how to write book synopsis

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Blog • Understanding Publishing

Posted on Sep 12, 2018

How to Write an Incredible Synopsis in 4 Simple Steps

Your novel is fully written, edited, and polished to perfection — you’re ready to pitch it to agents! But you’re missing a critical piece of persuasion: the synopsis. Even after putting together your entire book, you may have no idea how to write one, or even how to approach it.

Luckily, we’ve got answers for you. Read on for our best tips on writing a synopsis that’s clear, concise, captivating… and may even lead to an all-out agent battle over your novel!

What is a synopsis?

A synopsis is a summary of a book that familiarizes the reader with the plot and how it unfolds. Although these kinds of summaries also appear on the pages of school book reports and Wikipedia, this guide will focus on constructing one that you can send out to agents (and eventually publishers).

Your novel synopsis should achieve two things: firstly, it should convey the contents of your book, and secondly, it should be intriguing!

While you don’t need to pull out all the marketing stops at this stage, you should have a brief hook at the beginning and a sense of urgency underlying the text that will keep your reader going. It should make potential agents want to devour your whole manuscript — even though they’ll already know what happens.

While writing your synopsis, make sure that it includes:

A complete narrative arc
Your own voice and unique elements of your story
The ending or resolution ( unlike in a blurb )

As for the ideal length for this piece, it varies from project to project. Some authors recommend keeping it to 500 words, while others might write thousands. However, the standard range is about one to two single-spaced pages (or two to five double-spaced pages). And if you're interested in knowing how to format the whole of your manuscript for submission, we recommend downloading this manuscript format template.

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You may also want to have an additional “brief” summary prepared for agents who specifically request a single page or less. Remember: as hard as it will be to distill all your hard work into that minimal space, it’s crucial to keep your synopsis digestible and agent-friendly.

How to write a novel synopsis in 4 steps

1. Get the basics down first

When it comes to writing a synopsis, substance is the name of the game. No matter how nicely you dress it up, an agent will disregard any piece that doesn’t demonstrate a fully fleshed out plot and strong narrative arc. So it stands to reason that as you begin writing, you should focus on the fundamentals.

Start with major plot points

Naturally, you want agents to be aware of your story's major plot points . So the best way to start summarizing your story is to create a list of those plot points, including:

The inciting incident — what sparks the central conflict of your story?
The events of the rising action — what happens in the interlude between the inciting incident and the climax, and how does this build tension?
The height of the action, or climax , of your story — this one is the most important, as it should be the most exciting part of your book!
The resolution or ending — again, unlike a blurb, a synopsis doesn’t need to dangle the carrot of an unknown ending to the reader; you can and should reveal your story’s ending here, as this brings the plot and narrative arc to a close.

Listing these points effectively maps out the action and arc of your story, which will enable the reader to easily follow it from beginning to end.

Include character motivations

The key here is not to get too deep into characterization, since you don’t have much room to elaborate. Instead, simply emphasize character motivations at the beginning and end of your synopsis — first as justification for the inciting incident, then again to bring home the resolution. For example:

Beginning: “Sally has spent the past twenty years wondering who her birth parents are [motivation]. When a mysterious man offers her the chance to find them, she spontaneously buys a ticket to Florence to begin her journey [inciting action].”

Ending: “She returns to the US with the man who was her father all along [resolution], safe in the knowledge that she’ll never have to wonder about him again [restated motivation].”

Also note how the text here is written in third person, present tense, as it should be regardless of the tense or POV of your actual book. Writing a synopsis in first or second person doesn’t really work because it’s not meant to be narrated — just summarized. Basically, the present tense works to engage the reader while the third person allows the story to be told smoothly.

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2. Highlight what’s unique

Now it’s time to spice up your synopsis by highlighting the elements that make it unique. Agents need to know what’s so special about your book in particular — and moreover, is it special enough to get readers to pick it up? Below are some features you might employ to grab an agent’s attention and assure them of your book’s appeal.

Your writing voice is an essential tool here: it conveys your novel’s tone and is one of the most important factors in making your work stand out. However, it’s also one of the most difficult elements to evoke in such a small amount of space.

The best way to capture voice in a synopsis is through extremely deliberate word choice and sentence structure. So if you were Jane Austen, you’d use clever words to magnify your wit: “When Darcy proposes to her apropos of nothing, Elizabeth has the quite understandable reaction of rejecting him.” You may not be able to use all the elaborate prose of your novel, but your synopsis should still reflect its overall feeling.

Plot twists

Even though they’re one of the oldest tricks in the book, readers will never tire of juicy plot twists. If your novel contains one or more of these twists, especially at the climax, make sure your synopsis accentuates it. But don’t hint too much at the twist, as this will make it seem more dramatic when it comes; a couple of words in the intro will suffice as foreshadowing.

For instance, if you were writing a summary of Gone Girl , you might open with “Nick Dunne wakes up one morning to find that his wife, Amy, has apparently disappeared. ” This implies that she may not be as “gone” as we think she is, setting the stage for the later reveal.

Point of view

Another aspect that might set your book apart is a distinctive point of view . Since you’ll be giving your synopsis in third person, you can limit this inclusion to an introductory sentence: “This book is narrated from the point of view of a mouse.”

Although this strategy works best for books with a highly unusual point of view (such as The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, in which the story is told by Death), it can also be very helpful to remember for seemingly bog-standard narrators. If one of your characters narrates in first person, make sure to address their individual narrative quirks as well as any biases or limitations; highlighting an unreliable narrator can really add to your novel’s intrigue!

3. Edit for clarity and excess

Don’t shroud your synopsis in mystery; this is very frustrating to agents who just want to know what happens in your book! With that in mind, after you’ve written the bulk of your summary, it’s time to edit for clarity. You also may have to delete some text, so you can get it right in that couple-page sweet spot.

Editing for clarity

The paramount rule of synopses is a real doozy: tell, don’t show. It’s the opposite of that classic adage that writers have heard their whole lives, and it’s exactly what you need to write a successful synopsis.

As you return to what you’ve written, scan for sentences that are vague or unclear, especially toward the beginning. Many writers fall into the trap of trying to hook agents by opening with a sentence akin to the first murky line of a literary novel. Again, though you do want your intro to be intriguing, it has to cut to the chase pretty quickly.

When it comes to opening a synopsis, you need to think like Tolkien, not Tolstoy. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” Crisp, clear, and to the point: one of the very few times you should tell, rather than show .

Editing excess words

If your synopsis is longer than a couple of pages at this point, you need make some serious cutbacks. Read through what you have, scrutinizing every sentence and word, even if you think you’ve chosen them carefully. Reduce any run-on sentences or subordinate clauses that unnecessarily lengthen your piece.

Finally, eliminate irrelevant details — anything that doesn’t lead to the next plot point or directly contribute to your voice or other distinctive elements. It’s unlikely you’ll have included any of these in the first place, but just in case they’ve slipped through, cut them. Save the frills for your book; remember, your synopsis is all about substance .

4. Make sure it flows

By the time it’s finished, your synopsis should read like a summary from an excellent book review — or at the very least SparkNotes or Shmoop. This means not only clearly and concisely hitting every important point, but also reading in a smooth manner, placing just the right amount of emphasis on the critical moments and unique aspects we’ve discussed.

Get test readers

A great way to ensure that your synopsis is paced precisely and flows well is to give it to test readers, either someone you know or a professional editor . You’ve spent way too much time with these words to be objective about them, so pay attention to what other people suggest: possible word substitutions, transitions, and which details to emphasize versus delete.

Use professional synopses as models

You don’t want to look at examples of other synopses too soon, otherwise yours will come out sounding formulaic and stale. That said, professional synopses can be a very valuable tool for refining toward the end of the process! Compare and contrast them to the synopsis you’ve written, and adapt any techniques or turns of phrase you feel would enhance it.

Here’s an example of a strong (albeit brief) synopsis of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens , courtesy of the Oxford Companion to English Literature:

Phillip Pirrip, more commonly known as “Pip,” has been brought up by his tyrannical sister, wife of the gentle Joe Gargery. He is introduced to the house of Miss Havisham who, half-crazed by the desertion of her lover on her bridal night, has brought up the girl Estella to use her beauty as a means of torturing men. Pip falls in love with Estella and aspires to become a gentleman.

Money and expectations of more wealth come to him from a mysterious source, which he believes to be Miss Havisham. He goes to London, and in his new mode of life meanly abandons the devoted Joe Gargery, a humble connection of whom he is now ashamed.

Misfortunes come upon him. His benefactor proves to be an escaped convict, Abel Magwich, whom he as a boy had helped. Pip’s great expectations fade away and he is penniless. Estella meanwhile marries his sulky enemy Bentley Drummle, by whom she is cruelly ill treated.

In the end, taught by adversity, Pip returns to Joe Gargery and honest labor. He and Estella, who has also learnt her lesson, are finally reunited.

This synopsis works well because it includes:

The inciting incident (Pip moving in with Miss Havisham), the rising action (him being in London), the climax (returning to Joe Gargery), and the resolution (reuniting with Estella)
Character motivations (Miss Havisham wants to punish all men because her fiancé betrayed her; Pip wants to become a gentleman so Estella will fall in love with him)
A plot twist (Pip’s benefactor being a criminal — whom he knows from his childhood!)
Distinctive voice (formal yet engaging, doesn’t detract from the plot) and smoothly written style (events are chronological and progress quickly)

Your synopsis is one of the biggest deciding factors in whether an agent wants to see more from you or not. No matter how chipper your query letter , the bottom line is that this summary tells agents (and later publishers) what they really need to know: what your book is about, what makes it unique, and most importantly, if they can sell it.

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That’s why it’s vital that you make your synopsis airtight. Fortunately, if you’ve followed these steps, yours will be chock full of plot details with a touch of your own special writing sauce: a synopsis that any agent (hopefully) won’t be able to resist.

Many thanks to Reedsy editors (and former agents) Sam Brody and Rachel Stout for consulting on this piece!

Do you have any tips for writing an irresistible synopsis? Leave them in the comments below!

2 responses

Elizabeth Westra says:

12/09/2018 – 22:10

This looks interesting, and I will read every word, but this would be different for a picture book. You only get one page to query for many children's books.

Dorothy Potter Snyder says:

14/10/2018 – 20:11

I am curious if anyone has ideas on how translators can write a synopsis for agents / publishers of works in translation? Might there be something about why this author is important in his/her country of origin and literary tradition? Which authors more known to English language readers might relate to this author (they've never heard of before)?

Comments are currently closed.

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How to Write a Novel or Memoir Synopsis

Note from Jane: The following post was published years ago, but I regularly revisit, revise, and expand it. I’ve also written a comprehensive post on writing query letters.

It’s probably the single most despised document you might be asked to prepare: the synopsis .

The synopsis is sometimes necessary because an agent or publisher wants to see, from beginning to end, what happens in your story. Thus, the synopsis must convey a book’s entire narrative arc. It shows what happens and who changes, and it has to reveal the ending. Synopses may be required when you first query your work, or you may be asked for it later.

Don’t confuse the synopsis with sales copy, or the kind of marketing description that might appear on your back cover or in an Amazon description. You’re not writing a punchy piece for readers that builds excitement. It’s not an editorial about your book . Instead, it’s an industry document that helps an agent or editor quickly assess your story’s appeal and if it’s worth them reading the entire manuscript.

How long should a synopsis be?

You’ll find conflicting advice on this. However, I recommend keeping it short, or at least starting short. Write a one- or two-page synopsis—about 500-1000 words, single spaced—and use that as your default, unless the submission guidelines ask for something longer. If your synopsis runs longer, anything up to two pages (again, single spaced) is usually acceptable. Most agents/editors will not be interested in a synopsis longer than a few pages.

While this post is geared toward writers of fiction, the same principles can be applied to memoir and other narrative nonfiction works.

Why the synopsis is important to agents and editors

The synopsis ensures character actions and motivations are realistic and make sense. A synopsis will reveal any big problems in your story—e.g., “it was just a dream” endings, ridiculous acts of god, a category romance ending in divorce. It can reveal plot flaws, serious gaps in character motivation, or a lack of structure. Or it can reveal how fresh your story is; if there’s nothing surprising or the plot is hackneyed, your manuscript may not get read.

The good news: Some agents hate synopses and never read them; this is more typical for agents who represent literary work. Either way, agents aren’t expecting a work of art. You can impress with lean, clean, powerful language. An agent I admire, Janet Reid, has said that energy and vitality are key.

Synopses should usually be written in third person, present tense (even if your novel is written in first person). For memoirists, I recommend first person, but first or third is acceptable.

What the synopsis must accomplish

In most cases, you’ll start the synopsis with your protagonist. You’ll describe her mindset and motivations at the opening of the story, then explain what happens to change her situation (often known as the inciting incident ). Motivation is fairly critical here: we need to understand what drives this character to act.

Once the protagonist is established, each paragraph ideally moves the story forward (with events unfolding in exactly the same order as in the manuscript), with strong cause-effect storytelling, including the key scenes of your novel. We need to see how the story conflict plays out, who or what is driving that conflict, and how the protagonist succeeds or fails in dealing with it.

By the end, we should understand how that conflict is resolved and how the protagonist’s situation, both internally and externally, has changed. Think about your genre’s “formula,” if there is one, and be sure to include all major turning points associated with that formula.

If you cover all these things, that won’t leave you much time for detail if you keep the synopsis to a single page. You won’t be able to mention every character or event or include every scene—only those that materially affect the protagonist’s decisions or our understanding of the story’s events. You may have to exclude some subplots, and you definitely have to stay out of the plotting weeds. If there’s a shootout at the story’s climax, for instance, or a big fight scene, it’s fairly useless to get into the details of the choreography and how many punches are thrown. Instead, you say there’s a big fight and make it clear who wins and who loses.

