by Jackie Kessler

You’ve written your novel. You’ve finished the revision. You’ve gotten a huge YES from your critique partner and your beta readers. The thought of reading the damn thing one more time makes you violently ill. You’re officially stick-a-fork-in-me DONE with your novel. It’s 80,000 words, and it’s the best thing you’ve ever written. Thank God…all that’s left is whipping up a breezy cover letter and then contacting agents or publishers (or, if you’re already published, your agent or your editor)…right?

Nuh-uh. Chances are, you’re going to need a synopsis. That’s right, kids: you have to boil your 300+ page work of genius down to about five pages.

I hear you wailing: But whyyyyyyyyyyy? I’ve slaved over every word! It’s impossible to summarize my novel like that!

It’s not impossible, even though it may seem like it right now. Here are some tips to help you write the Evil Synopsis from Hell:

1. Come up with a one-sentence catchy summary about your book. This is also called the Elevator Pitch, because it should be short enough for you to tell someone riding in an elevator with you all about your book…before she gets out on her floor. Basically, you want a pithy hook, a “so what?” that piques people’s interest. Think of it as the TV Guide entry about your book, if it were a movie of the week: how would it describe your book? You can have a follow-up sentence or clause, but you should keep the whole thing down to just a sentence or two.

For example, my first novel, HELL’S BELLES, is about a succubus who runs away from Hell, hides on Earth as an exotic dancer, and learns the hard way about true love. The next book, THE ROAD TO HELL, is about a former succubus who has to return to Hell to save the lives of those she loves. (If she’d known love was this hard, she never would have turned her back on Lust.)

2. Write a list of the main characters in the novel. This isn’t a cast and crew list: all you need are the characters who are vital to the story: the hero, the heroine, the villain, and those supporting characters who play a major role in the main plot. Write them down, along with a one-liner describing who they are.

Jezebel, my heroine, is a fifth-level succubus who has a big problem with the way Hell is being run. Paul, my hero, is a do-gooder who’s haunted by his past.

3. Write the main plot of the book. That spiffy one-sentence summary you wrote? Here’s where it comes into play. That’s your main plot. Anything that doesn’t further that main objective does not get mentioned. That means skipping events and ignoring characters. This is the toughest part of writing the synopsis, because darn it, ALL of it is important, right? Well…not so much, when it comes to the synopsis.

The purpose here is to show you have a beginning, a middle and an end to the story. Keep this limited to the main plot only; rein in the tendency to summarize everything, from the smallest subplot to the most minor of characters. And write the whole plot from start to finish; the synopsis isn’t the place to worry about giving anything away–you’re expected to give it away. Really.

For example, here’s the start of the synopsis for HELL’S BELLES:

“The succubus JEZEBEL loves her job. Seduce a lot of men, corral their souls for Hell…what’s not to like? But then KING LUCIFER makes the Announcement that changes Hell forever, which leads Jezebel to run away. Next step: the mortal coil. In Salem, MA, Jezebel convinces a witch to turn her into a human (albeit one without a soul). A run-in with a malefic bounty hunter proves that the spell worked: for all intents and purposes, Jezebel is now a mortal–in fact, a dead ringer for the witch herself–complete with an amulet to hide her presence from Evil.”

Note that the actual book opens with Jezebel knocking on the witch’s door; the reader doesn’t learn anything about why Jezebel ran away until later in the book–and the big mystery behind what the Announcement actually is doesn’t get revealed until close to the end. The synopsis skips over who the witch is and how she actually turns Jezebel into a human, and it doesn’t get into the battle with the demon at all. Remember: keep to the main plot, and skim over the rest (or skip it completely).Ideally, the synopsis should be chronological, even if the events don’t follow chronologically in the book itself. Again: the purpose is to illustrate that you can tell a complete story.

4. Put it all together. Review that one-line hook you wrote, and then re-read your main plot. Do you ever get sidetracked? Have you clearly revealed the plot, and told the story from beginning to end? Did you include the resolution? Did you leave anything ambiguous?

Now look at your character list. Did you include them all in your synopsis? Did you mention characters not on your list? Did you include the brief descriptions of the characters, or do those descriptions get mentioned in context?

Once you’re satisfied that you have an accurate summary of your novel, you need to get it camera-ready.  This represents your novel, so you want it to be as clean as possible–and, ideally, written in the same tone as your novel. That’s a tough one, but it’s doable. Does your novel have a light, breezy tone? Your synopsis should as well. Is your book more turbulent and dark? Ditto the synopsis.  Last thing: put the synopsis in the present tense.

See that? Not so impossible. Still evil, but not  impossible.

A terrific book that helped me with the synopsis (and the query letter) was Blythe Camenson and Marshall Cook’s YOUR NOVLE PROPOSAL: FROM CREATION TO CONTRACT. I highly recommend it. You can write a brief synopsis that is as short as one single-spaced page, or a detailed synopsis that can be 20 pages or more. You might want to do both. (Or you might want to get your teeth pulled without the benefit of Novocain.)

Sure, your agent and editor might not ask for a synopsis, in which case, I salute you. My editor requires a chapter outline BEFORE I hand in a manuscript, and a brief synopsis AFTER I hand in the manuscript — I believe he gives the synopsis to the marketing folks to start generating interest. I’m of the opinion that it’s best to have a synopsis ready to go, instead of waiting until you actually need it before you start to write it. Maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment.

Have you written a synopsis? Was your process different than the one I’ve outlined? I’d love to hear what worked for you (and what didn’t work for you).

JACKIE KESSLER hates writing synopses, but she’s had to do them for each of her novels and her novella (HELL’S BELLES, Zebra Books, January 2007; THE ROAD TO HELL, Zebra Books, November 2007; A HELL OF A TIME, Kensington, April 2008; HOTTER THAN HELL, Zebra Books, August 2008). The synopses don’t necessarily get less evil to write, but they do get a little easier. Over time. And with lots of over-the-counter help. (Jackie prefers a nice Riesling.) For more about Jackie and her paranormal romance/urban fantasy series HELL ON EARTH, please visit her website: http://www.jackiekessler.com.

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