The HEA Cafe

Today we’ll look at the components of a successful synopsis. Be aware that there are many variations, and I’m sharing the way I do mine. You might modify what I’m suggesting to better suit yourself. It’s okay. There are no synopsis police.
II. WHAT THE SYNOPSIS SHOULD COMMUNICATE

A. The Kind of Book

First and foremost, the kind of book you have written should be immediately clear from the synopsis.

Of course, you should be submitting this manuscript to a publisher who prints that kind of book. This is not as foolish as it sounds - the vast majority of unsolicited submissions which are rejected are rejected for this simple reason. You must research the imprint and publisher you target. The synopsis will reveal whether the author understands the marketing niche of the line to which he or she has submitted. It will show whether you have done your homework.

One of the simplest ways to communicate the kind of book you’ve written is to just say what kind of book it is.

What elements or keywords might you include?
• the broad genre category - like “romance” or “mystery”
• the setting - like “historical” or “contemporary” or “time travel”
• the submarket - like “paranormal” or “romantic suspense”
• the tone of the book - like “humorous” or “gothic”
• any major elements that might be interesting to the house - like “cowboy”, “military”, fireman”, “baby”, “bride”, etc. You might figure out what these are from listening to editors in sessions at RWA’s National conference, or by reading the publisher’s tipsheets, or by visiting the publisher website, or just by reading a lot of the books that the house publishes.

I usually begin my synopses with a short introductory paragraph. I put this at the beginning of the synopsis and set it off from the more detailed explanation that follows with a line space.

Here’s an example, for a story that we’ll use throughout this workshop.

“CAPTURE THE MOON is a light-hearted sensuous vampire romance, set in contemporary Boston and Renaissance Paris, between a no-nonsense investigative reporter and the temperamental vampire who has impatiently waited centuries to claim her as his eternal soul mate.”

That’s one sentence. It’s doing a lot of work in a couple of lines! From this, you know that CTM is a fantasy romance, that there’s some time travel or history involved, that the book is sexy, that it’s light and funny, rather than dark. Anyone reading this at the publisher already has a glimpse of the characterizations, and the polarization of those characterizations. There’s a hint of the conflict, because anyone could guess that these two characters aren’t going to view the world the same way.

Ideally, this will be the kind of book that the house is currently seeking. When you get a quick rejection, it’s often because the editor can tell immediately that your story doesn’t fit what he or she is buying. It means that either you haven’t done your homework, or that the house has changed its direction. If this is what the house is buying, then this little snippet will serve the book well in the packaging and sales process.

Btw, subplots generally are not explored in the synopsis, no matter how cool you think yours are. They might be mentioned in passing, or not - that will depend upon whether they affect the resolution of the central conflict - but they seldom are fully articulated.

B. Storytelling

The second job of the synopsis is to show that the author knows how to construct a story. Storytelling is a very hard thing to teach and something that (fortunately!) many writers do intuitively. This has less to do with the sales process and more to do with the book itself - and will affect the editor’s interest in seeing the rest of the work.

What you need to show in your synopsis (to prove yourself to be a storyteller) is not just a sequence of events but the movement of the story towards a resolution, a movement that is predictable in some ways and surprising in others.

That’s harder than it sounds. Characters must learn something over the course of the book to satisfy the reader; issues have to be presented, explored and resolved. Characters and events should not just pop up and disappear forever - they must be tied into the fabric of the story. Many books end with a similar scene to the opening scene, for example, because we like circular motifs in storytelling. The synopsis reveals that you know your craft, that you know the task of each element you have introduced to the story.

There should, by the way, be no surprises in a synopsis. One of the classic mistakes that new authors make is to end the synopsis abruptly, saying something like “you’ll have to read the book to find out the ending!” This does not show your ability as a storyteller - the synopsis itself is not a forum for storytelling per se. Another analogy is a magician: you can see his show and be amazed by his tricks. This is similar to the book. Alternatively, you can take a backstage tour and be shown how the tricks are done, and how he saves the more thrilling tricks for last. This is more similar to the synopsis. The editor knows that there is a trick to storytelling - what he or she wants to know is whether you have learned it.