To decide what characters deserve space in the synopsis, you need to look at their role in influencing the protagonist or changing the direction of the story. We need to see how they enter the story, the quality of their relationship to the protagonist, and how their story resolves. Any character that merits placement in a synopsis should have at least two to three mentions. If you can get away with only mentioning them once, they probably don’t belong at all.

A good rule of thumb for determining what stays and what goes: If the ending wouldn’t make sense without the character or plot point being mentioned, then it belongs in the synopsis.

A synopsis should get to the point—fast

Here’s an example of what I mean.

Very Wordy : At work, Elizabeth searches for Peter all over the office and finally finds him in the supply room, where she tells him she resents the remarks he made about her in the staff meeting.

Tight : At work, Elizabeth confronts Peter about his remarks at the staff meeting.

The most common synopsis mistake

Don’t make the mistake of thinking the synopsis just details the plot. That will end up reading like a mechanical account of your story (or the dreaded “synopsis speak”), without depth or texture.

Consider what it would sound like if you summarized a football game by saying. “Well, the Patriots scored. And then the Giants scored. Then the Patriots scored twice in a row.” That’s sterile and doesn’t give us the meaning behind how events are unfolding.

Instead, you would say something like, “The Patriots scored a touchdown after more than one hour of a no-score game, and the underdog of the team led the play. The crowd went wild.”

The secret to a great synopsis

A synopsis includes the characters’ emotions and reactions to what’s happening. That will help you avoid something that reads like a mechanic’s manual. Include both story advancement (plot stuff) and color (character stuff).

Incident (Story Advancement) + Reaction (Color) = Decision (Story Advancement)

For stories with considerable world building or extensive historical settings

Some writers may need to open their synopsis with a paragraph or so that helps establish the world we’re entering and the rules of that world. This helps us better understand the characters and their motivations once introduced. For example, a synopsis of Harry Potter might clarify upfront that the world is divided into Muggles and wizards, and that the Muggles have no idea that a magical world exists. Or, this fact could be relayed in the synopsis once Harry Potter learns about it himself.

In a historical novel, a writer might have to establish cultural attitudes or facts that might not be known to contemporary readers, so that the characters’ actions make sense and the weight of the conflict is clear.

In science fiction and fantasy, try to avoid proper terms or nouns that have to be defined or explained unless such terms are central to your story (like “Muggles” above). Instead, try to get the point across in language that anyone can understand but still gets the point across. The goal here is to focus on telling the story rather than increasing the mental workload of the agent/editor, who has to decipher and remember the unfamiliar vocabulary.

Avoid splitting the synopsis into sections

In most cases, the synopsis should start and end without any breaks, sections, or other subheadings. However, on occasion, there might be a reason to add “sign posts” to the synopsis, due to your book’s unique narrative structure. For example, if your novel has intertwining timelines, or if it jumps around in time and place, you may want to begin each paragraph with a bold lead-in (“Paris, 1893”), to establish where we are. Other than that, avoid sectioning out the story in any way, or listing a cast of characters upfront, as if you were writing a play. Characters should be introduced at the moment they enter the story or when they specifically contribute to the story moving forward.

Common novel synopsis pitfalls

Don’t get weighed down with the specifics of character names, places, and other proper names or terms. Stick to the basics. Use the name of your main characters, but if a waitress enters the story for just one scene, call her “the waitress.” Don’t say “Bonnie, the boisterous waitress who calls everyone hon and works seven days a week.” When you do mention specific names, it’s common to put the name in all caps in the first instance, so it’s easy for agents or editors to see at a glance who the key figures are.
Don’t spend time explaining or deconstructing your story’s meaning or themes. This can be a particularly persistent problem with memoir. A synopsis tells the story, but it doesn’t try to offer an interpretatio n, e.g., saying something like, “This is the story of how many ordinary people like me tried to make a difference.”
Avoid talking about the story construction. This is where you add things that describe the book’s structure, such as “in the climax of the novel,” or “in a series of tense scenes.”
Avoid character backstory unless it’s tied to the character’s motivations and desires throughout the book. A phrase or two is plenty to indicate a character’s background; ideally, you should reference it when it affects how events unfold. If you’ve written a story with flashbacks, you probably won’t include much, if any, of that in the synopsis.
Avoid including dialogue, and if you do, be sparing . Make sure the dialogue you include is absolutely iconic of the character or represents a linchpin moment in the book.
Don’t ask rhetorical or unanswered questions. Remember, your goal here isn’t to entice a reader.
While your synopsis will reflect your ability to write, it’s not the place to get pretty with your prose. That means you should leave out any attempts to impress through poetic description. You can’t take the time to show everything in your synopsis. Often you have to tell, and sometimes this is confusing to writers who’ve been told for years to “show don’t tell.” For example, it’s OK to just come out and say your main character is a “hopeless romantic” rather than trying to show it.

Additional resources

How to Write a Synopsis of Your Novel (one of the best advice articles I’ve seen)
How to Write a 1-Page Synopsis
The Anatomy of a Short Synopsis
The Synopsis: What It Is, What It Isn’t, and How to Write It

If you’re looking for in-depth guidance, I offer a query letter master class that includes a 90-minute lecture on synopsis writing.

Jane Friedman has spent nearly 25 years working in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. She is the editor of The Hot Sheet , the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2023. Her latest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with organizations such as The Authors Guild to bring transparency to the business of publishing.

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Thanks for the excellent tips! I can write the NOVEL itself no problem (well, not exactly that simple – go thru many drafts and late nights along the way) but the synopsis stops me cold. Wordiness, that’s me! Will definitely be referring to this blog posting when I have to write my next synopsis.

Excellent! Thanks for stopping by.

Fantastic. Loved the tip about adding the protagonists feelings.

Yes! A lot of people skip that part, but that really gives things texture, makes us care.

Sounds like I should start with my synopsis first and use it as a roadmap to write the novel.

That is, in fact, a fabulous idea.

That’s how I do it. When I have my idea I write a one-paragraph synopsis followed by the longer version. I’ve never had writer’s block and like to believe it’s because I have the biggest parts planned and that causes for less major revisions with the lack of plot holes.

But it doesn’t mean writing the synopsis was easy. Couldn’t have done it, once again, without Jane’s excellent advice!

To me, the most important parts are the inner stakes and outer stakes. I discussed them in my article on synopsis writing found here. http://www.help4writers.com/blog/?p=374 (Bonus: Wizard of Oz was my example synopsis.)

Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

Great article! And thanks so much for including one of my articles on writing a short synopsis in your tips. I really appreciate it

A pleasure!

I figure if my 70-year old grandma who hates fantasy can understand a three-minute version of my whole story, I’ve synopsized well.

[…] Friedman returns to an oldie but goodie: How to write a synopsis that works; agent Jennifer Laughran answers word-count questions across most genres; Karen Dionne seeks an […]

[…] Back to Basics: Writing a Novel Synopsis | Jane Friedman The synopsis conveys the narrative arc of your novel; it shows what happens and who changes, from beginning to end. (@saphirablue84 Did you see Jane Friedman's synopsis post? It lists additional resources too. Source: janefriedman.com […]

And I’m late here, but thanks for linking to my list 🙂

[…] it or buy the rights to it, and to give you a nice fat contract for your trouble. Jane Friedman has exceptional how-to tips for writing a synopsis for your book that will make an agent drool. Pay attention to the part where she says you have to give away the […]

How to write a great book synopsis

A synopsis is important even if you’re self-publishing. Your synopsis allows you to see problems with your plot and characters so you can fix them before your book hits the market.
A book synopsis should be between 500 and 800 words. This works out at approximately 1 single-spaced page in a standard 12pt font.
Your synopsis should include 5 key elements. This includes the premise, a main plot and subplot overview, your main characters, and an implicit outline of the appeal of your book.

Writing a book synopsis is notoriously tricky for authors. Synopsis writing is generally much drier and less creative than novel writing - and it’s never going to be easy to condense a 90,000 word novel into 500 words. That’s why it’s important to understand how to write a book synopsis that’s concise, compelling, and follows convention.

Nearly all editors, agents, and publishers request a synopsis for your book when you submit your work to them. Self-published authors can also benefit from writing a novel synopsis - it helps you spot plot holes, structural issues, and underdeveloped characters, and identify the key selling points of your book for your marketing campaign.

Use this guide to writing a book synopsis to help you plan, structure, and write a great book summary.

Let's define what book synopsis is

A book synopsis is a summary of your novel from start to finish. It includes an outline of the main plot, your primary characters, any subplots and plot twists, and what happens at the end.

Many new authors baulk at giving away their carefully crafted ending, but there’s no need to worry - your book synopsis isn’t going to be published. After all, it’s not exactly in agents’ or publishers’ interests to spoil the ending of a book for readers. Instead, they’ll read your synopsis to help decide whether they think your book will sell, and whether to represent you as an author.

The synopsis has a very important role

For authors pursuing traditional publishing, the purpose of your book synopsis is to sell your novel to an agent or publisher. Before they request your full manuscript, they want to know exactly what happens in your book - which is where your novel synopsis comes in.

If you’re planning on self-publishing your book , your synopsis is a tool for laying out the saleability and structure of your novel. By writing a synopsis, you can see which plot points are unwieldy, and which characters are underdeveloped, so you can fix these things before your book hits the market.

The difference between a plot summary and a synopsis

A plot synopsis is a type of plot summary. There are also other types of book summary, each of which has a different function in the publication of your book. The most common book summary types include:

Synopsis - Your synopsis is a summary of all the major plot points, including the ending. This is used to sell your book to agents or publishers, or to cast a critical eye over your book content.
Blurb - A blurb is typically found on the back page or dust jacket of your book. The blurb should sell the book to potential readers, offering teasers and plot potential, without giving too much away.
Elevator pitch - Your elevator pitch is a sharp one-liner that captures the essence of your book in a compelling way. It should make the reader want to find out more.

There’s a lot of literary jargon around book summaries, which can make it difficult to pinpoint exactly what you need to write in your synopsis. Below, you’ll learn what you need to include in your book synopsis.

How long should a book synopsis be?

It’s generally agreed that a book synopsis should be between 500 and 800 words. This works out at approximately 1 single-spaced page in a standard 12pt font.

Many agents will have specific guidelines you need to follow in terms of synopsis word count, so tailor your submission for each agent. This could mean you need a synopsis that’s 500 words, and one that’s 700 words. The extra work will pay off - you’re way more likely to get a response from an agent if you’ve read and met their submission requirements.

What should a book synopsis include?

There are 5 key elements that every book synopsis should include:

1. The premise of your book

Your book’s premise comprises your overarching theme, setting, and conflict, forming a great hook designed to keep readers engaged.

2. A direct overview of the main plot

Go back to basics here. Show that your plot has all the key story elements in your novel synopsis, including an inciting incident, a climax, and a satisfying ending.

3. An introduction to your main characters

Make the reader care about your characters by offering compelling character motivations.

4. An outline of your major subplots

Your subplots probably converge with the main plot at some point, so it makes sense to include them in your book synopsis.

5. An implicit understanding of the appeal of your book

Synopses are notoriously dry - but if you care about your story, this should shine through in your book summary. Demonstrate why others will care about your book, too.

What tense should a book synopsis be written in?

Your book synopsis should be written in the present tense and the third person - even if your book isn’t. This automatically helps you write your synopsis in an appropriate, professional tone, without hyperbole or bias.

What is the format of a synopsis?

As well as using a standard tense and perspective, most book synopses follow a similar format. Here’s how you should structure your novel synopsis, including book synopsis examples from famous published works.

1. The premise

The premise is similar to your elevator pitch - the key piece of intrigue that makes the reader want to find out more. This opening line from the synopsis of Michelle Zink’s Prophecy Of The Sisters includes a fascinating hook: ‍

Sixteen-year-old Lia Milthorpe’s life is in danger from the person she loves most – her twin sister. ‍

Zink manages to introduce the main characters, a sense of peril, and a key area of conflict in a single line. It’s a great way to open the synopsis.

2. The plot

Don’t dilly-dally - when you’ve set the premise, dive straight into the plot of your book. This will form the bulk of your word count. You can find out how to write an expert plot summary below. In the meantime, take a look at this extract from J.K. Rowling’s synopsis for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone .

Harry Potter lives with his aunt, uncle and cousin because his parents died in a car crash - or so he has always been told. The Dursleys don’t like Harry asking questions; in fact, they don’t seem to like anything about him, especially the very odd things that keep happening around him (which Harry himself can’t explain).

The Dursleys’ greatest fear is that Harry will discover the truth about himself, so when letters start arriving for him near his eleventh birthday, he isn’t allowed to read them. However, the Dursleys aren’t dealing with an ordinary postman, and at midnight on Harry’s birthday the gigantic Rubeus Hagrid breaks down the door to make sure Harry gets to read his post at last.‍

Rowling splits her paragraphs into plot points. The first paragraph outlines the status quo - Harry’s unhappy home life - while the second goes on to state the inciting incident: Harry’s invitation to attend Hogwarts. Structuring your synopsis in this way is a great tactic for ensuring you don’t stray too far from the main arc of your story.

3. The ending

Spell out exactly what happens at the end of your book - your synopsis is no place for a cliffhanger. If you’ve chosen to leave your book open-ended, reflect this in your synopsis.

