I think I write the world’s longest synopses. Seriously, if I just reformat this puppy to double-space, change the font to courier, put in some dialogue where I’ve only described the conversation and add a few hard page breaks for chapters, I think I’ll have a book! Take that, March 1 deadline!!! Bwhahahahahahahaahahahaha
(The sad thing? I probably still have a few more pages to go before I finish the thing. At least I’m loving the story!)
On the one hand, I’m depressed that a writer with your level of success still needs to write synopses. On the other hand, I’m surprised to hear that you write such long ones. My research indicates I should try to keep synopses to a 1000 words or so. Either way, long or short, synopses = pain for me.
Ah, yes, but keep in mind that a) publishers want proposals as payment points in the contract (and I want the payment!) and b) synopses aren’t just torture, they’re also selling tools for subsidiary rights.
And to be honest, I really like them. I’ve always looked at them as a tool that you can use to both organize your thoughts/plots/character moments, and a way to pitch the story. I’ve often found that the intro to my synopsis is turned into the back cover copy by the publisher.
Actually, I’ve given a workshop on writing synopses a couple of times. Wonder if I can distill that down into a blog post or 5.
Hmmm
Looking forward to any links you find.