World building. It’s what creators are about. So much of the creative process is about ordering chaos, organizing a universe of outlaw ideas and imaginations that naturally want to drift off into space. That’s what ideas do, they drift. It’s all they know how to do. They’re ideas after all. But, as artists, our job is to capture, organize, and anchor them in substance so they can speak to us. So they can speak to others.

As writers, a starting place for this exercise in organization should usually be the synopsis. Now, I know there’s  an ongoing discussion out there about whether writers should outline their stories or simply let the characters write the story for them as the action unfolds. I’m not interested in that discussion right now, though we’ll probably talk about that in another post. I’m talking about the broad brush ideas and progression of your story, a sort of Google maps for your fiction that lays out the story dots on the page and attempts to connect them.

There are lots of ways to write a synopsis. I mean, Google “how to write a book synopsis” and you’ll get 28 million results. I doubt there are that many ways to write a synopsis, but there are a lot. But the truth is there is no right way, though really good synopses have a few key elements that you do not want to leave out. Here’s what I think makes a good synopsis:

Length

I think a good length to aim for is 2 pages that are 1.5 spaced. This is just a personal preference, so you can experiment with what works for you or the agent you’re pitching. I’m a big fan of cover copy of books. My guess is that you probably are, too. If my wife would let me, I could spend hours in a bookstore just reading cover copy and the opening lines of novels. Brevity is a talent, and it’s one you have to develop. Less is more sometimes. The synopsis is one of those times. So I want you to think along those lines.

Story Arc

Synopses are about the forest, not the trees. Again, think cover copy. Your synopsis should cover the whole story, introduce the main characters of a story, their relationships together, the overall arc of the action and what’s at stake. Don’t worry about writing a sentence or two for each chapter. Forget that for now. Think in terms of how the pieces fit and flow together and try to write it succinctly and seamlessly. (Yeah, I know. Easy, right?)

Hook & Resolution

Thankfully, publishers rarely spill the beans on the story’s climax or resolution in the cover copy. Let me put your mind at ease right now that it’s OK to include your story’s hook, climax, and resolution in the synopsis. In fact, it should be in there. Your synopsis is like “story lite” but you still need the ending encapsulated. Granted, your story will change as your write it. Guaranteed. But this is a good starting place.

So there you have it. Synopsis is more art than science, and you’ll find the exercise of writing it to be hard and thrilling at once because you’re crystallizing your thoughts, organizing them. After all, isn’t that what creators do, bring order out of chaos?