This post came about after a conversation on Reddit. A user had asked how on Earth were they supposed to boil their whole novel down to a short synopsis? It is difficult, that's true. Sometimes as an author you don't want to discard characters and lovingly-crafted sub-plots in order to describe your story to some arbitrary 300 word limit. It's also true that brevity tends to make every story sound fairly generic: A hero struggles against impossible odds to achieve some goal... So what? Stripped of all the little details that make your story unique, what makes your story stand out from a thousand others.
As usual, I'm not saying I have all the answers, but I have gone through this process before and maybe my example will help you out...
As usual, I'm not saying I have all the answers, but I have gone through this process before and maybe my example will help you out...
Different agents and publishers have different criteria for accepting submissions, so when trying to sell my Young Adult Sci-fi novel, Infinity Beach, I was forced to write synopses as a few different lengths: the one line elevator pitch, a 300 word synopsis and one that was "...one or two pages long".
Hopefully you'll get a sense of what I felt was critical informations and what could be discarded. Maybe that will help you in writing synopses of your own work.
Here goes...
One Line Synopsis (The Elevator Pitch)
A young man from Earth becomes an unlikely hero in a mining colony’s war for independence.
300 Word Synopsis (296 words / 1770 Characters)
Kade Morton is a young man far from home. Although he’s been told that humanity’s future lies in the asteroid belt, Excalibur station looks just as cramped and dirty as the tenements he left behind. He befriends a young hacker called John Turnbull and his rich clients Lawrence Hackett and Lizzie Hopkins. Together they learn of the Kera—a huge, hollow asteroid kept secret from Earth, or so they thought.
During a joyride to the Kera, they uncover a plot to claim the asteroid for Earth. They repel the invaders and become unlikely heroes in the Belt’s war of independence. But Earth is not done with them yet and when Excalibur Station is occupied, Kade and his friends form an underground resistance.
Escalating acts of sabotage by the resistance lead to a military crackdown and Kade rescues Excalibur’s CEO—Lawrence’s mother, Michelle Hackett—from execution.
The revolution begins on two fronts: John and Liz ferment resistance on the station while Kade, Lawrence and Michelle return to the Kera. Using Michelle’s override codes they crash-brake the Kera’s rotation causing a tsunami and devastating the enemy forces stationed there, but Michelle is injured and her spacesuit damaged.
The routed Earth forces flee to their ship and threaten to open fire on Excalibur station. Michelle proposes blowing the end cap off the Kera, firing it like cannon as big as a small country, but she needs Kade to arm the cap’s explosive charges.
Kade is on his way to do this when Lawrence confronts him. Venting the Kera means his mother, with her damaged space suit, is sacrificing herself.
With time running out, Kade overcomes Lawrence and fires the cap. Michelle has sacrificed herself to save the Kera. Kade has routed the Earth forces but earned Lawrence's undying enmity.
1-2 Page Synopsis (787 words)
Kade Morton is a young man far from home. His mother has found work in Earth’s asteroid belt and he is being dragged along against his will. Although he’s been told that the future of the human race lies in space, Excalibur Station looks even more cramped and dirty than the tenements he left behind. Most of the other kids on station grew up in space and play by rules he does not understand.
Kade falls in with John Turnbull, a boy about his own age but very different. John is ferociously intelligent: a hustler and a hacker. John is convinced that Excalibur is hiding something out in the Belt. He uses Kade to ingratiate himself with Lawrence Hackett, son of the station's C.E.O., through the low-gravity sport of Coriol. They learn the secret, but at the cost of a sparking a simmering rivalry between Kade and Lawrence.
The secret project is the Kera, a hollow asteroid many kilometres long that is being developed as a new home in space. The Kera has been kept off the books because the Federation of Nations on Earth is seeking to appropriate all space-based resources.
On the eve of the celebration of Crossover, Lawrence and a group of rich kids including Lizzie Hopkins, enlist Kade and John for a secret jaunt to the empty Kera. Kade is amazed by the secret world inside the asteroid. Suddenly he understands humanity’s future in space.
While the kids are swimming off Infinity Beach--the shore of the Kera's never-ending cylindrical sea--the asteroid is invaded by an advance party of Federation troops. The rich kids are locked up. The soldiers put explosives on the door to deter escape. They free themselves by remotely firing the Kera’s engines, causing a tremor which sets off the explosives, catching the soldiers in the blast.
