Query/Synopsis writing Plato

[J.L. Borstlap]

Morning Guys

Wondering if there is some advice I can gather from more experienced writers. Been sitting with the task of Query and Synopsis writing for my Novel for quite some time now, but for some reason it feels like I am getting nowhere.

Read up on Query writing, and on Writing a Synopsis, but it feels like making a summary of a long Fantasy Novel in a one page description is not my strongest point. I write, then read and just don't feel like it is working.

Is there guidelines or things I am missing?

Please help!!!!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Have you read Janet Reid's Queryshark blog from start to finish? Not a bad place to start. Also, get another two posts and pop what you have on critiques and we can have a look.

For queries you're looking for the hook. Focus in who your mc is, what they have to achieve, what they have to overcome. You can leave this open, so

But first, Bilbo must retrieve the ring from the dragon... Da, da, dahhhhh!

The synopsis is only generally looked at after an agent is interested and proves you actually have a story so hookiness isn't what you're aiming for but a nice, succint summary (about one page but it can be single spaced.) no cliffhangers in this one, you go right through to the end:

Middleearth saved, Bilbo returns, with the ring, to the Shire where he finds an auction of his belongings underway, having been presumed dead!

Edit - oh and they're pigs to write, btw. You're not on your own, struggling with it. We all know the pain...

 

[J.L. Borstlap]

Thanks @springs , have read a few forums and pages about synopsis where they all say, you need to have great hooks and hangers in it for it is a slightly longer blurb. So I struggled allot.

What you just said will help allot with the Query, have thought of it in the same way never had it in so many great words.

Synopsis wise, I tend to want to keep the Agent interested as well, but realized that is unfortunately impossible, I need to give them everything right?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Thanks @springs , have read a few forums and pages about synopsis where they all say, you need to have great hooks and hangers in it for it is a slightly longer blurb. So I struggled allot.

What you just said will help allot with the Query, have thought of it in the same way never had it in so many great words.

Synopsis wise, I tend to want to keep the Agent interested as well, but realized that is unfortunately impossible, I need to give them everything right?

Well, not necessarily everything. You might have sub-stories that will muddy the water and make keeping up confusing, in which case you might not go into them, or refer in brief. It does need to flow. That's where getting critiques of it from people who haven't read the story is so valuable. We can identify where it's getting confusing or going off on a tangent we could live without.

Eg for the Lord of the Rings you might say he seeks shelter with Tom Bombadil for an evening - but do you need to? I don't think so. In fact, I don't think you even need to mention Tom Bombadil at all, do you? Enough to say Frodo meets danger and barely reaches Rivendell alive?

 

[J.L. Borstlap]

Busy with a proper re write at this monent, as soon as I am done will dedicate my time to the query and synopsis. By that time I should have enough post to ask for a critique!