Synopsis: not just a tool for agents

My book’s finally done. Finished. Complete. Or is it?

I’ve read and re-read it, swapped things around, deleted characters and confusing subplots and polished up the language. Sure, some issues were left unresolved, and occasionally the plot seemed to drift, but on the whole it was the best it could be. Right?

Those were my thoughts three months ago. My hands were raw from all the gleeful rubbing when it occurred to me I still needed to write the synopsis. Many authors dread this stage, but having just finished an entire book I thought ‘how hard can it be’?

As you have no doubt guessed, the answer is ‘very’. In fact, I still haven’t done it, because on the way I uncovered several potential problems in my plot.

The men who waylaid my MC on her way to an antiques store were appropriately nasty, my MC and her sidekick ultimately triumphant, and the fight scene was painstakingly choreographed. But: how did their attackers know where to find them? As it turned out, I’d binned a scene in which the antiques dealer was in cahoots with said attackers.

Another tricky issue was one of overall balance. According to my synopsis, the story kicks off with a bang, followed by a couple of chapters which introduce three new characters in rapid succession. While the scenes involved a decent amount of humor, some tension and enough dialogue to prevent boredom, the emphasis was all wrong. After all, meeting three people doesn’t sound terribly interesting and not even a chase scene can change this. However, a chase scene where the MC just happens to encounter one of those three characters breaks up the monotony of content very nicely indeed. As we know, characters drive the plot just as much as the plot drives character development.

Eureka. The synopsis had provided me with an overview, a map of all the p(l)ot holes and culs-de-sac. So instead of feeling disheartened by my mess of a story, I felt energized. If I could use this new information to improve the novel, surely I owed myself at least one more edit. So I did, and I was thrilled by the results.

It’s safe to say this won’t be my last revision, of course. But for now I’m back to gleefully rubbing my hands...