They flee and Liz fights the remaining soldiers with a mining waldo: a robotic, humanoid bulldozer.
The kids make it back to Excalibur Station, but the invasion is just beginning. With Excalibur occupied, the kids meet secretly inside a video game called Havoc. Using John's hacking ability they disrupt Federation broadcasts. During one attempt at sabotage, they are discovered and Kade is forced to kill in self-defense. This troubles Kadebut John finds he has a taste for chaos.
The conflict escalates and when John kills a whole squad of Federation troops, the Feds react by threatening to execute Michelle Hackett, visionary C.E.O. of Excalibur and Lawrence's mother. The kids rescue her by cutting her cell out of the station’s ring using an asteroid mining ship.
With Michelle safe, the revolution begins. Kade, Lawrence and Michelle head to the Kera while Liz and John remain on the station. John manages to upload weapons onto the station's network of 3D printers but is shot. Liz leads a popular uprising that succeeds in overthrowing the Federation.
On the Kera, Kade, Lawrence and Michelle revisit the idea of pulsing the engines to cause a tremor, but on a massive scale. They crash-brake the spinning Kera and the momentum of the huge internal sea causes a tsunami that devastates the Federation forces stationed there. Michelle is injured and her spacesuit damaged.
The routed Federation forces flee to their ship and threaten to open fire on Excalibur station. The rebels have no navy and seemingly no way of fighting back. Michelle proposes blowing the end cap off the Kera, firing it like cannon as big as a small country, but she needs Kade to arm the cap’s explosive charges.
Kade is on his way to do this when he is confronted by Lawrence. Venting the Kera means his mother, with her damaged space suit, is sacrificing herself. Kade understands that Michelle is making this sacrifice to save the new future she has built for her son, but Lawrence is blinded by his love for his mother.
Kade manages to overcome Lawrence and fire the cap. He and Lawrence are caught at the centre of a kilometres-wide storm as the end cap is blown off like a cannonball and crashes into the Federation ship, destroying it. Michelle has sacrificed herself and Kade has earned Lawrence's undying enmity.
The epilogue shows Kade, one year later, swimming inside the repaired Kera. The air is thin and the water cold, but his is used to it now. After the tsunami and the violent depressurisation, the Kera has some battle scars. So does Kade. The Kera is being upgraded and they are preparing to leave the solar system on a journey that will take centuries. Kade will be the leader of a new generation of explorers and it all started the first time he saw the view from Infinity Beach...
Hopefully you'll get a sense of what I felt was critical informations and what could be discarded. Maybe that will help you in writing synopses of your own work.
Here goes...
One Line Synopsis (The Elevator Pitch)
A young man from Earth becomes an unlikely hero in a mining colony’s war for independence.
300 Word Synopsis (296 words / 1770 Characters)
Kade Morton is a young man far from home. Although he’s been told that humanity’s future lies in the asteroid belt, Excalibur station looks just as cramped and dirty as the tenements he left behind. He befriends a young hacker called John Turnbull and his rich clients Lawrence Hackett and Lizzie Hopkins. Together they learn of the Kera—a huge, hollow asteroid kept secret from Earth, or so they thought.
During a joyride to the Kera, they uncover a plot to claim the asteroid for Earth. They repel the invaders and become unlikely heroes in the Belt’s war of independence. But Earth is not done with them yet and when Excalibur Station is occupied, Kade and his friends form an underground resistance.
Escalating acts of sabotage by the resistance lead to a military crackdown and Kade rescues Excalibur’s CEO—Lawrence’s mother, Michelle Hackett—from execution.
The revolution begins on two fronts: John and Liz ferment resistance on the station while Kade, Lawrence and Michelle return to the Kera. Using Michelle’s override codes they crash-brake the Kera’s rotation causing a tsunami and devastating the enemy forces stationed there, but Michelle is injured and her spacesuit damaged.
The routed Earth forces flee to their ship and threaten to open fire on Excalibur station. Michelle proposes blowing the end cap off the Kera, firing it like cannon as big as a small country, but she needs Kade to arm the cap’s explosive charges.
Kade is on his way to do this when Lawrence confronts him. Venting the Kera means his mother, with her damaged space suit, is sacrificing herself.
