Writing a Synopsis

Let's say you've finished writing your novel. One of the first things you need to do (after you've edited the hell out of it and it shines like the top of the Chrysler Building), is to write a synopsis.

Okay, the general concensus about synopses is they suck. How do you take a 100K word novel and smoosh it down to a page or two (at most)? As horrible as they are, they are quite necessary if your goal is securing representation, or even to go directly to publishers. So the sooner we all master them, the better our lives will be.

After a long and arduous Google search, I found the following which I thought was helpful:

http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/synopsis.html "Mastering the Dread Synopsis"

You can also find help by reading through Miss Snark's Crapometer postings. The current one is about how to write a hook, so you may want to skim through the archives of her past contests.

As I prepare to edit draft 1 of book 3, I'm not really worried about doing a synopsis yet, but I know as soon as I'm through, I'll be working on it.

Good luck and success to you all.