When I first started writing this synopsis, I only had a rough idea of where to begin. The only thing that I knew was that a synopsis was in simple terms – a brief description of the novel, from start to finish. Knowing this, the first thing I did was go through all my old word documents to see, if I had anything remotely dealing with a synopsis. Even though I did find one document, it was over twenty pages long that covered the first two books that I had written. This was not even close to what I was looking for. My second step was doing research on what a synopsis looked like and how to write it. Below are the two examples I found:

Synopsis of Harry Potter

The story begins at the eleventh birthday of Harry when he comes to know that his parents were wizards. He receives a letter from Hagrid for the acceptance and invitation to study at Hogwarts. He leaves his uncle Vernon, aunt Petunia, and his cousin Dudley. He makes new friends Hermione and Ron. He learns many techniques at Hogwarts, taught by his professors and the headmaster, Dumbledore. His friends help him through the most challenging years in Hogwart. He comes to know about the reality of his parent’s death. The wizard practicing dark magic: Voldemort. His scar and mirror alarm him of Voldemort. Every experience Harry, Hermione, and Ron find themselves in dangerous situations. However, it brings them closer to Harry as his fight with Voldemort begins.

A synopsis is a brief and general view of a storyline and other defining factors of a literary work. Also known as a summary or an outline, its a condensed statement of a large piece of work to the point and in an effective manner. It tells us about the plot, style, genre, characters, tone, theme, the story from the beginning, climax, and anti-climax. It gives a reliable preview of writing skills. It is mostly written in active voice and third person. The impression of emotions and feelings is also included in it. In short, it is less, and yet we can understand the critical parts of a story or a poem. It can be of any type – fictional and non-fictional setting. When writing a synopsis, we shouldn’t be over-detailed and wordy. It helps in grabbing the attention and convincing the readers. A synopsis should be long enough to pack in everything good about the story or any writing piece.

How To Write Synopsis With Examples – Literary Devices

Now that I had my examples, I began working on writing the synopsis. Still not sure as to how to begin. I followed the example above and simply began writing.  

Synopsis of Crow.

 The story begins when Jocren, who is a thief by trade. Finds out that his sister Jill has been kidnapped. In order to save her, Jocren must embark on a quest to free Crow from his prison. In order to do this, Jocren first goes to the person who has is holding his sister hostage and that is Dr. Rotter. Bringing with him the tablet, that he had just stolen back from the Dragtonians. Joining him is Sassy, who through some mishaps has found herself possessing Jocren’s sword. Upon arriving at the Crowdidyian lab of Science and Religious Exploration  Jocren, found several surprises waiting for him. The first being that Dr. Rotter is his father and he had orcherated the kidnapping not only for the tablet but for Jocren’s assured willingness to undertake a quest to et crow free. Since it is believed that only one who is half Crowdidyian and half Dragtonian can achieve this. Or so the prophesy told by Phlegm, the Crowdidyian High Priest.  Faced with the predicament that either he is sent on this mission or his sister is sent on the mission, Jocren reluctantly agrees. This is necessary since they’re the only two that are mixed breeds The whole reason why Dr,rotter shacked up with Jillian-A to begin with. After this, Jocren and Sassy are required to witness a tournament where his teammates will be decided. The competitors that survive are, john, Ava, Fatheriam, Ninja and Lucky Star. After attending another banquet in honor of the victors, where Jocren is forced to take an innocent life. They are informed that they would be leaving early in the morning. With all that is going on, Jocren struggles, but eventually succeeds in taking the first few steps needed to set Crow free.

Once I had finished writing the rough draft of the synopsis, I knew that I had to cut it down quite a bit. Starting from the beginning, I cut out everything that was not needed and condensed everything else. In the end I was able to cut out 125 words from the first draft. What you see below is the final draft:

New version below:

Having returned home from a rather dangerous job, Jocren finds his sister Jillan has been kidnapped. Following the instructions left on the note by the kidnappers, Jocren and his sword Sassy quickly makes their way to the lab of Crowdidyian lab of Science and Religious Exploration. There he attempts to negotiate for his sisters return, but soon finds out that Dr. Rotter wants something more than just returning the ancient tablet that Jocren had stollen from them. To ensure his sisters safety, Jocren agrees to undergo a dangerous mission to set Crow, the leader and god of the Crowdidyians free. Joined by John, Ava, Fatheriam, Ninja and Lucky Star, the sole survivors in a death tournament in honor of Crow. Together with a set number of scientists and Phlegm, the high priest of crow, they struggle with the scant clues and challenges left by Click, a servant of Crow. as their numbers begin to dwindle, Jocren and the others learn to work together, even though their faith in each other is only skin deep.

Now my whole purpose of writing this blog, is to help any other writers who are facing the same difficulties that I did when writing this or overall looking to get published. I do not claim to be an expert on such things. Given that this is my first synopsis that I have written successfully.  

As to what I plan to do next, I’m going to take the cover letter (that I had written previously), along with the synopsis here and paste them into the query manager form. Afterall of this is done and I have followed the publishers’ directions precisely, then and only then will I hit the submit button.

Personally, I don’t hold out much hope from hearing back from any of these publishers that I submit to. However, I also knew that if I didn’t at least try, then I wouldn’t get anywhere and that is unacceptable. So there you have it, come what may, at least I know that I have succeed in writing a synopsis.

Sincerely,

Richard Polk