Writing a synopsis that sells

Like many authors, I used to struggle with writing a synopsis for my stories. It's hard to know what to leave in, and what to leave out, how to make it pithy, and grab the reader's interest.

In a writing course I attended, we learned a technique for helping us to refine our synopsis. We started with the question: "What is your work about in one word": love; hope; renewal; fear. Then we were asked to pair up, and talk about our work for 5 minutes. Then we had to talk about it in one minute, and finally, come up with a single sentence that described it. "Janine loves Jamie but when he leaves for war, she has to decide whether or not to wait for him." Once we had that sentence, then the challenge was to refine it further into either a question or teaser, or the blurb for a novel or tagline for a film. "Will Janine wait for Jamie to return from fighting in Afghanistan?" "He was a life coach, he should have known better than to fall for the wrong woman."

I found the strategy really helpful, as it crystallised the story themes in my mind, and helped me to succinctly describe the tension central to the plot. If you are struggling to write a synopsis for your story, then try working your way through the steps:

- in one word, what is your story about

- what happens in your story - talk about it for 5 minutes

- Now summarise the plot into a single sentence

- Finally, make that sentence tantalising or provocative.

I still find writing a synopsis challenging, but with this strategy, it has become a whole lot easier!