The Synopsis Treasury (23 page)

Irene Radford

Irene Radford has been writing stories ever since she figured out what a pencil was for. A member of an endangered species—a native Oregonian who lives in Oregon—she and her husband make their home in Welches, Oregon where deer, bears, coyotes, hawks, owls, and woodpeckers feed regularly on their back deck.

A museum trained historian, Irene has spent many hours prowling pioneer cemeteries deepening her connections to the past. Raised in a military family she grew up all over the U.S. and learned early on that books are friends that don’t get left behind with a move. Her interests and reading range from ancient history, to spiritual meditations, to space stations, and a whole lot in between.

Mostly Irene writes fantasy and historical fantasy including the best-selling Dragon Nimbus Series. In other lifetimes she writes urban fantasy as P.R. Frost and space opera as C.F. Bentley.

While reading materials submitted to a writers workshop for a con, I realized that most of the beginning writers, and some more experienced ones, had no clue as to the purpose and format of a synopsis. A synopsis is a vital marketing tool and can assist the author in planning a book.

First off, the format of a synopsis should be the same as for any manuscript. Keep it consistent and easy on the eyes.

An editor needs to know that the author knows the novel has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The synopsis must show this. Some editors require a synopsis be submitted along with a complete manuscript to verify that the author has control of the story. The two documents need to match. Once you have sold one or more books with a complete manuscript, you will sell on partial manuscripts consisting of a synopsis and the first three chapters. Again, your synopsis needs to demonstrate a beginning a middle and an end as well as a flow of action. Never keep secrets from an editor. Reveal the ending as well as the solution to any mystery in your plot.

Writing a synopsis for yourself, sometimes several different ones through the course of completing a book, helps keep you focused on the action/reaction and consequences. If your characters wander off in unexpected directions, this will change the ending of the book. A new synopsis helps you figure out how to make it stronger than your first stab at it. Or if you are tied to the first dynamic ending you envisioned, a new synopsis can guide the action toward it with new twists in the middle.

In a synopsis you may tell rather than show, and use present tense rather than past. A few snappy bits of dialogue can make a point in the synopsis. However, it should only make a point and not demonstrate your ability to write snappy dialogue.

Synopses need not be boring. Keeping it interesting and concise is an art form that requires practice. I have been known to take as long on the synopsis as I do to write the first three chapters or thirty pages of the manuscript. Sometimes longer.

The length of a synopsis varies with its purpose. The one that goes with a query letter to interest an editor or agent should be no more than two pages. Maximum. Cutting a long synopsis down to two pages is HARD. A more efficient method for me is to start with a back cover blurb, 100-150 words that names your protagonist, his/her life goal, the conflict to that goal (antagonist), and the emotional growth the protag must go through to overcome the conflict and achieve the goal. Expanding from that can make a concise two pager that works.

The longer synopsis that goes with the chapters or full manuscript depends upon the editor. Some editors want roughly one page of synopsis for every twenty-five pages of book. Other editors prefer to keep it under ten pages. Ten pages is a nice average.

The synopsis you write for yourself can be whatever length you need it to be. I have known some writers to produce a one hundred page synopsis. To me that is more like a rough draft. I prefer mine to be between ten and twenty pages. The partial I just submitted to sell a new series was nineteen pages plus thirty pages of chapters. The ones I create to sell additional volumes within a series vary from two paragraphs to twelve pages, depending upon how much world building I need to include.

The following format works for me. Feel free to adapt it to your own style. Every writer has their own preferences. The purpose is the same.

Paragraph #1 (optional): A hook.

Real men don’t watch birds for a living; real women don’t ride Harley Hawgs wearing full leathers.

You can also put in a few words about the setting: alternate now, historical Russia, stock fantasy medieval, or whatever.

P#2: Protagonist. Show the character’s goal, conflict to that goal, and emotional growth necessary to overcome the conflict and achieve the goal (sound familiar?). Physical descriptions are not necessary, unless they are part of the conflict, i.e. a handicap or unacceptable cultural bias against certain features or coloring. Include professions, age, family situation, only if they help define the character.

P#3: Secondary Protag. Same as above plus their relationship to the primary protag.

P#4: Antagonist. Same as above.

(Use as many character sketches as you must. Try to limit to primaries or Point Of View characters.)

P#5: Back Story. This is a short recap of what brings us to the action that begins on Page 1 of the book.

P#6-P#20 (or however many paragraphs you need to tell the basic plot): Plot. Recount major plot points and transitions. Remember to show characters reacting to action and growing. Do not forget that the book has a middle as well as a beginning. I often go to my plotting tools and pick out the scenes that demonstrate the stages of the hero’s journey as identified by Joseph Campbell.

P#21: Crisis. This is when the world comes crashing down around your protag’s ears.

P#22: Dark Moment. The characters have to hit bottom in order to compromise or consider doing the unthinkable to defeat the villain. Out of the frying pan into the fire.

P#23: Climax. This is the final twenty minutes of murder and mayhem at the end of the movie.

P#24: Resolution. Tie up loose ends, or as many as you can and still leave an opening for the sequel. Keep this as short as possible. This is the wedding at the end of the romance, not the rest of their lives together.

With a little practice, writing a synopsis becomes a familiar and comfortable part of the process of creating a novel.

