How to Write a Synopsis

Your email pings. Yes! The executive responded to your query!

You hold your breath and click “open” to find the words you’ve been praying for: “Your screenplay concept is great! Please submit the script with a one-page synopsis.”

The script? No problem. One-page synopsis?

Did I just hear you fall to the floor?

Get back up. You can do this.

Whether it’s a book synopsis or one to help with your one sheet, learning how to write a synopsis isn’t rocket science. You have the capability to narrow your story down. Trust me.

In writing a story synopsis, you simply need to reboot your mind to switch from storytelling to summarization. When reading onesheet or synopsis examples, you’ll see they’re similar to the blurb on the back of a book. The truth is, all those beautiful details you spent months putting into your story now have to be removed to condense the story down to its core. When a plot synopsis is still compelling without all the little details, that’s the test of the story’s foundation.

Challenge yourself with synopsis writing, even if the agent or producer hasn’t requested it. Look at the sample synopsis in our download, then write a one after outlining your screenplay and before the completion of the first draft. The holes in your story will pop! You can address them in draft one instead of having to hunt them down like rats in draft two.

Before writing a synopsis, research the market you’re pitching to. Study it. Know who will read the synopsis, and make certain it’s geared toward their needs. This isn’t just art; it’s a business.

Download How to Write a Synopsis to get a synopsis example as well as detailed tips for writing a a novel synopsis or a screenplay synopsis. Just enter your email below!

With a one-page limit, how do you choose what to leave out and what to keep in when writing synopsis? Think about the market, not about the story. What you leave out is just as important as what you put into a synopsis. Include the part that convinces your target audience that you can deliver what they’re looking for.

If your goal in writing is to sell your work, then you have no choice but to approach your submissions on a business level. The executive wants to represent an author who understands the market’s needs. Give them what they want, and it will sell.

Synopsis

The one sentence synopsis

Applicants/filmmakers are often asked to supply a one sentence version 

of their film story. This one sentence should give the most concentrated version possible of the story, or at least its key event.For example, here is a one sentence plot premise for Somersault: A teenage girl runs away from home, hoping to find herself through love, but the people she meets are as lost as she is… This sentence is one way to describe what happens in Somersault. In this case, it gives us the starting event, implies further events and states the protagonist’s predicament. The one paragraph synopsis The one paragraph synopsis is useful in finding the essence of the story because it must state very briefly and simply WHO, WHAT and HOW. Within the space of two to four sentences, the one paragraph synopsis should set out whose story it is (the protagonist), what his or her problem is, what they do about it and the outcome. For example, here is a one paragraph synopsis of The Boys: Brett Sprague is released from gaol and returns home to a family he feels has disintegrated in his absence. His attempts to dominate his brothers, his brothers’ girlfriends, his own girlfriend and his mother by violence and the assertion of masculine solidarity result in the alienation and escape of the women. Finally, Brett leads his brothers in an act of revenge on one anonymous female, the scapegoat for their failures as men. What is implied in this synopsis of The Boys is not just ‘what happens’, but the story’s thematic concerns as well. The ‘pitch’ version of the one paragraph synopsis Some writers may choose to write their one paragraph synopsis as a structured ’pitch’, which works like this: This story is a…(romantic comedy, film noir, psychological drama, etc) …about…(your protagonist, perhaps with an adjective or two) …who wants/needs/sets out to… (the protagonist’s problem or objective). First major plot point of the story (ie what the protagonist does in pursuit of her/his objective). Second major plot point of the story. Third major plot point of the story (this might be a ‘reversal’ and begin with “But…”). (Note: three plot points maximum!) The climax. And the resolution (what the protagonist gained or lost or learnt).