| The process of writing a novel can be long and | | | | you've written is to create a "tag line." Can you |
| painstaking. You can spend months -- or even | | | | sum your book up, not in a few paragraphs, but |
| years -- leading your characters through the | | | | in a single riveting sentence? "A world-class spy |
| various experiences and adventures that will give | | | | has to use everything he knows when he |
| shape to their story. You can tighten your | | | | discovers he's being spied on himself. A pair of |
| structure and polish your sentences until they | | | | sisters suddenly become rivals when they find |
| gleam. When the time comes to actually sell your | | | | they've fallen in love with the same man. A small |
| book, however, most of the people who can help | | | | town village finds itself locked in a nightmare when |
| it to become a success won't be willing to read it | | | | an escaped killer seeks refuge in one of its |
| until they've first read a synopsis. | | | | homes." Once you've written a compelling "tag |
| How do you condense hundreds of pages of | | | | line" you know what your story is about. And it |
| work into a few paragraphs? How do you convey | | | | may be easier to think about expanding that |
| the power and style of what you've written in | | | | sentence into a few paragraphs than whittling |
| just a single page? Well, first you need to get an | | | | down hundreds of pages into a just one. |
| overview of the entire book. You worked hard to | | | | A good synopsis is succinct. Lean. Enticing. It |
| make it more than just "a beginning, a middle, and | | | | evokes the atmosphere and tone of your book, |
| an end", but now you need to see it in precisely | | | | its key scenes, its characters. It "hooks" the |
| those terms. How does it start? What are the | | | | reader just like the opening pages of the book. It |
| key elements of its development? What are the | | | | makes him want to know more. Like a |
| key plot points? How can you describe the climax | | | | streamlined "snapshot", it invites the reader to ask |
| of your story in a way that conveys its intensity, | | | | for the larger work. Write it well and it will be a |
| but still allows something to "hit home" when your | | | | perfect calling card for that magnum opus you've |
| reader finally reads the book itself? | | | | worked so hard perfecting! |
| One way to get straight to the core of what | | | | |