150 word synopsis?

by Kimberley Stevens
9th September 2014

Hi all, I have a question: how do you do a 150 word synopsis?

I'm entering a competition and you have to submit a 150 word synopsis along with the first page of your novel.

Would this tiny synopsis be like the blurb of a book (on the back cover)?

And advice or info would be very appreciated. :)

Replies

If they ask for a synopsis then they still want to know how the book ends (the blurb, in contrast, doesn't contain any spoilers).

The best advice I've read is to write a really short synopsis (one 25-word sentence), and then build up. The sentence you build from is the core of your book. It's very, very difficult to fit a whole story in one sentence (and it might take days just to get that right) but once you've succeeded, the rest is easy in comparison.

Try looking for a book by Nicola Morgan (it's called something like Write a Great Synopsis).

Profile picture for user KatyW_
Katy
W
270 points
Ready to publish
Short stories
Fiction
Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Adventure
Autobiography, Biography and Memoir
Middle Grade (Children's)
Picture Books (Children's)
Comic
Historical
Speculative Fiction
Katy W
09/09/2014