Here’s an example of a synopsis ending for Cinderella , written by literary agent Janet Reid: ‍

The heartbroken prince travels the kingdom to determine which lady fits the glass slipper. Her stepmother locks Cinderella in the attic but her mouse friends help her escape. The glass slipper fits her, and Cinderella and the prince live happily ever after. ‍

Reid removes the sense of anguish, fear, and ultimate relief that comes with the climax and resolution of Cinderella. Synopses are often deadpan and unemotive, so don’t be afraid to be forthright about the ending of your story.

How to write a book synopsis

It’s time to get writing. Follow these steps on how to write a plot synopsis to write a succinct, professional summary of your novel.

1. Write a single sentence for each major plot point

If you started your book with an outline, this will come in handy here. Using the following prompts, write one sentence for each of these points in your book:

Inciting incident
Plot action

Some writers mark the timeline of the story or map out the events to help them stay on track. Try to keep your word count below 300 words. This gives you leeway to fill in extra detail later.

2. Check on your characters

You’ve probably introduced all the characters you need to include in your synopsis in the 5 sentences you just wrote. That said, you may not have given enough detail about their motives or personalities to make your synopsis sing.

Note down any crucial character points you need to include, but be frugal with the details. Extraneous backstories are a waste of words in your synopsis, so don’t let your personal connection with your characters get the better of you here. Only include information that’s relevant to the plot.

3. Join the dots

Now you have a strong idea of the key plot points and character motivations you need to include, it’s time to craft the synopsis.

Build up your outline into a synopsis by filling in the gaps that will help the reader make the leap from one plot point to the next. If your story is solid, it will more or less tell itself at this stage - your job is to make it sound compelling. Don’t worry if your first draft is too long or a little messy.

4. Come back to it later

You wouldn’t submit your first draft of your novel to an agent - so you shouldn’t submit your synopsis first draft, either. Let it sit for a few days so you can get some distance from your work. When you come back to it, read it with a critical eye. Check it explores each of the elements in the section above. Perhaps most importantly, check it meets the word count and formatting requirements set by the agent.

5. Get feedback on your synopsis

Seeking peer feedback on your book synopsis is a great way to learn what works in a plot summary from other writers. If you can, find writers who have had their synopses accepted by agents or publishers and pick their brains about what worked well for them.

Some agents will also offer feedback on your synopsis if they think it has potential. This is invaluable, so take any of their comments on board.

Tips for writing a great book synopsis

Here are our top tips for writing the best possible book synopsis:

Be concise — Cut the fluff from your synopsis and keep your writing to the point, while maintaining your natural writing style. Agents don’t have time to wade through reams of description to find out what actually happens in your book.
Use action rather than description to portray characters — Instead of saying, “The doctor is kind and selfless”, use action to characterise your characters: “The doctor does everything she can to save him.”
Weave subplot points through the synopsis — Connect the dots of your main plot and subplot points seamlessly to avoid jarring character introductions or plot twists.
Write a second, third, and fourth draft — Your book synopsis can make or break your relationship with a literary agent, so it’s worth taking the time to get it right. Write multiple drafts until you’re happy it’s ready to send out.

Common mistakes to avoid in your book synopsis

Avoid these common errors in your synopsis to keep your summary well-structured and easy to read:

Muddying your narrative structure — The spine of your story is really important in your synopsis, so don’t compromise this with extra detail or flowery descriptions.
Giving too much detail — There are sure to be little details you love and want to include in your synopsis, but try to keep your summary top-level.
Introducing too many minor characters — We only need to meet your key characters in the synopsis, so keep the rest under wraps (this will help you keep your word count down, too).
Ignoring formatting requirements — It’s really important to stick to the requirements set out by the publisher or agent you’re submitting to. Triple check these before you click send.

Submitting your synopsis

Now you know how to write a book synopsis, you can start submitting your synopsis and query letter to agents. Before you hit send, double check the requirements from each agent to check you’re sending them what they want to see. You’re sure to increase your response rates - and maybe even receive a couple of manuscript requests. While you're at it, you should also start thinking about your author bio !

Alternatively, if you’re thinking of self-publishing, check out our advice for self-published authors . You’ll find tons of useful guides for writing and marketing your new novel.

Advice from a published writer

Alex Fisher , "Seadogs and Criminals"

Like the author bio, keep it short and sweet. It’s basically an invitation into your book. Describe the essential points and direction of the story without giving too much away. Introduce the main character, the plot, the motive/goal and finish with a question (if that works) and that’s all you need.

Dangle the story in front of the potential reader with enough information to grip them and ignite their curiosity, hook them in and make them want to know what this is all about, make them want to read on, without waffling. Too much information and you’ve lost them; the reader is smart and wants to discover the story for themselves in their own way. Keep it snappy, between 100 to 200 words. Be lethal.

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How to Write a Synopsis

laptop, coffee, plant, earbuds, and huge piece of blank paper to represent synopsis writing

Updated for 2024.

Hey friends! A lot of people were interested in how to write a book synopsis. I’m not surprised, really—synopsis writing can feel overwhelming.

I read a lot of synopses in my former day job in publishing, and through LuckyAuthor.com , I work with many people to make their synopsis clear and compelling. I’m going to give you my take on how to write a synopsis.

HOW TO WRITE A SYNOPSIS in 4 simple steps | bryndonovan.com | background of keyboard, coffee, notebook, pen

But first, let’s talk about the function of the synopsis! For me, a good synopsis does three things.

A good synopsis convinces me it’s a good story.

It tells me there are engaging characters who have clear motivations for their actions, a well-laid-out plot, enough conflict to keep things interesting, and a satisfying ending.

A word about motivation: the bigger the action, the clearer the motivation needs to be . “On a whim” often doesn’t cut it for big actions, like adopting a tiger for a pet or selling your house and driving an RV across the country.

I should also point out here that I pass on good stories all the time—and I’m not the only one. Our publishing house has a pretty specific vibe. Additionally, editors pass all the time on projects because they just acquired one or two in the same vein. That’s why you should never take a rejection as a sign that you’re a bad writer. There’s an element of luck to this business, and sometimes a rejection has nothing to do with the quality of your writing.

A good synopsis convinces me it’ll be an easy book to sell.

If I think it’s going to be easy to present the book to the salespeople, easy for the salespeople to pitch to retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart, and Books a Million, and easy to pitch to consumers through a compelling description on the back cover, then naturally, I’m a lot more interested.

A good synopsis is a useful tool for discussing the story with others.

I need approval to acquire a book, and sometimes I’m talking to producers about the possibility of making the book into a movie. All these people can’t read every book (though the producers do read the whole book if they’re interested), so we use the synopsis.

So as you can see, the dreaded synopsis is, unfortunately, vital.

Here’s what a good synopsis is not : an overview of every single thing that happens in the book.

If the agent or editor asks for a synopsis of 2 to 4 pages, don’t send them a synopsis of 10 pages or more. And yes, it’s annoying that different people ask for different lengths. Try to give them what they want, as much as you can, and if you’re going to err, err on the side of brevity.

My top synopsis writing advice is:

If possible , write the synopsis before you write the book.

In my book Blank Page to Final Draft , I explain how getting upfront feedback on a synopsis helps you identify and fix plot holes and weaknesses before you even write the book. Yes, you’ll still have to revise your synopsis later, because writing will lead you to unexpected twists and turns. But you’ll likely avoid a brutal rewrite of your entire manuscript.

If you’re reading this and you’re thinking, “Well, that’s great and everything, Bryn, but I already wrote the book and I’m trying to figure out how to write a synopsis now,” no worries! Here’s my advice.

1. Start with a one- or two-sentence logline.

That’s right—this is basically a synopsis of the synopsis, haha. But it’s really effective. Here are a few made-up examples:

•A history teacher in Massachusetts is transported back to the Revolutionary War era, where she attempts to shorten the war and save thousands of lives by changing the course of a battle.

•A CIA agent is falsely accused of mishandling information and fired. His personal quest to find out who framed him leads to the discovery of a terrorist plot.

•Zoe, a teenager in the Chicago suburbs, is forced to spend the summer with her grandmother on a farm with spotty WiFi. As she gets involved with her grandma’s quirky quilting circle, a romance with a farmhand, and a state fair scandal, it turns out to be her most exciting summer yet.

2. Introduce each main character and their character arc.

A main character is usually a point of view character. A “character arc” means the way a character grows and changes throughout the story. (For a better understanding of this, you can check out my post on “ What Is a Character Arc ,” which includes examples.)

It can feel corny and overly simplistic to write out a character arc, but doing this will help people understand your story. I’ve written a few treatments for books and movies, and I’ve learned to always do this up front.

Here are examples of how to do this.

•ELIZA MCBRAYER, a thirty-two year-old history teacher who struggles with shyness in the classroom, discovers new depths of courage and daring within herself as she becomes involved in Revolutionary War-era tactics and espionage.

•MARCUS STONE, a CIA agent, always followed orders. After being wrongfully fired and discovering a terrorist plot, he learns that he has a real talent for making the strategic decisions himself.

•ZOE BURROWS, a suburban teenager, loves art and making videos, and is quick to dismiss people and places as “boring.” She learns that all people—and all places—are interesting in their own way.

3. Identify the inciting incident, three or four scenes that are major turning points, and the ending.

Your “inciting incident” is the event that kicks everything into motion.

Your “turning points” are your big scenes that move the story forward and show a progression in your character arcs—in other words, a character is learning, changing, or growing. In a mystery, a turning point might be a major clue (or a major red herring.) In a romance, it’s a scene that brings the characters together—or makes one or both of them pull back. In any genre, it might be a triumph, a heartbreaking loss, or a big decision for one of your characters.

Write out a short description of the inciting incident, these major turning point scenes, and the ending. (Note: actual lines of dialogue generally don’t belong in a synopsis.) Take more time on the beginning and the ending than anything else.

Now, what if you have this one great scene that’s not really a turning point, but you’re very proud of it because it’s hilarious or just plain cool? Go ahead and put that one in there, too.

4. Now add the connective tissue between the big scenes.

By “connective tissue,” I mean summary that is short on the details. For instance:

•Eliza settles into the boardinghouse, and after a couple of failed attempts, finds a position as a maid.

•By hiring someone to hack into the CIA’s files, Marcus discovers the connection between his former boss and the terrorist cell.

•Zoe is entertained by the quilters’ colorful stories and the next time they meet, she tries her hand at quilting herself.

Now you’ve got a draft of a synopsis.

Congratulations!

If writing a synopsis makes you realize you need to do more revision of your novel—to clarify a character’s motivation, increase the conflict, trim a subplot, or so on—you’re not alone. Don’t feel bad about it! Embrace the insight and the opportunity to make the book better before you send it out.

Otherwise, just get some feedback from others on your synopsis—don’t be shy. Tweak it as necessary. Make an English major who loves you proofread it. And then it’s good to go.

the hands of someone writing a synopsis in a journal; a laptop is also on the desk

Do you have your own tips for writing a great synopsis? Please share them in the comments! And if you have questions, go ahead and ask those, too—I’ll answer them if I can. Thanks so much for reading, and happy writing!

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Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing

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How to write a synopsis for a novel

August 8, 2022 by Nathan Bransford 12 Comments

Of all the things you will write throughout the publishing process, a synopsis may be what you dread the most.

It’s not fun to have to shoehorn an entire novel into a relatively brief one-four page summary. But if you follow just a few relatively simple steps and follow the guidance in this post, it may still be a pain, but it won’t be endlessly hard.

Writing a synopsis: Not as terrible as you might think!

If you need personalized help with your synopsis: REACH OUT TO ME FOR EDITING!

In this post I’ll cover:

What is a synopsis for a novel?

What about a nonfiction synopsis, how to write a good synopsis, why it’s important to summarize through specificity, use a consistent voice, don’t worry about spoilers, how to format a synopsis, a sample synopsis for jacob wonderbar and the cosmic space kapow, why you shouldn’t overthink a synopsis.

A synopsis is a 1.5 to 4 page single-spaced summary of what happens in your novel. That’s it. It’s an end-to-end summary of the plot from start to finish.

Don’t worry about spoilers. And do include how it ends.

Agents and editors typically use synopses as reference documents. They use them to get a sense of the overall plot. They also sometimes use them later on as handy refreshers when their memories fade about character names and plot points. Agents don’t typically rely on them to decide whether to pass on a book project barring significant red flags. The query letter is typically far more important, so I’d devote most of your energy there.

If a publisher is considering a multi-book deal, you may also have to write synopses for future installments of your series to give an editor a sense of where you want to take the narrative.

Authors sometimes feel like they shouldn’t have to be bothered summarizing their work. And sometimes they want to pay someone else to write their synopsis.

“It’s a different skill!” they yelp to me. “I’m a good writer but I’m a bad summarizer!”

But think about how many times you’re going to have to summarize your work during the book publishing process:

When you friends ask you about your book, you have to summarize your book.
When you talk with people in the book business, you have to summarize your book.
When you stand up at a reading, you have to summarize your book.
When you become massively famous and are on a talk show, you have to summarize your book.

Get used to summarizing your book. Better yet: get good at it . Take responsibility for this part of the process. Make other people want to read your book.

While I’m more than happy to help you edit your synopsis , I refuse to write first drafts for authors out of principle. You need to take ownership over this step and take the first crack at synthesizing the plot.

For memoirs, the “rules” of writing a synopsis are typically the same as for a novel. Because memoirs unfold like novels, you can apply the guidance for fiction and just give an end-to-end summary of what happens.

For other types of nonfiction, in book proposals there is usually a chapter-by-chapter summary that essentially functions as a synopsis.

However, there aren’t universal standards for synopses within the industry and an agent may still ask you for a synopsis for nonfiction. If they do, just remember that the goal is to provide an end-to-end summary of what’s in the book (or what’s going to be in the book if you’ve just written a book proposal).

