I’ve read through a lot of manuscripts and short pitches and have met many aspiring authors who have told me about their stories, and I’ve learned a shortcut for discerning if a manuscript is a hot mess even before I read it.
Thank you for your generous assistance. I am working on my pitch and love the structural skeleton analogy. You are so right, the bones have to be there to hold up all the tissue and jiggly parts!
The one sentence description is actually what came first for me (well after the characters, they always lead the way, but first for the plot I mean). Then I had to build outwards and now I'm not sure if the story is complex enough lol
This is great, thank you. I’m wondering if the theme of the story is ever included in this type of synopsis. Are we talking primarily plot and character arc or is there room to include some of the subtext?
Thanks for the question. For this exercise, we don't include that. This focuses on the external plot rather than the internal plot by using one of the exercises above that specifically focuses on those story elements. However, I do use other exercises with writers to check the internal plot elements all align, including what we call the story point (but is basically what's often referred to as the theme) and the protagonist's character arc. I plan to discuss this more in an upcoming post!
I think it's always helpful to be able to distill your writing into a shorter concept so you can check if you're on track with what you're trying to deliver to the reader as well as so you can meaningfully communicate to others if you're pitching it somewhere. How you distill it might change depending on what you're writing, of course, but I do use a version of distilling this when I work on personal essays.
Appreciate this advice as I finish my manuscript for my first non fiction book. A lot of the guidance is very similar! I get so excited trying to tell people about the book, and I’ve been working on distilling it and getting to the SO WHAT part… thank you!
Glad it could be helpful to you! Since it's nonfiction the distillation exercise will be a little different and you'll want to be sure to focus on the reader's transformational arc as opposed to that of a protagonist in fiction.
Mmm, it also depends on the writer's particular style--plotter vs. pantser, and whether they have everything worked out in the first draft or whether they need to revise extensively. I've known solid midlist writers with over 50 books to their name (tradpub) who can't give you this summary until the second or third draft, but they know it in their bones. If they stopped to figure it out in that rough draft, however, they stall out.
Thank you for sharing. I hear what you’re saying but I do use this with both plotters and pantsers and it’s usually pantsers who find it the most helpful. As with your example of your writer friend, some writers explore a few drafts before they zero in on their story’s concept, but ultimately, as you share about your friend, they do become clear enough to be able to distill it…that’s the test and that’s how I often use it with clients who come to me for a manuscript eval after they have already completed an initial draft(s). But I also use it with writers before they even begin drafting and it is often the pantsers who find just getting clear on these basic elements really helps them to focus on the story they’re trying to tell and makes both the initial drafting and revision easier. That said, I don’t believe any one thing works for everyone 100 percent of the time…you take what works for you and leave what doesn’t. But in my experience, this method has been extremely eye-opening for writers and has yet to let me down.
I can tell you up front that it doesn't work for me, and I'm a plotter whose style changes and evolves with each book (and whose process is usually rough draft, edited first draft, final draft). Some need to be discovery writers, and others need a light structure leaving things open. The friend with over 50 books usually needs no more than three drafts to get to final form and...she's pretty darn good at figuring out the holes.
I hear you saying it won't work for you *before* you start drafting, but it's also a great way to check if your manuscript structure works well *after* you've completed your draft. You might want to give it a try at that point. It’s a helpful way to test that the narrative trajectory makes sense before writers begin pitching to agents (or hand it over to the agent they already have). It’s the same with writing the full synopsis—doing so usually reveals the weaknesses in the narrative trajectory.
Different books and different genres require differing strategies. If you are writing for tradpub women’s fiction that doesn’t have significant continuity issues or complexity, this strategy can be effective.
If you are writing a complex SFF novel as part of a complex SFF series, spread out across a broad setting with characters doing things that affect others thousands of miles apart on other continents or other worlds, well, that’s time for the character scene matrix, for continuity’s sake.
And let me tell you, the scene character matrix definitely reveals narrative issues. As does a chapter-by-chapter synopsis.
I prefer to capture issues in the story as I draft, so that I don’t have to tear the whole dang book apart in a rewrite. I discarded this particular strategy ages ago because it didn’t do anything for continuity—and I’m currently revising and reissuing a book I put out seven years ago because I did use this sort of strategy you advocate and…it didn’t address the issue that I was forcing the story into the wrong genre (paranormal romance instead of contemporary fantasy, because it’s urban fantasy in a rural setting).
Shrug. That’s when I’m writing the back cover copy. I don’t do tradpub because I got tired of the “love your voice, love your work…can’t sell it” rejects (primarily because I write crossgenre work with relationships. Latest is a science fantasy western and nope, it’s not quirky enough for New York, especially since it’s Pacific Northwest and not the Southwest). And after hearing a top NY editor describe what they were looking for in my genre and realizing that a.) I don’t write the quirky stuff they want and b.) I’m insufficiently tattooed, insufficiently bizarre in my personal life, and too old, I’m not wasting my time pitching to agents and editors. And we won’t get into problematic contract language.
25+ books to my name, and I’ve sold enough work to qualify for full SFWA membership. I suspect I know what I’m doing, and given that I do developmental review for a respected midlist writer’s early drafts, I rather flatter myself that I can see the holes in a story. I have done everything from discovery writing to an explicit scene-by-scene character matrix in planning my books. I know what works for me…and your style doesn’t.
Thank you so much for this, Heather! I see now very clearly why my first novel landed me a contract with an agent, and that I am on track with the third one (I am just preparing the query letter). But especially you helped me understand what is wrong with the second novel I wrote - I never got it clear for myself what the story is all about.
Thanks for sharing, @Erin C. Niumata!
Fabulous advice.
Great read! I love to write a query before deciding whether to write a full novel. 💕
This is so helpful, thank you.