A synopsis need not be a Bible for your book. I wrote the following synopsis to sell
Guardian of the Vision, Merlin’s Descendants #3
. Each book in the series is in a different century with a different set of characters. The premise of the series is that a descendant of Merlin has to nudge historical events to make things happen the way we remember. The book sold based upon this synopsis without chapters. As I wrote the book, my characters took over the story and something entirely different evolved. Instead of covering thirty years’ time from the day Queen Elizabeth I ascended to the throne to the victory over the Spanish Armada, I found myself with 900 manuscript pages and I’d only covered five years’ time. And I’d killed off the first person narrator of the story.

Oops!

Of course I phoned my editor with the news. She then needed a new synopsis that actually matched the book so she could write cover copy while I polished and revised. Then of course I had to write a third synopsis for a new book to cover all the loose ends and take the reader through the Spanish Armada.

Being comfortable with the synopsis turned into a good and profitable venture for me.

—Irene Radford

The Guardian of the Vision
Merlin’s Descendants #3
By
Irene Radford

A peace imposed upon a country is tyranny. Revolt and discontent will seethe beneath the surface, disrupting all until the people find an identity of their own and a strong leader who personifies their vision. Then they become a nation.

Griffin Kirkwood
: Second son (by twenty minutes) of the Kirkwood family, the inheritors of the legacy of the Pendragon. He chose the priesthood and studied in a Roman Catholic Seminary in France with introductions to the court of Mary Queen of Scots and her husband the Dauphin of France. He has suffered from the curse of precognitive visions since childhood and denied them. His faith does not permit him to believe he can work magic and still be a child of God. And still his second-sight shows him flashes of a future that haunts him—Disasters at sea. Kirkenwood in flames. Blood. The blood of a dead woman. He runs away from the visions in prayer, in charitable works, and court intrigue. He longs for a time when England can be united and peaceful under the one true church, their monarch guided by the wisdom of the Pope in Rome.

Donovan Kirkwood
: Griffin’s twin. As eldest brother he has inherited both the Barony of Kirkenwood and the responsibilities of the Pendragon. He desperately wants to work magic but seemingly has no talent for it. In a time when politics demand a change of religion with each new monarch, he professes whatever faith will keep his family, his estates, and his retainers safe. Secretly he is a pagan but will not admit this to any since that is the least safe of religious choices. He buries himself in the remote fastness of Kirkenwood, concerned only with local matters and how to keep his responsibilities safe for the future. Like most Englishmen of his time, he views all foreigners with disdain and a touch a fear. All of them, particularly the Bishop of Rome, commonly called Pope Pius IV, want only to dominate, oppress, and eventually destroy his homeland.

This is primarily Griffin’s story and his growth into acceptance that peace and unity have to come from the English themselves and not from any one church.

Early winter A.D. 1558: Griffin returns home in the final days of Mary Tudor’s Catholic reign, to take up his duties as parish priest to Kirkenwood. Her religion and alliance with Spain and Rome have not brought England anything resembling peace or unity. Within days of his return, Mary Tudor dies and Elizabeth ascends to the throne. No one knows for certain which religion Elizabeth will profess but hope is widespread she will restore the true faith—Protestantism. Donovan happily prepares to remove all trappings of Catholicism—the former true faith—from both the family chapel and the village church. Griffin prepares to go into hiding.

At this time, one of the neutered male wolfhounds attaches himself to Griffin as a familiar. This is unheard of. Only the Pendragon has a personal wolfhound, always a female from an unbroken line dating back hundreds of years.

The brothers know that something strange is about to happen.

As the issues ebb and flow around the politics of religion, Griffin finds himself supporting Mary Queen of Scots who claims the English throne. She and her husband, the Dauphin of France, quarter their coat of arms with that of England. Mary is Catholic, descended from Henry VII (Elizabeth’s grandfather) and the legitimacy of her birth has never been questioned. Donovan’s loyalty is to his own lands. He sees Elizabeth as the monarch who can successfully protect him and his people from Scottish border raiders as well as incursion from French mercenaries trying to suppress the border raiders. He blames every misfortune on the Pope. (Donovan isn’t above joining the game of retaliation across the border, especially after his wife is murdered in one of the raids.) The brothers argue and Griffin leaves with bitter words between them. His wolfhound follows him happily.

Though the twins have been separated by distance before, they have always remained close emotionally with telepathic communication. Now the rift between them seems unbridgeable and each flounders alone with his duties and responsibilities as well as coping with his legacies from Merlin.

Griffin refuses to leave England for the safety of France and his political contacts in Mary’s court. He has found his mission in life—to unify England and Scotland under the Roman Catholic faith and one strong monarch. He spends most of his exile in an abandoned abbey in London. The right of sanctuary remains even though the religious order was dissolved. A glassblower has taken over the building and employs the thugs, thieves and political refugees who seek the sanctuary. Everyone works, including the wolfhound—he walks in harness around the well to draw water. Royal troops periodically try to clean out the nest of criminals but meet with strong defense with molten glass and white hot tools. Griffin adds the job of chaplain to his regular work with glass. He reaches out to the community beyond the glassworks as a means of keeping track of political matters in the capitol and spreading his message of peace and unity. He attracts a growing congregation at each celebration of mass. His visions increase in frequency and intensity. He finally accepts the visions as a gift from God and more and more seeks to use them to help the other refugees avoid painful and disastrous courses of action.

A band of Romany seek the sanctuary one winter. Through his relationship, with them, Griffin learns some of the beauty of pagan worship along with a joy in the very act of living.