How do you do that?

Start by writing your query letter. I have a query letter template that is a good place to start, and those same key ingredients (setting, complicating incident, villain, protagonist’s quest) should be present in the synopsis.

Think of a synopsis as a longer query letter that includes how the book ends. You have more room to include more detail and depth about the plot and key subplots, but the synopsis should still cover the arc of the book in a relatively succinct way.

As in a query letter, ditch all discussion of themes and what the novel means . Focus on what happens . You don’t need a meta-summary or log-line at the start of the synopsis. Just start where the novel starts and end where it ends.

Here are some key elements that set snappy synopses apart from dreary ones.

Just as in a query , the more detail and specificity you can infuse into the synopsis, the more it will come to life and the clearer it will be. “Nathan was over-caffeinated” and “Nathan was so amped he scraped the silver off the Red Bull” may describe the same moment, but one has a lot more life to it than the other. (And uh. No. That didn’t happen why do you ask.)

Some summarizing will be necessary, but those little moments where you show what makes your characters, events, and setting unique will make the synopsis sparkle. Don’t devolve into generalities and largely-meaningless abstractions like “A fight ensues.” Be very specific about who is doing what and why, and describe action with precision. Swap out “A fight ensued” with “Nathan swats the mutant bat invader with a tennis racquet and banishes it from the apartment.”

Don’t pre-package the events into abstract psychologizing where you’ve already digested the events for the agent and tell them what it means, like “Nathan’s fear of intimacy rears its head.” Instead, show what that zoomed out summary is actually describing: “Nathan leaves three of his crush’s texts on read.”

Particularly for science fiction and fantasy, make sure you’re pausing to provide crisp, clear context for any concepts a reader would be unfamiliar with. Don’t just drop in a mention of a Silver Thingamabob without telling us what that means in the world of your novel. You must find a way to see what is and isn’t on the page and what the reader has sufficient context to understand.

And above all: Make sure your protagonist’s motivations and the stakes are clear. What happens if the protagonist succeeds or fails? Infuse the synopsis with that information so the agent knows why they should care about the events of the novel.

If you wrote a novel with multiple POVs or if it has a unique or nonlinear structure , it may be difficult to figure out how to organize a synopsis. You don’t want to write a synopsis that constantly zigzags between different plot lines and characters or you’re going to bewilder the reader.

Instead, don’t be beholden to the precise sequence in which events unfold in your novel . You don’t have to follow an alternating-character structure in the synopsis that mimics the novel. Try as much as possible to “get above it” and focus on describing the essential events in a way that’s clear to the reader. Err on the side of being clear rather than constraining yourself to how the novel precisely unfolds.

That could mean sticking to one character per paragraph, or it could mean describing the plot from a gods-eye perspective.

Write your synopsis in third person present tense even if your novel is written in first person or past tense. (First or third person is acceptable for memoirs, but I usually prefer third person for memoirs too).

Whatever you do, optimize for clarity and cohesion rather than being a stickler for mimicking how the novel is structured.

Agents and editors know they’re going to read your book many times over the course of the publication process. They’re not worried about spoilers.

In fact, agents and editors read so many books and are so well-acquainted with the sausage-making of writing that…

They probably aren’t going to be surprised by even the surprise-iest of endings. Surprises are for mortal readers.
They are experienced enough to do the mental jujitsu of judging whether an ending will be surprising to someone who has never read the book even though the agent/editor knows exactly how it ends . They can put themselves in another reader’s shoes and judge it that way.

So yeah. Spoil away.

Unlike the way manuscripts are formatted , synopses are single-spaced, and are 1.5 to 4 pages long depending on the length and complexity of the novel. The sweet spot is usually on the shorter side: 1.5 to 2.5 pages.

Sometimes agents will ask for a “short” or “brief” synopsis, and unfortunately there isn’t really a universal standard on what they mean by that. Short synopses are typically less than a page, and some authors decide to write short and long versions of their synopses to accommodate individual agents’ preferences.

Unless otherwise specified, the default is 1.5 to 2.5 pages.

Put your book title and your name at the top and include the word “Synopsis” so an agent can easily see what it is.

As with manuscripts , Times New Roman 12pt font is standard. Use 0.5″ indents and, again, single -space the rest. Don’t include any extra spacing before or after paragraphs, and it’s not necessary to break up the synopsis into chapters or parts.

Make sure you have a footer with your name and the page number in case the agent prints the synopsis out.

Sometimes authors capitalize character names the first time they’re mentioned, but in my experience that’s optional.

Fun fact: I never actually wrote a synopsis for my middle grade novel Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow , which went on to be published by Dial Books for Young Readers at Penguin. Like many authors, I dreaded writing a synopsis. So I decided I would write one only if an agent asked for one. No one did!

But in order to give you a sense of how I would approach writing a synopsis, I wrote one anyway. You’re welcome haha.

Here it is: My synopsis for Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow

To download it to use as a template, go through the File menu within the doc and download it as a .docx file. Please do not ask me for Edit permissions on the Google Doc.

At the end of the day, it is highly unlikely that an your book is going to be made or broken by how well you write a synopsis. It’s not something that will likely see the light of day beyond your agent or editor. Compared to a query letter or, ya know, the actual manuscript, it’s not likely to factor highly into whether you book sinks or swims.

So don’t spend months on it.

Still: have fun with your synopsis and use it as valuable practice for summarizing your book in a most-awesome way.

Need help with your book? I’m available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching ! For my best advice, check out my online classes , my guide to writing a novel and my guide to publishing a book . And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter !

Art: A Vanitas by Evert Collier

Reader Interactions

October 31, 2017 at 1:12 pm

This is wonderful! I am in the camp of “it is as terrible as you might think” though, I find it super painful and never feel like I have it just right. Up there with writing cover letters. But this helps.

October 31, 2017 at 3:39 pm

“Agents and editors will use synopses to get a sense of the overall plot of the novel (and also as a handy refresher when memories start to fade through time on certain character names and plot points).” Handy for us authors too! Forgetting one’s characters’ names might seem a terrible faux pas, but Stan Lee, for example, gave his comic book characters alliterative names like ‘Peter Parker’ so he could remember them more easily.

And thinking of the synopsis as an expended query more than a shrunken novel sounds like a good approach.

Surprises are for mortal readers? So agents and editors are immortal, like vampires? How very seasonal!

Thanks for this, Nathan, and Happy Halloween!

November 1, 2017 at 1:35 pm

Thanks for this post. I’ve been struggling with writing a synopsis to use as a guideline for finishing my manuscript.

November 7, 2017 at 9:43 am

Nathan – Three words, ‘Dread the Most’. Yes I do. Nathan – Four words, ‘Get Good at it’. Yes I will.

November 7, 2017 at 9:45 am

[Thumbs up emoji]

November 29, 2017 at 9:16 am

I hardly ever comment on the same article twice but this is the exception. I have a question: It looks like you have a forum. Would my synopsis be a good place to take it to? I think I have a good one but I’ve been wrong on these gut feelings before. I’m kind of on the fence with this.

February 2, 2022 at 10:23 pm

I am grateful for what you do for writers seeking publication. I’d started checking out agents, and discovered agents want more than 10 pages and a query. A synopsis, and it all goes into an online form, OMG.

Thank you for your guidance on how to…

I have subscribed to your newsletter. For backstory, I found your post on Facebook. Thank you.

June 14, 2022 at 2:37 pm

You mention that we don’t “need” a log line at the beginning of a query, but should we avoid it? I always come up with one and wonder if it’s a good or bad idea to start a query with it between the salutation and body of the query. Since I’m querying 2 novels at the moment, I’d really be interested in hearing your thoughts on it.

June 29, 2022 at 11:20 pm

Part of my confusion with a synopsis is some publishers/agents are specific about length while others make no mention of it. Sometimes it’s one page, and at other times it’s five. Many publishers/agents make no mention of length which leaves me wondering what to do.

June 30, 2022 at 12:58 pm

1.5-2.5 single-spaced pages is the “default,” if other agents ask for a different length you may need to adapt accordingly.

April 5, 2023 at 2:00 pm

This was written a while ago, but I was hoping you might be able to answer a question.

I keep getting confused about the synopsis, because some people say it’s basically what you’d read on the book jacket, and others say it’s literally a full length synopsis. Which is it really? How can I know which one the agent is asking for?

My book follows three protagonists who, though largely connected, spend time apart, obviously, so I feel like it would be difficult summarizing the overlap, and the word count would extend significantly.

April 5, 2023 at 2:15 pm

Have you read the post?

How to Write a Synopsis for a Book (with Examples)

The phrase “write a book synopsis” used to give me the heebie-jeebies.

I’d rather sit through a root canal than attempt to shrink a complex, multi-layered novel into a one-page summary.

It felt like trying to stuff an elephant into your hand luggage.

Impossible, right? And it wasn’t just me. Chat with any author and you’ll find we’d rather face the empty page of a new novel than condense our just-finished masterpiece into a few hundred words.

But here’s the kicker…

Despite the mental mountain I had to climb, I knew writing a synopsis was non-negotiable. Every agent, every publisher, heck, even beta readers wanted a snapshot of the story. And who could blame them?

The synopsis is a vital tool for giving a bird’s-eye view of your narrative, setting, characters and‌ the plot twists and turns.

Then, a writer friend recommended Fictionary to me.

Talk about a game-changer. It was like somebody switched on a light in a dark room.

Fictionary made creating a synopsis feel less like a trip to the dentist and more like a strategy game. And guess what? I found out I kinda enjoy strategy games. Writing a synopsis, I discovered, is all about uncovering the skeleton of your story and then building upon it. Stick around, and I’ll show you how it’s done, Fictionary style.

What Is a Synopsis of a Book?

You know that feeling when someone asks you, “What’s your book about?” and suddenly your mind goes blank?

Yeah, we’ve all been there. A synopsis is the answer to that all-too-common question.

So, what exactly is a synopsis of a book? Let’s clear that up. A book synopsis is a condensed version of your entire novel. Think of it as your book on a diet, only keeping the essential nutrients, and trimming away the excess.

It includes your novel’s main events, key plot points, and the character arcs of your protagonist(s) – all wrapped up in a neat, digestible package.

It’s ‌your story’s play-by-play, the entire shebang from “Once upon a time” to “They lived happily ever after.”

But remember, a good synopsis doesn’t just relay your plot in a “this happened, then that happened” kind of way. No, siree. It goes deeper. It also needs to convey the emotional journey of your characters.

Are they falling in love? Wrestling with personal demons? Battling an alien invasion? These need to come out in your synopsis.

A book synopsis is more than just a summary. It’s the heart and soul of your novel, stripped bare and laid out for all to see. It’s not always easy to create, but it is crucial. And with Fictionary, it’s about to get a lot easier.

Stick with me, and you’ll see how.

Why is Writing a Book Synopsis so Difficult?

Okay, hands up if you’ve ever broken out in a cold sweat at the mere thought of writing a book synopsis.

Yep, me too.Condensing your masterpiece into a summary feels like an impossible task. But why is that?

Let’s start with the obvious.

You’ve got an epic story teeming with complex characters, surprising twists, emotional depth, and perhaps even a philosophical debate or two. And now, you’re being asked to shrink that down to a page or two? It feels like trying to stuff a king-size duvet into a matchbox.

It’s tough.

Then, there’s the emotional attachment. Your book is your baby. You’ve nurtured it from a mere idea into a full-grown novel. Cutting it down feels a bit like trimming the wings off a bird. How do you decide what to keep and what to let go?

It’s a real emotional roller coaster, folks.

Finally, a good synopsis needs to strike a delicate balance. It must reveal your plot without making it sound too simplistic, all while maintaining an air of intrigue. It’s like being both a magician and a member of the audience—you’ve got to give away the trick without losing the magic. Quite a paradox, isn’t it?

In short, writing a book synopsis is hard because it requires distillation, detachment, and a dab of deception. But fear not, friends, because there’s a method to the madness, and Fictionary is here to guide the way.

How to Write a Novel Synopsis the Fictionary Way

In my experience, the most effective way to write a synopsis is to break it down scene by scene. And there’s no better resource for understanding novel structure scene by scene than Fictionary.

Fictionary provides you with a skeleton synopsis tool to identify the pivotal scenes in their novel. This makes structuring your synopsis a breeze. Let me walk you through it step-by-step… How to Structure a Skeleton Book Synopsis

While every novel is unique, most follow a similar story structure containing five to seven pivotal scenes:

Inciting Incident

Plot point 1, plot point 2.

Fictionary analyses your manuscript and labels where each of these key scenes happens in your book.

To build your skeleton synopsis:

Identify which of your book’s scenes align with each plot point using the Fictionary beat sheet
Who is the POV character?
What is their goal?
What’s at stake if they fail?
String the scenes together in chronological order.

Following this simple formula gives you the bare bones synopsis containing all the pivotal plot points. You can then flesh out the skeleton into a polished, thorough synopsis.

How to Write a Summary of a Book Tips

How long is a synopsis.

Your book synopsis needs to be long enough to convey your story but concise enough to maintain your reader’s attention.

In general, a book synopsis should be between 500 words and 800 words. This translates to a maximum of two pages at a standard font.

If your book synopsis is too long, then an agent may not even pick it up. If it is too short, then they may not understand the brilliance of your story. But if you have the choice, we recommend choosing short and sweet over too long.

How to Structure the Synopsis of a Book?

I get this question a lot: “How on earth do I structure the synopsis of my book?” Well, dear writer, fret not, I’ve got your back!