With time running out, Kade overcomes Lawrence and fires the cap. Michelle has sacrificed herself to save the Kera. Kade has routed the Earth forces but earned Lawrence's undying enmity.
1-2 Page Synopsis (787 words)
Kade Morton is a young man far from home. His mother has found work in Earth’s asteroid belt and he is being dragged along against his will. Although he’s been told that the future of the human race lies in space, Excalibur Station looks even more cramped and dirty than the tenements he left behind. Most of the other kids on station grew up in space and play by rules he does not understand.
Kade falls in with John Turnbull, a boy about his own age but very different. John is ferociously intelligent: a hustler and a hacker. John is convinced that Excalibur is hiding something out in the Belt. He uses Kade to ingratiate himself with Lawrence Hackett, son of the station's C.E.O., through the low-gravity sport of Coriol. They learn the secret, but at the cost of a sparking a simmering rivalry between Kade and Lawrence.
The secret project is the Kera, a hollow asteroid many kilometres long that is being developed as a new home in space. The Kera has been kept off the books because the Federation of Nations on Earth is seeking to appropriate all space-based resources.
On the eve of the celebration of Crossover, Lawrence and a group of rich kids including Lizzie Hopkins, enlist Kade and John for a secret jaunt to the empty Kera. Kade is amazed by the secret world inside the asteroid. Suddenly he understands humanity’s future in space.
While the kids are swimming off Infinity Beach--the shore of the Kera's never-ending cylindrical sea--the asteroid is invaded by an advance party of Federation troops. The rich kids are locked up. The soldiers put explosives on the door to deter escape. They free themselves by remotely firing the Kera’s engines, causing a tremor which sets off the explosives, catching the soldiers in the blast.
They flee and Liz fights the remaining soldiers with a mining waldo: a robotic, humanoid bulldozer.
The kids make it back to Excalibur Station, but the invasion is just beginning. With Excalibur occupied, the kids meet secretly inside a video game called Havoc. Using John's hacking ability they disrupt Federation broadcasts. During one attempt at sabotage, they are discovered and Kade is forced to kill in self-defense. This troubles Kadebut John finds he has a taste for chaos.
The conflict escalates and when John kills a whole squad of Federation troops, the Feds react by threatening to execute Michelle Hackett, visionary C.E.O. of Excalibur and Lawrence's mother. The kids rescue her by cutting her cell out of the station’s ring using an asteroid mining ship.
With Michelle safe, the revolution begins. Kade, Lawrence and Michelle head to the Kera while Liz and John remain on the station. John manages to upload weapons onto the station's network of 3D printers but is shot. Liz leads a popular uprising that succeeds in overthrowing the Federation.
On the Kera, Kade, Lawrence and Michelle revisit the idea of pulsing the engines to cause a tremor, but on a massive scale. They crash-brake the spinning Kera and the momentum of the huge internal sea causes a tsunami that devastates the Federation forces stationed there. Michelle is injured and her spacesuit damaged.
The routed Federation forces flee to their ship and threaten to open fire on Excalibur station. The rebels have no navy and seemingly no way of fighting back. Michelle proposes blowing the end cap off the Kera, firing it like cannon as big as a small country, but she needs Kade to arm the cap’s explosive charges.
Kade is on his way to do this when he is confronted by Lawrence. Venting the Kera means his mother, with her damaged space suit, is sacrificing herself. Kade understands that Michelle is making this sacrifice to save the new future she has built for her son, but Lawrence is blinded by his love for his mother.
Kade manages to overcome Lawrence and fire the cap. He and Lawrence are caught at the centre of a kilometres-wide storm as the end cap is blown off like a cannonball and crashes into the Federation ship, destroying it. Michelle has sacrificed herself and Kade has earned Lawrence's undying enmity.
The epilogue shows Kade, one year later, swimming inside the repaired Kera. The air is thin and the water cold, but his is used to it now. After the tsunami and the violent depressurisation, the Kera has some battle scars. So does Kade. The Kera is being upgraded and they are preparing to leave the solar system on a journey that will take centuries. Kade will be the leader of a new generation of explorers and it all started the first time he saw the view from Infinity Beach...
Infinity beach is currently doing the rounds of agents and publishers' open submissions windows. Hopefully it will find a home soon.