Writing a Synopsis – a story in Gifs

Listening to: Poe - Haunted

Mood: Meh (that’s totally a mood)

Writing a synopsis is one of my least favorite things on the planet. Trying to whittle my story down to plot points in only 1-2 pages makes me want to throw things. It’s an exercise in patience and brevity, while at the same time still attempting to retain your characters emotional motivations and voice. Seriously, I love writing queries (weird, right?), but the synopsis is the bane of my existence. It usually goes something like this:

Me: *opens blank Word doc, gets ready to party. I mean write*

Me: *opens outline file as reference*

Me: *writes first draft based on outline, realizes that first draft is about five pages longer than needs to be (yes, I am THAT overdramatic)*

Me: *tries to cut unimportant details out, fails to shorten, tries some more, and some more, and then some more. Eventually, after many frustrating hours/days, wrangles synopsis down to two pages*

And all the while, my ms is all:

Me: *finally has synopsis in a place where it's good enough to send off to my CP. Initiate patient waiting*

Me: *gets feedback, realizes that I’ve made my story about as exciting as getting a root canal*

Me: *bucks up, prepares for battle, err, I mean revising*

Me: *pokes, prods, cuts, amputates wordy appendages, slashes the little two page document in every way possible*

Me: *bloody word carnage ensues*

And my ms is all:

And I'm all:

Me: *Finally I come out victor and for the most part am satisfied with synopsis. *

For now.

Oh, and by the way, Happy Birthday, America!