First off, you’ve got to remember that a synopsis summarises your book’s plot. Now, this doesn’t mean you spill the beans on every tiny detail. Rather, it’s about focusing on the main points and how they connect to form the bigger picture.

Start with an opening that introduces your main character and their world. What’s their situation like when we first meet them? Then, swiftly move on to the inciting incident – the event that sets the story in motion.

Next, sketch out the major conflicts and plot points. Make sure you cover the critical turning points – those game-changing moments that force your protagonist to grow and change. This includes the midpoint, plot points, and of course, the climax.

Then, reveal the resolution. Yes, you’ve got to divulge how the story ends. Remember, a synopsis isn’t a back cover blurb – the purpose is to inform, not to tease.

Finally, keep it concise and stick to the point. Avoid unnecessary subplots, characters, or backstory. Your goal is to give a clear and accurate picture of your story arc. In short: introduce, incite, outline, resolve, and keep it neat! It’s easier said than done, I know, but with a little practice and a sprinkle of Fictionary magic, you’ll master it in no time.

3 Tips for How to Write a Synopsis for a Novel

So, you’re biting your nails and wondering, “What are the secret ingredients to whip up a riveting book synopsis?” Well, put on your author’s hat, because I’m about to spill my top three tips that are sure to take your synopsis game from ‘meh’ to ‘marvellous’!

Story Synopsis Tip 1: Know Your Key Players

Keep your synopsis centred on your main character(s) and their journey. The reader should understand who the protagonist is, what their goals are, and the obstacles they face. This doesn’t mean you have to name every character; stick to those who are crucial to the plot.

Story Synopsis Tip 2: Don’t Shy Away From Spoilers

Unlike a back cover blurb that entices, a synopsis informs. So, ‌reveal how the story ends. Include the resolution of the key conflicts and how the character arcs culminate.

Story Synopsis Tip 3: Keep it concise and engaging

A synopsis is a glimpse into your story, not a blow-by-blow account.

So, resist the temptation to explain every plot twist or character backstory. Stick to the significant events and how they drive the story forward.

In summary, focus on your key characters, embrace spoilers, and practise the art of being concise yet captivating. And remember, writing a great synopsis, like any writing skill, gets better with practice.

Now you know how to write a synopsis, let’s look at an example.

Story Synopsis Example

Here is the scene by scene skeleton synopsis for Veronica Roth’s young adult dystopian novel, Divergent:

POV Character: Beatrice
Must: Choose a faction at the Choosing Ceremony
Otherwise: She will become factionless

Why This Scene?

This event kicks off the main action of the novel. Beatrice’s choice will determine the course of her life within the world of the story.

Must: Pass Dauntless initiation.

Passing initiation is the immediate external goal Beatrice must accomplish after choosing Dauntless. Failure would unravel everything that follows.

Must: Go through her fear landscape simulation
Otherwise: She will fail Dauntless initiation

The fear simulation is the major turning point in the first half of the book. It’s an important milestone in Beatrice’s progression as an initiate.

Must: Stop the Erudite’s mind control plan
Otherwise: The Dauntless will massacre Abnegation

The plot forces Beatrice to face an impossible choice that will determine the fates of both her family and all Dauntless/Erudite.

Must: Release the video exposing the Erudite
Otherwise: Jeanine will continue manipulating the factions

This scene represents the final conflict where Beatrice exploits the Erudite’s lies and prevents further loss of life.

Must: Scatter her mother’s ashes
Otherwise: She cannot move on from her parents’ deaths

The Resolution ties up Beatrice’s emotional character arc regarding her grief over her family.

As you can see, answering those three simple questions about each key scene provides the bare bones plot summary. From here, you would flesh out the details to complete the full synopsis.

Is There a Particular Synopsis Book You Recommend?

If you’re like me, always on the hunt for resources that can help elevate your writing skills, then you’re in luck.

Today, I want to introduce you to a book that’s been a game-changer for me: “Secrets to Editing Success” by Kristina Stanley and Lucy Cooke.

Yes, it’s a bit of self-promotion here, but I genuinely believe this book can be a valuable asset to any writer’s toolkit.

“Secrets to Editing Success” isn’t just another book about writing or editing. It’s a comprehensive guide that demystifies the editing process. The book provides practical advice on how to take your manuscript from good to great.

Kristina and Lucy delve into the nuts and bolts of story editing, sharing tips and tricks gleaned from our years of experience in the field.

One section that I find useful is the one on crafting an interesting book synopsis. The book offers step-by-step guidance on how to structure a synopsis that captures the essence of your story while keeping it concise and engaging.

It breaks down the process into manageable chunks, making it less daunting and more achievable.

Kristina and Lucy packed the book with real-life examples, actionable tips, and practical exercises that help to cement the concepts. It’s like having a personal editing coach in your back pocket.

So, if you’re struggling with writing an interesting synopsis, or any part of the editing process, I highly recommend “Secrets to Editing Success”. It might just be the tool you need to unlock your editing prowess.

Conclusion: What is a Synopsis of a Book

As we bring this journey to a close, let’s circle back to our initial question.

What is a synopsis of a book?

A synopsis, as we’ve discussed, is a concise, interesting summary of your book’s plot. It’s like the appetiser agents, publishers, and readers. It teases them with the promise of an entrancing narrative feast to come.

Creating a book synopsis may seem like a Herculean task.

Trust me, I’ve been there. As a writer, you’ve spent months, possibly years, on your book. And now, you’re asked to shrink this vast, vibrant universe into a one-to-two-page summary. It’s like trying to pack a cruise ship into a toy boat.

Seems impossible, right?

Well, I’ve got good news: it’s not. Difficult? Absolutely. But impossible? Far from it.

We’ve explored why writing a book synopsis is so challenging. We’ve also offered practical advice on how to navigate these challenges the Fictionary way. And don’t forget the concept of a skeleton synopsis. A tool to help you identify and summarise the crucial scenes and moments in your narrative.

Remember, the goal of a synopsis isn’t to encapsulate every detail of your story/

It’s there to give the reader a taste of your plot, characters, and writing style. It’s about capturing the essence of your story and presenting it ‌so it leaves the reader yearning for more.

I would urge you to think of the book synopsis not as an ordeal but as an opportunity.

An opportunity to take a step back, to view your story from a bird’s-eye perspective, and to identify and highlight the aspects that make it truly unique. And as you do, remember that, like any skill, synopsis writing improves with practise.

Keep honing your craft, and who knows, you might just come to enjoy the book synopsis process. And, if you sign up for your 14 day free trial of the Fictionary Software, you’ll have your synopsis done in no time.

Table of Contents

What Is a Synopsis?

How to write a compelling synopsis, great synopsis examples, how to write a perfect synopsis for your book (complete guide).

Unless you’re writing a book proposal , there’s no reason you need a book synopsis.

And the only reason you need a book proposal is if you want to get your book picked up by a traditional publisher .

For most Authors, it’s better to skip traditional publishing and self-publish instead.

There are many good reasons for that:

You’ll need a literary agent
It’s nearly impossible to get a deal
You won’t own the rights to your book or have full creative control
It’ll take forever to hit the market
It’ll be a lot less lucrative
You can’t market your book in the ways that will help you get the best ROI

That said, there are some Authors whose books and goals are a better fit for a traditional publisher. If you’re one of those select few, you’ll need to write a good synopsis in order to sell your book.

This post will teach you how to write the overview section of the proposal, which gives potential agents and acquisitions editors a short synopsis of your book.

A synopsis is a brief summary of the content of your book, its target audience, and its major selling points.

People are more familiar with synopses when it comes to creative writing or movie synopses. Those kinds of summaries introduce you to the main characters, major plot points, subplots, and character motivations of a story.

With a nonfiction book, the overview works differently. It’s not primarily about the content or the “main plot” of the book. Instead, it’s designed to show a potential agent or acquisitions editor at a publishing house what your book will cover, what audience will want to read it, and why it’s appealing to that audience.

Think of the overview of your book proposal as a sales letter. You want to show the reader that there are a lot of people with an urgent problem and that the content of your book is going to help them solve it.

As I said above, not all Authors need a synopsis . But I should clarify: a synopsis is not the same as a book description .

The purpose of a book description is to hook readers’ attention and convince them to keep reading. It’s what goes on the back cover of your book. Every Author needs one of those.

A synopsis is designed to walk an editor through your argument and convince them that your book is worth writing and, ultimately, worth selling.

In other words, a synopsis doesn’t focus on your idea . It’s about your book’s commercial potential.

The biggest mistake Authors make in writing synopses is talking too much about the following:

how important the idea is
why they want to write the book
why they think people should want to read it.

All those things sound logical, right?

But publishers don’t want to know what you—the Author—cares about or wants.

They want to know what readers care about, and more importantly, what will make a reader buy the book.

The synopsis should focus on the content just enough for the editor to understand what your book will say. It’s more important to show how that content relates to the needs, problems, and desires of your target audience.

A book proposal includes many elements, including an Author bio , marketing plan, chapter outline, and writing sample. But out of the entire proposal, the two things that will sell it are the overview (a.k.a., synopsis) and the marketing plan.

It’s critical to get those right.

The goal of a synopsis is to convince an agent (and later, an acquisitions editor) that:

your audience exists, and they’re just waiting to buy your book
the reasons why they’re waiting to buy your book

It’s not enough to say, “I’m writing on such-and-such subject” (even if you have data that people are interested in that subject).

For example, just because people like ice cream, it doesn’t mean they will want to buy your book on ice cream.

Your synopsis should make a clear case for why people will buy your specific book .

A compelling synopsis doesn’t only provide information; it convinces. It has to answer all the questions in an editor’s mind, including:

Why are people going to care about what you have to say?
Why is anyone going to care about the book?
What need is it filling?
What problem does it solve?
What transformation will it create?
What hole in people’s lives does it fill?

Acquisitions editors at traditional publishing houses like to think of their job as cultivating and curating the national conversation.

So, synopsis writing is all about persuading editors that your book is going to be the next big thing. It has to make an editor feel like they’re ahead of the curve by discovering you and your idea.

Here’s the ideal situation: an acquisition editor reads your overview and thinks, “Wow, this is really obvious, but no one sees it yet—except for me. I’ll be the one who gets to unveil this book to the world!”

If your overview does that, potential agents will be interested in it because they know that acquisition editors will want it.

Here are 2 examples of great proposals:

This is the proposal for Author Steve Sims’ bestseller, Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen . Scribe helped with this proposal, and Steve earned a low six-figure advance from an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
This is the proposal for my book with Geoffrey Miller, which we wrote with Nils Parker. We sold the book for low seven figures to Little, Brown. This book started off as Mate: Become the Man Women Want , but for the paperback, the publisher changed the name to What Women Want .

Those links will take you to the complete proposal, not just the overview. If you’re writing a book proposal, I recommend checking them out in their entirety.

But below, I’m only going to focus on the synopses. I’ll explain how each of them addresses the main questions in an editor’s mind.

1. Why Are People Going to Care About What You Have to Say?

In the proposal for Mate , Geoffrey and I didn’t just outline our credentials. We also explained how Mate would build on our pre-existing professional platforms.

Collectively, we had over 3 million subscribers to our email lists. We also had a clear, statistically supported breakdown of the audience who would benefit from the book: romantically frustrated young men.

We focused briefly on the origins of the idea, but when we talked about ourselves, it was mainly to show why our respective followings would care about this new collaboration.

An editor reading this would immediately know:

we were Authors with a huge following
our following had a problem
we knew how to solve it

2. Why Is Anyone Going to Care About the Book?

Steve’s proposal had an aspirational hook: he helps people make their wildest dreams come true.

As the founder of Bluefish, an exclusive luxury concierge service, Steve’s professional background gave him privileged insight.

He not only had access to the outrageous, impossible adventures of billionaires — he also understood the deeper psychological motivations behind them.

In other words, the book wasn’t just a riveting tell-all about journeys to the bottom of the sea or dining at the feet of Michelangelo’s David .

It was also a guide to happiness for the average person.

Steve explained how his book tapped into people’s desires for fantasy fulfillment and recognized the desire for personal growth and fulfillment.

He addressed this unique perspective with the line, “You don’t have to be a billionaire. All you need is this book.”

That’s what set his book apart and made his audience take notice.

3. What Need Is It Filling?

Geoffrey and I realized something strange was going on when a lot of my fans were looking to my drunk hook-up stories for advice.

Instead of writing these readers off, we wondered why that was happening.

What was the need they were trying to fill by reading my books? And how could we write a book that would fill that need better?

Here’s how we positioned that need in the proposal:

For Tucker, however, it was a revelation: for years he had struggled with the fact that many of his biggest fans were, to be kind, raging douchebags. At book signings, speaking engagements, parties, on the street, they would come up to him to take a picture or shake his hand and invariably their favorite parts of his books would be the parts they should be most ashamed of; the parts Tucker had included to make himself the butt of the joke.

It was no wonder so many of his male fans were such maladjusted idiots–they weren’t using those moments as cautionary tales, they were using them as a guide. But why??

The short answer: that’s all there was.

That was a turning point. It helped us understand what problem we needed to solve and what was at stake in writing Mate .

It was also crystal clear evidence for editors. It showed them how the book would fulfill an audience’s specific needs.

4. What Problem Does It Solve?

Steve’s book proposal started with a bang.

Who doesn’t want to hear about getting married by the Pope or getting chased by spies in a James Bond simulation?

That’s a great hook, but it’s not enough to sell a book. A good synopsis shows how the book will actually solve a problem.

As the proposal continued, readers learned that the real problem at the heart of the book was how to tap into the “pure joy that so many of us bury as we become successful grownups with jobs and families and responsibilities.”

