Writing a synopsis is no easy feat. Boiling down a whole immersive manuscript into one page of summary is a task that calls for focus and care. We have compiled the following resource as a guide, but it is, of course, one of many ways to approach writing an effective synopsis.
If you would like feedback on your synopsis, book into a manuscript assessment with one of our experienced assessors.
It can help to think in terms of a simple structure: an opening that introduces your protagonist and their world, an inciting incident that sets them moving, two or three key complications that escalate the stakes, a climax, and a resolution that ties things up (or doesn’t, if that fits your story). Try condensing each stage into one or two sentences, and let your story’s own shape guide where the beats fall.
As a rule of thumb, don’t name more than three characters from your novel in the synopsis. Identify all the others using their roles (e.g. the pilot, the sister). Avoid including subplots—stick to the main events of the plot.
And don’t be tempted to build up suspense: you have to tell the ending! The synopsis must show that you can tell your story the whole way through. A synopsis with a cliff-hanger is not intriguing; it is annoying.
All in all, a synopsis should be halfway between a sales pitch and a summary of the story. You have to explain what happens, but you are also showing that you can hook a reader’s attention and tell a compelling story. Show your writing at its best, while keeping the style both simple and direct. Be careful not to give too much detail of what happens in the story (plot) and not enough discussion of what it is about (theme).
You will also want to start with a sentence that specifies the length of the book, its genre, and where it might be positioned in the market.
For example:
“Bateman’s Bae is a 70,000-word rural romance that will appeal to readers of Rachel Treasure and Cathryn Hein.”
“Dead Quiet is a 90,000-word psychological crime thriller that will appeal to fans of Gillian Flynn and Chris Hammer.”
“Between Two Homes is an 85,000-word coming-of-age memoir that will appeal to readers of Helen Garner’s This House of Grief and Kate Holden’s In My Skin.”
A final word of advice from our tutor Laurel Cohn: start early! Don’t put off writing your synopsis until the end—it will probably go through even more drafts than the manuscript itself.
Want to work through this step by step?
Our Writer’s Toolkit course includes a fill-in-the-blank synopsis template with a prompt for each stage above, plus a query letter template, and six other practical tools for planning, drafting, revising, and submitting your writing. They are yours to keep and reuse for every project. It’s self-paced, with no deadlines or marking involved.
Thanks to Publishing Crawl for their synopsis guide, which inspired this resource sheet.
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