from one of the classes at LDStorymakers:

Writing a short synopsis

A synopsis should tell the agent:
The hook
The genre
The audience
What happens

Easy enough!

A synopsis must:
Make sense!
Give sense of tone and plot
Bring out what is unique
Make the agent want to read more

Do not do these:
Blurb yourself
Make comparsions that don't make sense
Tell too much
Include praise from the relatives or pets
Market your book

Also avoid:
Starting with a question
Props
Trying to be too clever or funny

Not too hard, is it? Have you written a synopsis yet? How did it go? Or, what are you stuck on?

Write a Synopsis? I‘d Rather Gouge My Eyes Out by Caleb Warnock

Synopsis:

1. Written in present tense
2. Written in third person
3. Three pages, double spaced
4. TELL rather than SHOW-synopsis is an explanation of character arcs, not in chronological order.
5. Proper MS format-First time you mention a characters name, CAP the whole name. Put POV in parenthesis after the name.
6. May editorialize in synopsis. Use the first line to intro main character, issues, age, time period etc.
7. Weighting-most important gets more space, usually the protagonist.
8. Don't vamp-don't dramatize
9. Tell the ending 

Pretend like your tell your MS to a divorce lawyer...

Master the Art! LDStorymakers 2010 Pt. 6

I attended Nephele Tempest's class, Writing the Dreaded Synopsis.
Nephele is from the Knight Agency.






Here are a few notes I took:
Start with the bare bones of your story:
Theme-hero's real struggle, growth, quest for prize, overcoming obstacles
characters
Setting
Conflict (leads to resolution)
Goals
Resolution
Now fill in with a sentence to each of the above.

Nephele used Star Wars as an example:
Theme: Man vs. authority?
Protagonist: Luke Skywalker
Setting: Galaxy far, far away
Conflict: conflict with family-uncle wants him as a farmer, Luke wants to be in the stars. conflict grows with Luke.
Antagonist: Darth Vader