Steve went on to show how those attention-grabbing stories could help solve that problem:

Money can’t buy you happiness. There’s the problem.

And here’s the solution: “Throughout the chapters, he shares his secrets for achieving the impossible and making your own bucket-list dreams come true.”

Steve’s synopsis was successful because he guided the reader through a clear story arc: hook, problem, and solution.

5. What Transformation Will It Create?

The proposal for Mate tackled the question of reader transformation head-on:

This brief passage explained the “who,” “how,” and “why,” while also including the pain point and benefits. In just a few sentences, we showed why readers would be interested in this material.

In another section of the proposal, we also broke the benefits down thematically—scientifically, what will readers learn? Ethically, what insights will they gain? And practically, what will they walk away with?

In the first paragraph, we also compared the book to ground-breaking books that created analogous transformations. That made it immediately evident to editors what kind of market space the book could fill.

6. What Hole in People’s Lives Does It Fill?

Steve took a common, relatable concept—”the bucket list”—and gave it a new cast.

He explained, “The words have a light, frivolous ring to them, but they hint at something deeper.”

That “something deeper” was the hole his book filled.

Steve showed the reader that his book wasn’t just about rich people looking for thrills. It was about tapping into a near-universal longing for childlike joy.

The stories in the book were about the rich and famous, but the psychological drive behind them was something his target audience would relate to.

This showed editors that the book had broader commercial potential. It wasn’t just “inside baseball” for an elite audience.

The Scribe Crew

How To Write Synopsis With Examples

A synopsis is a brief and general view of a storyline and other defining factors of a literary work. Also known as a summary or an outline, its a condensed statement of a large piece of work to the point and in an effective manner. It tells us about the plot , style , genre , characters , tone , theme , the story from the beginning, climax , and anti-climax . It gives a reliable preview of writing skills. It is mostly written in active voice and third person. The impression of emotions and feelings is also included in it. In short, it is less, and yet we can understand the critical parts of a story or a poem . It can be of any type – fictional and non-fictional setting . When writing a synopsis, we shouldn’t be over-detailed and wordy. It helps in grabbing the attention and convincing the readers. A synopsis should be long enough to pack in everything good about the story or any writing piece.

Synopsis of Cinderella

Cinderella, a kind and thoughtful girl, lives with her stepsisters; Clorinda and Tisbe. Her cruel stepmother makes her work all day long. Three of them are jealous of her beauty , so enslaved her and kept her in rags. One day they get the invitation from the king. He wants to throw a ball to find a bride for his some, the prince. Cinderella’s stepmother refuses to take her with them. There, the Fairy godmother helps her in getting a beautiful dress, slippers, and carriage. She tells her to come back before the stroke of 12, midnight. If she didn’t return, the spell would be broken. When Cinderella arrives at the ball, the prince falls in love with her instantly. No doubt Cinderella, enchants the prince but must face the anger of her stepmother when the spell wears off. She runs before the clock strikes but leaves her slipper in the rush. Later the prince finds her with the help of this glass slipper and confesses his love. They are reunited and embark on their lives together.

Synopsis of “The Bear”

The play takes place in the drawing-room of Elena Ivanovna Popova’s estate on the seven month anniversary of her husband’s death. She was leading a mournful life after his death. Her servant Luka tried to convince her for second marriage but all in vain. Smirnov comes to collect his debt to Popova, which her husband had borrowed. At first, Popova refuses to meet him but later sees Smirnov and tells him that she has no money, and she will pay back in a few days. This really annoys Smirnov, and he acts rudely and calls all women selfish and faithless. Popova also calls him a bear, and this is how the fight begins. Luka calls gardener and servant to stop them from fighting. Later their fight ends with love and brings them close. This play is a direct criticism of the hypocrisy of Russian society.

Synopsis of poem ‘After Apple Picking’

After Apple Picking is a poem by Robert Frost , which is set in a rural New England. The poem talks about the speaker and how he’s finishing his work of apple picking. He is now on his way to everyday sleep. Then he starts dreaming of massive apple harvesting. He is getting sick of this apple picking. In the end, he let the reader confused about his idea of sleep.

Synopsis of poem ‘ Little Miss Muffet ’

Poor little girl Miss Muffet wants to eat her curd and whey in peace. Meantime a spider comes, and she desperately dashes away. So she runs away, leaving the food behind.

Synopsis of short story ‘The Little Willow’

The Little Willow is a story of silent love that is set in the heart of London during the Second World War. Lisby and Simon both love each other, but they don’t express their love to each other. Now the army officer Simon comes to the courthouse to say goodbye to Lisby. She gives him a little willow tree as a token of his love. Her other sisters Charlotte and Brenda are different; outwardly beautiful but thoughtless; they both are engaged to other army officers. Later Simon is killed in the war. The war ends, and the lovers of her sisters return safely. A guest tells her that he was with Simon at the time of death. He tells her that Simon loved that girl who gave him the willow tree. Lisby discloses her love to that man. She feels very satisfying in knowing that. When her sisters tell her that there is no letter for her, she says that she has received her letter. This story is very profound at the same time, very compulsive.

Synopsis of the essay ‘Bachelor’s Dilemma ’:

The essay “Bachelor’s Dilemma” by Herbert Gold throws light on the problems faced by a bachelor in American society. The real dilemma lies in the confusion that a bachelor faces about his position in the civilized society. He is like an acrobat in a circus of life who is always staggering between love and marriage. A wife has tender feelings for him, whereas the husband takes him as a rival. A young girl looks at him as a possible catch. The other bachelors take him as an enemy who snatches away their love and bore him with his complaints. A confirmed bachelor is, in fact leading an abnormal life and so come across many difficulties.

Synopsis of Bird Box

This is a synopsis of the film, Bird Box. Amid a nightmarish new reality where an unseen evil force removes the global population. So, the mother , Malorie, and her two children embark on a life-threatening quest to find a safe place on earth. The real enemy is their eyesight—and as the defenseless blindfolded protector summons up the courage to follow a faint hope, hidden deep in a refuge down through the river. To be blind is the only thing that can save them. Their unsighted voyage led them to many difficulties. It and also creates a strong relationship with her children. No matter how dark times are, there is always a beam of light at the end of the tunnel.

Synopsis of Harry Potter

The story begins at the eleventh birthday of Harry when he comes to know that his parents were wizards. He receives a letter from Hagrid for the acceptance and invitation to study at Hogwarts. He leaves his uncle Vernon, aunt Petunia, and his cousin Dudley. He makes new friends Hermione and Ron. He learns many techniques at Hogwarts, taught by his professors and the headmaster, Dumbledore. His friends help him through the most challenging years in Hogwart. He comes to know about the reality of his parent’s death. The wizard practicing dark magic: Voldemort. His scar and mirror alarm him of Voldemort. Every experience Harry, Hermione, and Ron find themselves in dangerous situations. However, it brings them closer to Harry as his fight with Voldemort begins.

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How to Write a Synopsis

Last Updated: April 18, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Richard Perkins . Richard Perkins is a Writing Coach, Academic English Coordinator, and the Founder of PLC Learning Center. With over 24 years of education experience, he gives teachers tools to teach writing to students and works with elementary to university level students to become proficient, confident writers. Richard is a fellow at the National Writing Project. As a teacher leader and consultant at California State University Long Beach's Global Education Project, Mr. Perkins creates and presents teacher workshops that integrate the U.N.'s 17 Sustainable Development Goals in the K-12 curriculum. He holds a BA in Communications and TV from The University of Southern California and an MEd from California State University Dominguez Hills. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 362,579 times.

A synopsis is an in-depth summary of a written work that describes the content of that work from beginning to end. Unlike a summary, which just gives a general overview of a story, a synopsis contains all of the plot details, including the end. Typically, synopses are submitted to publishers or agents after you have written a novel, screenplay, or other long work. A good synopsis will cover the main conflict and the resolution of the story while describing the emotional development of the main character. It is important to edit your synopsis carefully, as it will usually be included as part of a larger proposal.

Outlining Your Synopsis

Step 1 Start the synopsis after you have finished the project.

Established authors who have published before may be able to get away with submitting an incomplete book proposal, but most new authors will need a full manuscript.
You will need to know how the story ends to write the synopsis, as a synopsis will include the resolution of the story.

Make sure each of your characters is dynamic, rather than flat. They all need to be well-rounded and capable of change. Additionally, each character should impact the story in a significant way.

Step 3 Sketch out the major plot points in your story.

If you wrote a screenplay or play, make a list of what happens in each act. You can write, "Rory enters the warehouse, and a shootout ensues."
If you have a collection of short stories or poetry, identify the main themes of each work. For example, you might state, "This collection explores memory, childhood, and innocence."

Step 4 Identify what is unique about your story.

Does your story have an interesting point of view? If so, be sure to mention it. You can say, “This story centers around the last dwarf in the underground kingdom.”
Does your story have a unique twist? You can mention the twist while still leaving some mystery. For example, you might say, “Jean Paul soon realizes that the murderer may be closer to him than he thinks.”
Does your story fulfill a certain niche in the market? You might want to demonstrate who might be interested in this story. For example, you can write, “This memoir explores what it means to be a member of the lost generation.”

Step 5 Research how long the synopsis must be.

Novel synopses are usually between two and twelve pages long.
Screenplay synopses are usually one page long. Most are no more than 400 words long.

Drafting the Synopsis

Most film production companies and some book publishers may ask you to capitalize every letter of a character's name. For example, you would write "JENNA" instead of "Jenna."

Step 2 Introduce your main characters and conflict at the beginning.

For example, you might start the paragraph by saying, “When her plane crashes in the isolated reaches of the Amazon rainforest, Laura realizes that to survive, she must first overcome her inner demons.”
As you introduce other characters, you should introduce them in relation to the main character. For example, you might write, “Laura is joined by the only other survivor, a mysterious archaeologist named Terry.”

Step 3 Summarize the main events of the plot.

Don't go into too much detail about subplots and minor actions. You don't want your synopsis to be confusing, so focus on the main story line.
For example, you might write, "After James beats the river monster, he continues on to find the magic crystal. When he locates the cave, he finds it blocked. He agrees to trade his sword to a goblin in exchange for help."

You might say, "Jun discovers that Ginny had stolen the diamond. The movie concludes with the police arresting Ginny."

Step 5 Include only necessary information.

Don’t include dialogue in your synopsis. Instead, just summarize what the characters said.
Refer to minor characters by their role, not by their name. Instead of saying, “Lewis, a saxophonist who Joe encounters one night” you might write, “Joe meets a saxophonist.”

Step 6 Demonstrate character development and emotion.

For example, you might write, “Invigorated by her new discovery, Cecilia rushes to contact Horatio, only to be shocked when she learns that he is already dead.”

Step 7 Avoid complimenting your own writing.

Do not use phrases like “in one tear jerking scene” or “in a stunning flashback.” Simply describe the scenes as they happen. If you want to describe emotions you're hoping to convey in your work, focus on how your characters react to certain events, not how you expect the reader to react. For example, "When Claire realizes the truth, she becomes disillusioned."
Don’t assume what readers will feel. For example, don't say “Readers will gasp as they discover what Lord Melvin has in store for Lady Betty.” Instead, you might write, “As Lady Betty travels through the castle, she slowly realizes Lord Melvin’s intentions.”

Editing Your Synopsis

Step 1 Format your synopsis according to the publisher's guidelines.

If you don't have guidelines, you should include your name and the title of your work at the top of every page.
Always use one-inch margins when submitting work for publication.

Try reading your entire synopsis out loud to catch any mistakes.
You can hire a copyeditor to proofread it for you.

Step 3 Ask someone else to read over it for you.

For example, one publishing house may require you to cut down your synopsis to one page. In this case, focus on just the main conflict. Another may ask for four pages. In this one, you can go into more detail.
If you do not tailor your synopsis to a publisher, they may not read your submission.

Step 5 Send out your synopsis with a query letter and samples.

A query letter should contain a short summary of your work, a brief paragraph explaining your credentials, and a reason why the agent should accept your submission.
A sample may include one or two chapters, one act of a screenplay, or one short story out of a collection. In most cases, it will be the first scene or chapter.

Put time and effort into pitch materials. "Above all, a query letter is a sales pitch and it is the single most important page an unpublished writer will ever write. It's the first impression and will either open the door or close it. It's that important, so don't mess it up. Mine took 17 drafts and two weeks to write."

Sample Synopses

Expert Q&A

↑ https://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/a-pocket-guide-to-writing-a-synopsis/
↑ Richard Perkins. Writing Coach & Academic English Coordinator. Expert Interview. 1 September 2021.
↑ https://writingnsw.org.au/support/resources-for-writers/resource-sheets/writing-a-synopsis/
↑ https://www.ncl.ac.uk/academic-skills-kit/assessment/assignment-types/writing-a-synopsis/
↑ https://examples.yourdictionary.com/synopsis-examples.html
↑ https://careertrend.com/how-2079740-format-synopsis.html
↑ https://research.ewu.edu/writers_center_revising_paper
↑ https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-less-obvious-elements-of-an-effective-book-proposal/
↑ https://mitpress.mit.edu/submitting-book-proposal/

About This Article

To write a synopsis, start by creating an outline that includes main characters and plot points so that you can cover the narrative arc of the story. Then, in the first paragraph of your synopsis, introduce your main characters and a general summary of the entire plot, like the conflict the main character must overcome. Next, summarize the main events, like obstacles the character faced and how they overcame them, and be sure to write your synopsis in the third person. Finally, leave the reader with a resolution of the story so they know how it ends. To learn how to edit your synopsis using general guidelines, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to write a book synopsis: 12 tips with examples.