Thank you Heather check out my Writer Under Construction Substack
Thank you for your generous assistance. I am working on my pitch and love the structural skeleton analogy. You are so right, the bones have to be there to hold up all the tissue and jiggly parts!
The one sentence description is actually what came first for me (well after the characters, they always lead the way, but first for the plot I mean). Then I had to build outwards and now I'm not sure if the story is complex enough lol
Thank you, this is SO helpful!
So glad!
This is great, thank you. I’m wondering if the theme of the story is ever included in this type of synopsis. Are we talking primarily plot and character arc or is there room to include some of the subtext?
Thanks for the question. For this exercise, we don't include that. This focuses on the external plot rather than the internal plot by using one of the exercises above that specifically focuses on those story elements. However, I do use other exercises with writers to check the internal plot elements all align, including what we call the story point (but is basically what's often referred to as the theme) and the protagonist's character arc. I plan to discuss this more in an upcoming post!
Do you think this method could work for short stories or personal essays?
I think it's always helpful to be able to distill your writing into a shorter concept so you can check if you're on track with what you're trying to deliver to the reader as well as so you can meaningfully communicate to others if you're pitching it somewhere. How you distill it might change depending on what you're writing, of course, but I do use a version of distilling this when I work on personal essays.
Appreciate this advice as I finish my manuscript for my first non fiction book. A lot of the guidance is very similar! I get so excited trying to tell people about the book, and I’ve been working on distilling it and getting to the SO WHAT part… thank you!
Glad it could be helpful to you! Since it's nonfiction the distillation exercise will be a little different and you'll want to be sure to focus on the reader's transformational arc as opposed to that of a protagonist in fiction.
Mmm, it also depends on the writer's particular style--plotter vs. pantser, and whether they have everything worked out in the first draft or whether they need to revise extensively. I've known solid midlist writers with over 50 books to their name (tradpub) who can't give you this summary until the second or third draft, but they know it in their bones. If they stopped to figure it out in that rough draft, however, they stall out.
Sometimes you just have to write the book first.
Thank you for sharing. I hear what you’re saying but I do use this with both plotters and pantsers and it’s usually pantsers who find it the most helpful. As with your example of your writer friend, some writers explore a few drafts before they zero in on their story’s concept, but ultimately, as you share about your friend, they do become clear enough to be able to distill it…that’s the test and that’s how I often use it with clients who come to me for a manuscript eval after they have already completed an initial draft(s). But I also use it with writers before they even begin drafting and it is often the pantsers who find just getting clear on these basic elements really helps them to focus on the story they’re trying to tell and makes both the initial drafting and revision easier. That said, I don’t believe any one thing works for everyone 100 percent of the time…you take what works for you and leave what doesn’t. But in my experience, this method has been extremely eye-opening for writers and has yet to let me down.
I can tell you up front that it doesn't work for me, and I'm a plotter whose style changes and evolves with each book (and whose process is usually rough draft, edited first draft, final draft). Some need to be discovery writers, and others need a light structure leaving things open. The friend with over 50 books usually needs no more than three drafts to get to final form and...she's pretty darn good at figuring out the holes.
I hear you saying it won't work for you *before* you start drafting, but it's also a great way to check if your manuscript structure works well *after* you've completed your draft. You might want to give it a try at that point. It’s a helpful way to test that the narrative trajectory makes sense before writers begin pitching to agents (or hand it over to the agent they already have). It’s the same with writing the full synopsis—doing so usually reveals the weaknesses in the narrative trajectory.
The other thing?
Different books and different genres require differing strategies. If you are writing for tradpub women’s fiction that doesn’t have significant continuity issues or complexity, this strategy can be effective.
If you are writing a complex SFF novel as part of a complex SFF series, spread out across a broad setting with characters doing things that affect others thousands of miles apart on other continents or other worlds, well, that’s time for the character scene matrix, for continuity’s sake.
And let me tell you, the scene character matrix definitely reveals narrative issues. As does a chapter-by-chapter synopsis.
I prefer to capture issues in the story as I draft, so that I don’t have to tear the whole dang book apart in a rewrite. I discarded this particular strategy ages ago because it didn’t do anything for continuity—and I’m currently revising and reissuing a book I put out seven years ago because I did use this sort of strategy you advocate and…it didn’t address the issue that I was forcing the story into the wrong genre (paranormal romance instead of contemporary fantasy, because it’s urban fantasy in a rural setting).
Shrug. That’s when I’m writing the back cover copy. I don’t do tradpub because I got tired of the “love your voice, love your work…can’t sell it” rejects (primarily because I write crossgenre work with relationships. Latest is a science fantasy western and nope, it’s not quirky enough for New York, especially since it’s Pacific Northwest and not the Southwest). And after hearing a top NY editor describe what they were looking for in my genre and realizing that a.) I don’t write the quirky stuff they want and b.) I’m insufficiently tattooed, insufficiently bizarre in my personal life, and too old, I’m not wasting my time pitching to agents and editors. And we won’t get into problematic contract language.
25+ books to my name, and I’ve sold enough work to qualify for full SFWA membership. I suspect I know what I’m doing, and given that I do developmental review for a respected midlist writer’s early drafts, I rather flatter myself that I can see the holes in a story. I have done everything from discovery writing to an explicit scene-by-scene character matrix in planning my books. I know what works for me…and your style doesn’t.
Heather, I say this over and over to writers. Thanks for articulating it so well.
Thank you so much for this, Heather! I see now very clearly why my first novel landed me a contract with an agent, and that I am on track with the third one (I am just preparing the query letter). But especially you helped me understand what is wrong with the second novel I wrote - I never got it clear for myself what the story is all about.
Thank you so much for sharing that, Anette! I'm thrilled it helped. 😊
Well said!
Great tips!
Thanks, Alex!