One of the hallmarks of a synopsis that fails to show storytelling ability is a sense of disjointedness. The reader wonders why they’re being told all these things that have nothing to do with each other - the book may echo this same confusion. Characters and events feel ‘convenient’ and the story may be criticized for relying heavily on coincidence. Event follows event with no apparently connection or resolution. And there is no use of emphasis - the cast of supporting characters are not designated to be more or less important to the plot resolution.

The best way to understand this is to think of how children tell stories - most of them create lousy synopses! A child will recount events, giving each equal weight: “we went to the zoo and we saw the tigers and one was sleeping and we had ice cream and the polar bear went swimming and mommy lost her earring and the penguins were funny…” It’s almost stream of consciousness. There’s no connection between events, except that they happened to the child. Nothing builds, nothing is resolved, events may even be presented out of order. This is an “episodic” presentation. Synopses that are criticized for being episodic are those that show no structure. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the book doesn’t have structure, though it often is a telling sign. (For more on Episodic Plots and how to fix them, check out these three posts on my blog: #1, #2, #3.

C. Characterization

Thirdly, the synopsis should reveal the kind of characters you’ve created. The publisher needs to know that the characters are admirable, noble and sympathetic. They also have to make sense, act reasonably and have motivations that seem acceptably “real”. They have to be consistent.

This is a requirement of synopses that may be unique for romance of all market genres, because the success of a romance depends very much upon the characterizations of the protagonists. In romantic fiction, the hero must be a man the reader can “fall in love with”, the heroine a woman in whose shoes the reader can imagine herself.

One way to deal with this is to include a thumbnail sketch of each protagonist in your synopsis. State who they are and what critical events have given them the attitudes that they hold. How did they get to this point? What brings them to this conflict, and what baggage are they carrying? In the synopsis for a romance, it’s helpful to include the characters’ perspective on love and/or marriage - giving the hero and heroine divergent viewpoints can create instant conflict.

Our vampire, for instance, might believe in the power of destined love, while the reporter thinks love is a bunch of misty-eyed bunk. I firmly believe that one character has to understand love in order to make the romance work - I would probably twist this further and have the vampire be the one who doesn’t understand the nuts and bolts of love, just the grand concept, and the heroine be the other way around. This way, the conflict would be layered. She’s his destiny but he’s not willing to change or concede anything to nurture that love, while she doesn’t buy the idea of destined love, but likes him and isn’t afraid to show her feelings on a daily basis. This way, they’d each be confusing the heck out of each other.
D. The Conflict and its Resolution

Which brings us to the fourth issue of interest - the synopsis must illuminate the conflict and its resolution. In a romance novel, this is often the development of the romance itself. The synopsis should show how the story moves forward, propelled by the conflict and the characters’ responses to events that occur as a result of that conflict. It must show the progression from A to B. In a romance, it must primarily show the development of the central relationship, moving it (typically) from antagonism to eternal love.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you must include every nuance of that progression. You might think of your story in terms of turning points, or in terms of gradations of bringing your protagonists’ points of view into alliance. Maybe each character takes three big steps from A to B - your synopsis would show those steps. What changes each character’s mind? What makes them think differently? Ideally, it should be the other protagonist.

Also, a major part of the conflict in a romance will involve love. What are the protagonist’s respective perspectives on love and marriage? How are these perspectives changed or altered by contact with the other protagonist? What do the two protagonists find attractive about each other - and what do they find annoying about each other? When does each protagonist realize he/she is in love, and why? When is the relationship consummated - and what is the event that triggers the deed. Ideally, the synopsis will show the major shifts in each character’s pov, the steps that get each one from A to B.

Also, in a romance as in many story forms, the good guys are rewarded and the bad guys are punished; those who are confused or misguided are reformed. There is no middle ground: there is good and there is evil and there are no other options. Romance protagonists (i.e. the hero and the heroine) must always be good guys, even if they don’t look like good guys at the beginning of the book. If one looks like a “bad guy”, then it is love, or the other protagonist, who finds the good in the bad one’s heart AND brings it to the fore. This is particularly important when writing dark heroes.

Finally, in finding true love and conquering any obstacles to it, the hero and heroine must be materially rewarded. This is why romances must have “happily ever after” endings - the tragic ending, while it may make the story romantic, is not the hallmark of a romance novel.

Fulfilling these expectations is part of your compact with your reader and a synopsis will reveal whether or not you understand how to do your job.
We’ll talk about some techniques for fitting all this information into 8 double-spaced pages tomorrow.