March 19, 2024

To write a book synopsis , try to add highlights and key story points and explain the book’s essential aspects. Its goal is to get a literary agent interested in the story so they can try to pitch the finished work to a publisher. Usually, it comes with a query letter and a manuscript sample in the submissions package.

To clarify your plot, a summary uses a neutral tone and shows the story’s main arc. It usually includes summarizing your main ideas, important character descriptions, and significant plot twists and endings. As a result, the reader is more likely to be captivated and finish reading the book.

Occasionally, the opening of a summary sets the stage for the book’s storyline. This can assist in illuminating the motivations and personality of the primary character. The features included in the summary could differ from one book to another, but they should consistently adhere to the novel’s narrative sequence.

The text found in the book’s back jacket differs from the synopsis. To grab the reader’s interest, book blurbs are typically only concise writing.

To write a book synopsis , follow these steps:

Begin with a strong sentence: First, when you write a book , talk about the main character and the major struggle or idea of the story. This makes things possible for what’s to come. Give readers a strong emotional reason to connect with the main character by introducing them in a way that shows their unique personality, goals, and problems.

Key characters and plot: Briefly summarize the main characters and story points. Remember that the goal is to give a general idea of how the story goes without going into too much detail. Include character names, jobs, and beginning goals to help readers connect emotionally with the story’s main characters.

Character growth and narrative arc: Show how your figures change as the story progresses. Ghostwriters should bring attention to their problems and how they affect the story. Character growth is important because it gives your story more meaning. Readers feel connected to people who change and grow over time. Their problems let us see different sides of their personalities and move the story forward.

Have a powerful conclusion: Synopses should indicate the finale, unlike book blurbs. In this way, the readers may see the narrative arc in its entirety. Remember that the summary should explain the ending without revealing every plot surprise, allowing readers to appreciate the book’s finer narrative complexities.

Get some feedback: Before writing a book synopsis and sending your initial draft of the synopsis to an agent, have an alpha or beta reader look it over. Ask them what they think, and then make the changes you need to make to your book summary.

Three Crucial Elements of a Book Summary

Writing is an art form in its own right. According to book writing services , a summary should include the following elements:

Characters: Write a good story built around the main character. From the start, make sure the major and supporting characters are strong and easy to remember. Find out more about how characters grow here.
Conflict: The main thing that keeps people reading is conflict. When you write a book synopsis , include the main conflict idea. Get a better sense of the different kinds of battles here.
Narrative arc: The narrative arc is the structure of your story. It goes from the beginning to the end. The story of your book should have many layers, but for the summary, you should boil it down to five main parts.

Examples of Book Synopsis

Here are several book synopsis examples to help you learn the craft:

Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”

Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a sad story set in the Deep South in the 1930s. It is also one of the best book synopsis examples that looks at racism and moral growth through the eyes of Scout Finch, a young girl. Atticus Finch, Scout’s father, is defending a black man who is wrongly accused of a crime. In their small town, Scout and her brother Jem are dealing with the hard truths of racism and the complicated nature of people. People love the book because it is warm, funny, and doesn’t shy away from discussing tough social problems.

Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”

Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” is a famous story set in the 1920s. The book is about the mysterious and rich Jay Gatsby, known for throwing big, fancy parties. Gatsby is driven by his love for Daisy Buchanan, a beautiful woman married to Tom Buchanan but cheats on him. Nick Carraway, Gatsby’s neighbor, tells the story. He sees the drama and sadness of Gatsby’s obsession with finding a lost love. The book looks at the American Dream, excess, and ideals.

A synopsis aims to succinctly convey your book’s plot, characters, and emotional journey while enticing readers, agents, and publishers. By starting with a clear introduction, outlining the inciting incident, highlighting key plot points, detailing the climax, revealing the resolution, and employing an active voice throughout, you create a roadmap to launch a book that is both informative and engaging.

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How to Write a Compelling Synopsis: Your Simple Guide

You know writing a book is going to be hard, even grueling. But synopsizing it should be easy.

So, why does it feel so intimidating?

It’s not just because you must convince an agent or a publisher (in as few as 500 words) that your novel or nonfiction manuscript will succeed in the marketplace.

It’s because an effective, working synopsis should become your foundational document for the writing itself.

Getting this right can make the writing so much easier. Getting it wrong can expose even the smallest crack in your foundation.

Regardless, synopsis writing is crucial to your success .

You want to craft yours in such a way that it empowers an agent to sell your manuscript to a publisher.

Writing your synopsis can also reveal fatal flaws in your outline , allowing you to make the fix before you invest months in the writing.

Below I detail everything I’ve learned about how to write a synopsis that works for you.

I also give you two synopsis templates — one for fiction and one for nonfiction, with real examples of each.

How to Write Compelling Synopses

I cover both fiction and nonfiction here, so feel free to jump straight to your genre. Just remember that each contains valuable training that applies to both.

Click here if you’re writing fiction .

Click here if you’re writing nonfiction .

What Is a Synopsis?

For FICTION SYNOPSES , summarize the main beats of your story , chapter by chapter.

(Don’t worry — agents and publishers know fiction is organic and stories often take on lives of their own. You won’t be held rigidly to your synopsis, and many story beats will wind up in different chapters than you predicted.)

The point of your synopsis is to reveal the entire story in as few as 500 words, allowing an agent or a publisher to determine whether the premise and approach make it worthy of asking to see the eventual manuscript.

Yes, your synopsis should reveal how your story ends .

A common mistake is to confuse your synopsis with back cover or advertising copy—which is full of teasers and questions designed to lure readers.

Your potential agent or publisher is not a buyer who needs to be lured. And they don’t want questions—they want answers. Tell what happens in your story and how it ends.

Your agent or publisher (hopefully both) will become your publishing partner.

Let them in on all the secrets and how you intend to tell the story.

Agents and publishers are deluged with thousands of manuscripts annually. You help them do their jobs and set yourself apart from that sea of competition by giving them every reason to ask to see your manuscript.

A meaningful fiction synopsis briefly tells your story in present tense. You’ll see an example below.

Full disclosure: If you’re a new novelist, few agents or publishers will extend a contract offer based on your synopsis alone (it happens, but it’s rare). Lots of writers can dream up great premises, high enough stakes to justify a novel-length manuscript, and a great ending.

The question is whether they can finish and deliver. Most can’t. Just like employers are cautioned against “hiring a résumé” without a careful screening process, agents and publishers have learned to make sure a writer can deliver an entire manuscript before committing to a contract.

So why not just write the manuscript and submit it whole, if they’re going to insist on seeing it anyway? Admittedly, some require that. But most can tell from your synopsis whether they want to see the manuscript.

NONFICTION SYNOPSES

For memoirs , biographies, autobiographies, and narrative nonfiction, the fiction synopsis example below also applies. You merely lay out — in a sentence or two (in present tense) — what you plan to cover in each chapter.

For nonfiction, a synopsis should reveal:

The intended audience
What you intend to teach readers
Why you are qualified to write on the subject

Avoid hard-selling language. Of course you’re trying to sell your manuscript, but the approach and word choice must do the work. Agents and editors are not impressed with grandiose promises and predictions.

Regardless whether you’re an Outliner or a Pantser , you need to immerse yourself in your genre of fiction. You may intend to break a lot of rules, but you had better know the conventions.

Read dozens and dozens of books in your genre. Your job in writing a synopsis is to summarize a full-length manuscript in 500 words.

That may seem impossible, but it’s also for your benefit. You’ll be amazed at how your synopsis keeps you focused and on track during the writing.

Start with the main elements of your story and flesh out your synopsis from there.

Step 1: Determine Your Premise

In my post How to Develop a Great Story Idea I walk you through coming up with a bullet-proof story idea.

You’ll know you’ve hit on a potential winner when you can summarize your novel idea in one sentence. Despite that it’s only one sentence, it deserves the time it takes to make it just right.

Moviemakers refer to this as the logline .

In Blake Snyder’s classic book on screenwriting, Save the Cat , he says a good logline must have irony , and then uses this example for the movie Die Hard : “A cop comes to L.A. to visit his estranged wife, and finds her office building taken over by terrorists.”

That may look simple, but it’s not easy.

If someone asked you to tell them, in one sentence, what your novel is about, could you do it? Most can’t, and until they can, they’re not ready to write it.

Step 2: Reveal Your Story Structure

Novels will have some version of the following main beats:

1. An riveting opener

2. An inciting incident that changes everything

3. A series of crises that build tension

4. A climax where everything comes a head and is resolved

5. A satisfying ending

For more detail on the above, read 7 Story Structures Any Writer Can Use .

Step 3: Flesh Out the Details

1. Start your synopsis by hooking your reader — in this case an agent or publisher. Your one-sentence premise is the most important line of all. Would you keep reading if the Die Hard logline was the premise? I would.

What if it was, “A man discovers his own brother is living a double life, teaching junior high biology under a different name”? I wouldn’t. Now maybe if the brother were a terrorist or some other kind of a criminal…

2. Next, map out the story, using your story structure as a base. Write a paragraph or two for each of the above five main story beats (or those of whatever structure you’ve settled on). Keep it brief and clear. Aim for no more than 500 words

3. Reveal your main character’s story arc . Who are they at the end compared to who they were in the beginning — both inwardly and outwardly?

Do this as well for other major characters, like the villain .

Synopsis-writing tips:

Write in the third person , present tense, and as tightly as possible: “Jason learns his daughter has been kidnapped,” or “At the grocery store, Sally is riveted by the best-looking man she’s ever seen.”
Boldface or CAPITALIZE first mentions of characters’ names .
Include a brief character sketch : “ JON NELSON (38 — a retired mercenary and now a bodyguard) takes a call…”

Novel Synopsis Example

In Left Behind, millions of people throughout the world disappear in an instant in what turns out to be the Rapture of the Church at the end of the world.

RAYFORD STEELE, an airline pilot, is flying to London when a third of his passengers disappear right out of their clothes.

Rayford fears his devout Christian wife has been right about the prophesied rapture, and if she was, she and his young son will be gone when he arrives home. His college-age daughter, CHLOE, a skeptic like him, will likely have been left behind.

Passenger CAMERON WILLIAMS (a newswriter of international renown) follows the rise of NICOLAE CARPATHIA, a powerful political figure who is eventually revealed as the antichrist.

[The synopsis continues with what happens in every subsequent chapter, again with no mysteries, teasers, or questions raised. Rather, everything is spelled out and explained so the agent or publisher knows what to expect.]

2. Nonfiction

Steven Pressfield, a successful novelist ( The Legend of Bagger Vance ) and nonfiction author ( The War of Art , Turning Pro , and The Artist’s Journey ) advises synopsizing a nonfiction book the same way you would a novel.

According to Pressfield, a nonfiction work also has a hero, a journey, a villain, an inciting incident, a climax, and the tension between wanted and unwanted outcomes typically found in novels.

Below I share a template for a solid nonfiction synopsis.

Step 1: Promise Reader Benefits

A successful nonfiction book should empower readers to either solve a problem or to achieve a goal, e.g., “To learn to better manage their time.”

Such a premise statement answers two questions:

Who the book is for, and
What it offers them

Step 2: Establish Yourself as an Authority

Steven Pressfield writes:

“If you’re a woman writing a book about weight loss for women, you’d better be a size two with washboard abs and have photos of yourself displayed throughout the book. Otherwise we readers will have trouble accepting you as an authority.”

But it’s not readers you need to convince in your synopsis—it’s an agent or publisher. It’s up to them whether your book makes it to the marketplace .

So, sell them on why you’re the person to write this book .

Example: “I write a time management blog with a monthly readership of more than 100,000. I’ve sold over 5,000 memberships to a productivity course I created, and I coach Fortune 500 executives on performance.”

Step 3: Share the Recipe

Devote a short paragraph to every chapter in the book, describing in third person, present tense, the content, purpose, and reader takeaway for each.

Aim for up to 800 words .

Nonfiction Synopsis Example

In Writing for the Soul , I impart experience and wisdom gained from a nearly half-century writing career. I reveal the rewards that can come to writers who work hard, commit to lifelong learning, and maintain their family priorities. I’ve written nearly 200 books with sales of more than 71 million copies, including 21 New York Times bestsellers.

I share how to find writing success through lifelong learning and polishing the craft.

I also include practical advice and share behind-the-scenes anecdotes of working with well-known biographical subjects (Billy Graham, Walter Payton, Hank Aaron, Meadowlark Lemon, Nolan Ryan, et al).

In 13 chapters (designed for group study as well), I discuss:

The requirements to make a career of writing
Breaking into the industry through reporting and writing for small markets,
Establishing a professional image
Lifelong learning

Then I list all 13 chapter titles and synopsize each in a sentence or two.

Writing a synopsis…

…doesn’t have to be daunting. There’s no need to be paralyzed by the fear of producing this tool so critical to both the writing of your manuscript and pitching it to agents or publishers.

You no longer have to dread the process. My simple, proven approach to writing synopses for both novels and nonfiction books should put you on a path to success.

All the best with yours!

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How to Write a Successful Book Chapter for an Academic Publication?

If you are an academic or a researcher working towards a PhD degree or engaged in various tasks in a university or academic institution the idea of writing a book chapter would have definitely crossed your mind. Receiving an invitation to write an academic book chapter is indeed a great honor, and going onto write it is a milestone that every writer aims to achieve in their career. Writing a successful academic book chapter requires careful planning and execution by the author. In this article we will look at how to write an academic book chapter along with a few key steps that must be followed during the writing process.

What is an academic book chapter?

Information collection

Finalizing chapter structure, attractive chapter title, a strong introduction, detailing out the chapter, summarizing the chapter, what is an academic book chapter.

