The Sin of Synopsis

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A synopsis-really?

If there is one side of writing that vexes me, it's doing the novel synopsis.  I am great at building worlds, creating lively characters, doing mini synopsis like a teaser in a cover letter, writing novels & short stories.  But the dreaded synopsis makes me cranky.  I always fret about doing a condensed version of my novel.  It makes me rather wolfish.   I struggle and whine.  The synopsis must also be full of life and texture, yet fast to read.  It must be the hook that captivates the editor's eye and make them salivate for more.   It is hard because you do not know where your masterpiece is going.  You often never know the editors and are at the mercy of a volatile publishing world.

Writers, unless they have made it and have regular agent or publisher, have to sell their work without any real contact with their potential editors, agents, and publishers.  It's like a great big mystery lottery with dark gods in shadowy cloaks laughing as they crumble your pages of hard work and toss them into the cauldron of doom.  Actors and singers audition and see the faces of the their judges.   Even artists have contact with their galleries and such.  But writers suffer a different fate.  We have many hoops to jump through and do them blindly with only vague hope, an address, and a postage stamp. 

But I did it!  I finished my synopsis.  I managed to condense my 100,00 plus word novel into a 6 page synopsis.  Will be going out to a mystery publisher soon.   Wish me luck that the acquisitions editor is in a great mood and has had chocolate that day.  That reminds me- Happy Valentines Day, even to you mysterious publishers and editors. 

More later.

Verna McKinnon

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