Writing a Synopsis

Charlotte Dillon's Synopsis Page for Writers

Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits. ~ Henry Ford

Your story is finished. You know every twist and turn of the plot. You know your
characters inside and out. Now how do you share all of that with an editor, without
her having to read the whole story? The synopsis. I've placed a sample here to get
you started, and added some really great synopsis how-to links and books.

Some Books to Help

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Some Sites and Articles to Help Out

Some How-To Hints

Don't use some fancy font or cute flowery paper. Stick with the same
basics you learned for manuscript formatting....dark courier size 12,
good twenty weight white paper. Print on front side only, double spaced
unless the publisher's guidelines ask for something else.

When it comes to the length of a synopsis, longer isn't better. A good
length is to figure on about two synopsis pages for each hundred
manuscript pages. Of course, depending on the plot, you might find you
can get by with less, or you might find you need more. The key word
here, is "need".

Sample Synopsis

A COWBOY'S WILL/Synopsis                                                                       Dillon 1


                              A COWBOY'S WILL; Synopsis

Blair Taylor is twenty-five and just coming out of a bad marriage when her grandfather
Grady Reid passes away. Blair leaves her home in New York and travels to Grady's
ranch in Louisiana for the reading of his will. She is in emotional turmoil. She feels
guilty for the tiny amount of time she gave her grandfather when he was alive. She is
still hurt over the things she learned about Victor Taylor, the man she is divorcing. She
is tired of her mother controlling her life. Worse of all, Blair is caught up in a secret that
will be hard to keep soon--she is pregnant with Victor's baby.
Cody Lawrence is thirty, has been through one failed marriage, and everything he owns
can be loaded into a pickup truck. Grady Reid took Cody in when no one else would,
when Cody was a wild teen, mad at the world. Now Grady is gone and his spoiled
city-raised granddaughter is coming to take away the only home Cody has ever really
known. He doesn't intend to give it up without a fight.
Grady was gone, but he has a surprise left for his granddaughter and the man who has
been like a son to him. Grady leaves half of the ranch to each. He also adds a little
stipulation to his will. If Cody or Blair give up and leave the Red Bluff ranch before a full
month passes, the ranch and everything on it is to be sold, and the money given over to
Grady's church.
Cody can't believe half of the ranch has been left to him. He would be beside himself
with joy, if it weren't for one little detail--Blair Taylor. Cody tries to talk her into leaving.
He promises to give her what half of the ranch is worth, though he doesn't know how in
the world he'll get his hands on that kind of money.
Blair wasn't expecting half of the ranch either. She feels she doesn't deserve it. But
now, it is like an answer to her prayers. She knows Cody doesn't have the means to buy
her out, but if she can hang in here for a month, sell her half, the money will give her a
new start in a new city, far away from her mother and Victor.
Maybe even oil and water would mix if it were stirred together enough. In the confines
of the ranch and one small house, Cody and Blair are stirred together plenty.
Blair just wants to survive her time, like an inmate serving out a sentence, and walk
away with her half of the money. Cody doesn't want the ranch sold. He can't even
stand the thought of leaving his home. He knows he'll have to in a month if Blair stays,
just so she can have her half of the money, when she already has more than she needs.
There is almost always a thin line between anger and passion, between hate and love.
Each can get the blood to boiling easy enough. In the middle of battles, Cody and Blair
begin to find things to like about each other. The sexual tension that builds makes the
house seem smaller and smaller.
On a starlit night, passion carries them away. Before they make love, Blair starts to tell
Cody about the child she is going to have, but chickens out. Afterwards, there seems to
be no easy way to tell him. Over the next week, she tries, but never gets the words out.
When the month is almost up, Blair decides they have to talk. She still hasn't told Cody
her secret, they haven't used the word love, and they haven't even mentioned what they
will do when the month is over.
Cody blows his top when Blair tells him that she is pregnant with Victor's baby. He can't
believe she hadn't told him, that she hadn't trusted him enough to tell him. He is
more hurt than angry. After she walks away, he suddenly realizes that he is so hurt
because he loves her. He doesn't know when it happened, but he has fallen in love with
her.
Blair is deeply hurt by Cody's anger and the things he said. She plans to pack and
leave right away. She cares about him too much to take the ranch away from him. It
shocks her to admit it, but to care that much, it has to be love. Real love.
Cody catches Blair before she can leave. He comes right out and tells her that he loves
her. She is filled with joy, but then thinks of her unborn child. She confesses her love
for Cody, but leaves him with no doubts that she is having her baby, and keeping it.
Cody agrees that he would have it no other way. He loves her enough to love her child
just as much as he loves her.
At the wedding, Blair and her mother seem to have come to an understanding. Cody
sends thanks heavenward to Grady for playing match maker.
In the epilogue, Blair is in labor. Cody is falling apart. He is in such a hurry to leave
the ranch with Blair, that he almost forgets something upstairs....their little daughter,
Lorena. Blair did tell Victor about the baby, but he wasn't very interested in fatherhood.
Cody was more than happy to adopt the little girl. Still, he would never love her any
less than the son they are about to welcome into the world.

See More Sample Synopse s Here

Writing a Synopsis