Why You Should Write a Synopsis Before You Start Writing Your Manuscript

If you'd like a primer on how to write a synopsis, see my posts here and here. And if you want your synopsis critiqued on this website, fill out the form here, or email your 1-2 page synopsis to me at operationawesome6@gmail.com, and I'll post one critique per week (NOTE: I'll email my critique to the author as soon as I'm done, so the author won't have to wait to see his/her synopsis on the site). Thanks for participating!

For many writers, drafting a synopsis is the most painful part of the novel-writing process. You've finished writing, editing, polishing, incorporating critiques, and your novel shines! But now you have to go back and summarize your entire plot in a 1-2 or 4-5 page document? It's painful, it's difficult, and you'd rather spend the day cleaning your house or going to the dentist. Since this is such a common complaint, I found myself wondering if there was any way to make the synopsis-writing process more enjoyable.

As it turns out, there is: Write the synopsis before you start writing the book.

You might be thinking, "But I don't even know what's going to happen in my book until I start writing!" Or, "My synopsis is going to change significantly once I'm done with the book!" But hear me out. Even if you're not a strict (or even casual) outliner, you have some idea of what's going to happen in your book before you start writing. At the very least, you know something about your main character, what happens to her, what choices she is forced to make, and maybe even what happens at the end. 

So, using just that information, you can start writing a synopsis. You won't know all the plot details, and that's okay! Writing a synopsis is a great way to start brainstorming the types of scenes you want to include, what the main character's arc is going to look like, and how to incorporate a satisfying ending into your narrative. Seeing the most basic beginning-middle-end of your plot on a single page (or two pages) is the best way to see what the plot needs to be complete. Are you missing action? Tension? Resolution? A basic synopsis can tell you all of that.

Of course you'll go back and revise the synopsis as you write the book. And you'll need to revise it extensively when you're done writing the book, to make sure you're accounting for the entire plot. But you'll have the skeleton of the synopsis already written, and revising it tends to be far less painful than starting from scratch.

EXERCISE: Write a Pre-Novel Synopsis

1) Know who your main character is, the basic setting, and at least the most basic answers to the questions of 'what happens?' 'what does my main character want?' and 'who/what is standing in the way of my main character getting what he wants?'

2) Brainstorm a list of at least ten scenes you want to see in your book.

3) Using that list and the answers to the questions in (1), put the scenes in the order that makes the most sense for your narrative (usually chronological, but not always)

4) Add details (no need to include too many at this point) to each of the critical scenes, using a paragraph for each one (at least at this initial stage)

5) Flesh out transitions between scenes - because 'X' happens in paragraph 1, 'Y' must happen in paragraph 2, and that leads to 'Z' happening in paragraph 3.

6) Read over your synopsis and note areas where the main plot and main character arc are missing important elements (change, tension, action, resolution, etc.). Note where those elements need to be added.

7) Use this Pre-Novel Synopsis as your guide for writing your novel!

Why I Don’t Believe in Writer’s Block and What I Do When My Writing Gets Stuck

I don’t believe in a mystical state of unwriterliness, some incomprehensible force blocking my words. In my experience, Writer’s Block is just the name we use for being stuck. And getting stuck has causes we can understand and overcome. Sure, you can call that Writer’s Block. But to me, Writer's Block was a mysterious and inevitable thing, something I just had to wait out. One day I said, “I’m stuck. I just don’t want to write this scene. Why?” And my whole approach to writing changed.

I figured out that I get stuck when I don’t know what should happen next, I can’t decide between a few different things that could happen next, or I’m dreading writing what I know (or think I know) needs to happen next. Here’s how I deal with these different forms of stuckness:

1) What happens next? What do I write? Aargh!

I’m not an outliner. I don’t like to plan the whole story ahead of time because I like to be in suspense just like my characters—and my readers. But I avoid the problem of not knowing what to write next by thinking about my story while I’m doing chores, riding in the car, in the shower, whatever. When I sit down to write I almost always have an idea how to begin the next scene, or finish the one I left off on.

Another helpful trick is rereading some of what I’ve already written. Often by the time I get to where I left off writing, the words just flow.

I’m also not afraid to write out of order. If I get a great idea about something that’s going to happen later on in the story, I’ll skip ahead and write it. I write whatever I’m most passionate about at the moment. It keeps writing fun for me, and I enjoy going back later and filling in the blanks, rearranging the pieces. It’s like a puzzle. It’s almost complete, and then—there’s that piece I’ve been hunting for all along! I stick it in that gap in the middle and the whole thing is complete!

Reading what I’ve previously written and writing out of order also help me with the dilemma of deciding between different ideas of what could happen next. As I read or write other scenes, the answer becomes obvious to me.

2) I know what I’m going to write, but I’m dreaaaading it. And you can’t make me write it! So there!

If I’m dreading writing a scene, I try to figure out why. Is it boring to me? If so, it will probably be boring to the reader. What else could happen that would be more compelling? Is the scene really necessary? Maybe I can just get rid of it. Writing out of order is helpful here too. Sometimes I avoid a dreaded scene only to discover the story’s better without it. What a relief!

What if the scene isn’t just boring? What if I’m actually afraid to write this scene? Is it emotionally difficult? Do I feel like I’m not good enough to pull it off? This is a tough one. I say a little prayer, grab some M&M’s, and plunge in. I tell myself to just get it down, and I can take a fresh look at it tomorrow and fix it. Now that I have some experience tackling dreaded scenes, I can also tell myself that I’ve done this before, and that these scenes usually turn out to be the best scenes. The scenes with heart.