An academic book chapter is a distinct section of a book having its own title or a chapter number. A book consists of several chapters, each of which focuses on a particular topic or sub-argument that is linked to the overall theme of the book. In other words, each chapter should have a sound argument that is consistent with the central theme or argument of the book. Each chapter should therefore be an inter-connected part to the rest of the chapters and to the overall book.

It is important to understand that an academic book chapter is very different from a thesis chapter. While a book chapter has as its audience anyone who may be interested in the particular topic, the audience for a thesis chapter is primarily the thesis examiner. For the same reason, a thesis examiner will closely read the entire chapter and thesis, but this may not be the case for a book chapter. As mentioned earlier, a book chapter deals with a specific topic with an important idea or argument related to the central theme of the book and hence it is a separate division of a book. On the other hand, a thesis chapter does not stand separately but will have multiple arguments and relies on the other chapters to make it a complete whole. The length of each academic book chapter normally varies and there is no standard rule as to the length of chapters. However, on a general note, chapter length usually varies from 3500 to 5000 words.

Key steps to follow when writing an academic book chapter

Integrating the following steps as you plan to write an academic book chapter can help you achieve excellent results.

It is important that sufficient research is carried out and the author has a thorough understanding of the available literature in the field. Collecting relevant information and being up to date with all aspects on the topic that you are going to write about is one of first steps in writing an academic book chapter. Presenting information in a visually attractive manner and using various tools like mind maps can help in structuring the key arguments better.

An academic book chapter also requires a good outline. For example, you must have a title, a well worded introduction, informative paras that make up the main body, a chapter summary and a neat transition to the succeeding chapter. Try to make the outline clear and concise, organize your ideas effectively and ensure there is a logical flow.

This is a critical element and goes a long way in getting people to read your chapter or even pick up the book. Strive to make the title or heading of your chapter interesting and impactful, potential readers should be attracted to the title by itself, going on to pick up the book just by the vigor of the title itself.

Having a well written introduction can be invaluable in ensuring that audiences will be compelled to read further. Engaging your reader with an anecdote or a dialogue or through a fictional account or plot can be useful devices to anchor the introduction on.

Ideally as you elaborate on your chapter with the key points as you begin, it is a good idea to provide evidence for your statements and arguments. Try to highlight these in about 4 to 5 paragraphs linking it to the chapter details.

A concise summary is a must as you come to the end of your chapter. Remember, here you are reflecting on the main content of the chapter and helping the reader to take away some key aspects of the arguments that you have presented in the chapter.

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Tell us, Tom Selleck: Who are you, really?

The 79-year-old actor opens up — kind of — in his memoir, “You Never Know.”

Unlike Ben Franklin, who arrived in Philadelphia after a long journey by foot and boat, with enough money to buy three puffy rolls, Tom Selleck entered Los Angeles in the family car, dad at the wheel, ready to settle down in Sherman Oaks, a short drive from Hollywood.

Though Franklin is not mentioned in Selleck’s memoir, “ You Never Know ,” his work ethic and didacticism are widely evident. Another great American is also present: Huck Finn. By combining Franklin’s homiletic pronouncements with Huck’s folksy immediacy of voice, Selleck, along with co-writer Ellis Henican, has created an easygoing, talky American memoir.

And why not? Sturdy as Mount Rushmore, athletic and eminently likable, Selleck exudes traditional American masculine traits; he’s the very embodiment of the strong, silent type. But silence can be a hazard when it comes to writing a memoir, which after all is a genre of self-reflection, confession and exposure.

Known for his privacy, Selleck has written a what book instead of a why book, a chronology of doing , as he writes about his life. As he says late in the book, “Feelings are hard to describe.” So readers can decide if they’re satisfied with a résumé — a running of the credits, if you will.

I like Tom Selleck, and while waiting for the book to arrive, I watched a lot of his movies and shows. Though I find the memoir disappointing, it will make a great audiobook, and I wonder if that’s what he had in mind, letting his easygoing voice tell a story that is soothing because he keeps it on the surface.

A quick list of some doings: student at USC, where a drama professor referred him to a Hollywood agent; acting classes to improve his “instrument”; joined California Army National Guard in 1967; appeared on “The Dating Game”; TV commercials; print ads; B movies, then better ones; survived the Hollywood cattle calls until he was chosen for a new TV show titled “Magnum, P.I.” By now it’s 1980, and Selleck is 35. He’s paid his dues and lived up to his principle of “Don’t know where I’m goin’, but there’s no use bein’ late.” Hi, Huck.

This Hollywood education exposes a ruthless industry that both tests and forms Selleck’s values. He sums up his success by quoting Calvin Coolidge: “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence,” a very Franklinesque aphorism. But, despite Selleck’s persistence, he wrestles with the “critic on my shoulder,” that voice that says you’re not good enough. Soon, though, another phrase — a mantra, really — takes its place: “Tom, you’re good enough.”

The book gives us a lot of doing and name-dropping. We may learn about the risqué incident when Carol Burnett had her legs around Selleck’s neck, and his photo shoot with a naked Barbara Parkins, but we learn nothing about his love life — according to my research outside the book, he’s been involved with more than three famous actresses — and little about his first marriage. He dilutes his inward thoughts with vague phrasing such as “I kinda knew,” “I don’t know why … well, actually, yes, I do know why,” or “I sit here, pen in hand, trying to explain my emotions … I can’t.”

Such coy deflections and elisions try our patience and may leave some of us wondering why he wrote a memoir if he can’t express feelings. Instead, we get clichés like “In the film business, work is waiting for you every day, and you owe it your commitment every day” and repetitions of the line he uses in his TV commercials for reverse mortgages: “This isn’t my first rodeo.” In his memoir, does Selleck have difficulty separating himself from the characters he depicts? He’s selling himself to his readers, and we’ll buy it because we like him and he’s a good actor, but cliché and evasion erode intimacy .

Ten chapters detail the creation and success of “Magnum, P.I.,” and we learn much about television production and its grueling deadlines, and that actors chew ice before doing a scene so their breath won’t show up on camera. We also learn how loyal and dedicated Selleck is to his crew, those folks who make our favorite shows possible. During the last season of “Magnum,” Selleck asked his network to give his hard-working team of seven years a bonus; the studio refused. So Selleck arranged to have his own bonus docked and gave $1,000 to each crew member. Commendable.

“Magnum” is firmly part of what scholar Susan Jeffords calls the “remasculinization of America,” a post-Vietnam cultural shift that, through films and popular culture, reinvigorated hypermasculine images and traditional male values. “Magnum” featured a Vietnam veteran, an ex-Navy SEAL, who relocates to Hawaii and becomes a private investigator. He became a character millions of men admire and emulate. But Selleck says little about his longest-lived iteration of American masculinity, Frank Reagan of the TV hit “Blue Bloods,” now in its 14th and final season. A lifelong Republican, Selleck, I’m sure, enjoys playing a character who has the same last name as a president he admires.

Reagan is an aging patriarch who wields his masculinity both as the NYPD police commissioner and as a father who sits at the head of the table during family Sunday dinners. Selleck does not share what it’s like playing this older man who covers up his body with an overcoat and a cowl-neck sweater. Instead, we’re told the business details of “Blue Bloods,” not its personal impact on its star.

Selleck is completely silent about the nine “Jesse Stone” TV movies he made beginning in 2005. Stone, a cop, does open up, revealing both the whats and the whys of his character, especially in the exchanges between him and his male therapist. Selleck is also at his sexiest, lounging in bed, the famous chin doubling as he reaches for his reading glasses. How does a masculine icon age? Selleck doesn’t say.

Closing on a pastoral note in the epilogue, the 79-year-old actor walks around his ranch and checks the water tanks he needs for his avocado crop while reminiscing about the stories he’s just told us and the ones he’s keeping to himself. In the book’s penultimate sentence he writes, “I am the steward of those stories, the same way I am steward of my land.” Unsurprisingly, Selleck fails to mention his allegedly improper transfer of over 1 million gallons of water onto “my land” in 2015.

It’s hard to separate the dancer from the dance, the mustache from the man, but not impossible. Memoir is supposed to puncture the facade of performance, or at least try to. Perhaps Selleck will trust his audience enough to write a more intimate sequel. He’s been speaking to us for a long while now, and I’m sure he has more to say.

Sibbie O’Sullivan, a former teacher in the Honors College at the University of Maryland, is the author of “My Private Lennon: Explorations From a Fan Who Never Screamed.”

Tom Selleck

You Never Know

By Tom Selleck with Ellis Henican

Dey Street. 352 pp. $29.99

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Book Review: A grandfather’s 1,500-page family history undergirds Claire Messud’s latest novel

The Associated Press

May 13, 2024, 2:18 PM

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Secrets and shame — every family has its share. When it came time to write her most autobiographical novel, Claire Messud relied on a 1,500-page family history compiled by her paternal grandfather. The result, “This Strange Eventful History,” sprawls over a third as many pages — 423, to be exact — to tell the story of three generations of a French Algerian family displaced from their colonial homeland, who never quite found another place where they felt so completely at home.

The story is told from the point of view of the fiercely French, devout Catholic, patriarch Gaston; his rootless, cosmopolitan son, Francois; and his fearful, deluded, psychologically damaged daughter, Denise. Rounding out the chorus are Barbara, the beautiful, Protestant, Canadian-born wife of Francois, torn between roles as wife, mother and daughter as she struggles to earn a law degree at the peak of 1970s-era “women’s lib” while raising their two daughters and whipping up Julia Child recipes for dinner parties; and finally, Gaston’s granddaughter Chloe, a stand-in for the author, inheritor of this “strange, eventful history” and ultimately, spiller of family secrets and perhaps, exorciser of shame.

Behind the “endless ritual” of their busy lives — from birth to death, grade school to retirement — Messud is keenly aware that a vaster story is unfolding, one that spans epochs and continents, perceived only in glimmers by various members of the clan. For instance, when Francois calls Barbara to tell her about a terrible accident at the site of a mining operation in Australia, where they have been posted for his job, she thinks, “What had been there? Not nothing. It was an Aboriginal tribal homeland: before it had been transformed into a dystopian hellscape, it had been untouched for thousands of years, the people there living as lightly and resourcefully upon the land as the animals and birds.”

For fans of Messud, whose earlier novels include the bestselling 2006 novel “The Emperor’s Children” as well as “The Woman Upstairs,” this latest work will be ambrosial, brimming with long passages that attempt to capture the evanescent sensations of life — touch, taste, sounds, smells, the ever-shifting register of light. Others may get lost in dense, descriptive passages that roll on and on, owing a debt to the English modernist writer Virginia Woolf, one of Messud’s literary heroes. Yet all in all, the book is a masterful achievement, a somber, joyous meditation on the consolations and disappointments of empire, nation, faith and family.

AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews

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A Modern Mom Finds an Ancient Outlet for Feminist Rage

In Alexis Landau’s ambitious new novel, “The Mother of All Things,” the frustrations of modern parenting echo through the ages.

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The cover shows what appears to be ancient Greek sculpture, the marble figure of a woman shown from behind and set against a bright blue sky. It is surrounded by a border of bright pink and orange, as if seen through a doorway.

By Eliza Minot

Eliza Minot is the author of the novels “The Tiny One,” “The Brambles” and, most recently, “In the Orchard.”

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THE MOTHER OF ALL THINGS, by Alexis Landau

What is the source of maternal rage? The answer is as infinite as it is ancient. In 1965, the poet and essayist Adrienne Rich, with small children underfoot, captured a possible explanation for this abyss in her journal when she described it as “a sense of insufficiency to the moment and to eternity.”

But where — for moms, for women — does this nagging feeling of insufficiency come from? From the misogyny that we grow up with? From the helpless outrage we bear as our messy, gorgeous, individual maternal experiences are flattened by society into a weirdly infantilized stereotype that’s placed, like a paper doll, into a two-dimensional dollhouse called “Motherhood”? Or does it come from the profound feeling of helplessness that accompanies the ability to give life to a human being, but be unable to ensure that life’s safety?

Ava Zaretsky, the diligent heroine of Alexis Landau’s ambitious and engaging new novel, “The Mother of All Things” (her third after “Those Who Are Saved” and “The Emperor of the Senses”), simmers with a steady rage that never fully erupts toward her kids (Sam, 10, and Margot, 13, who’s at the edge of “adolescence’s dark tunnel”) or her husband, Kasper, a preoccupied Los Angeles film producer. Rather, Ava’s rage burns beneath the surface, “so white and hot it blurred the contours of her body.” She is angry that, in a marriage of supposed equals circa 2019, Kasper can relocate to Sofia, Bulgaria, for a six-month film shoot without a second thought, while her own work as an adjunct art history professor is smudged out by the needs of her family. Her fury is also embedded, we later learn, in the powerlessness that comes with profound loss.

When the family joins Kasper in Sofia for the summer, the kids enroll in a day camp, allowing Ava to wander this mysterious city. Her curiosity and creativity bubble to the surface. She begins writing about an ancient Greek woman whose life parallels and dovetails with her own, and whose narrative is interspersed throughout the pages of the novel. By coincidence, Ava also reconnects in Sofia with an intimidating former professor named Lydia Nikitas and becomes involved in a group of women who participate in re-enactments of ancient rites and rituals, most notably the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Despite some moments that feel forced and overly earnest, particularly in the ancient narrative and the Nikitas story line, Landau’s writing is accessible, specific, lush and transporting. Her research is rigorous and full of elegant effort. The great success of this novel is the author’s sustained exploration of a woman in early midlife who, seething quietly on the inside but operating gracefully on the outside, bravely re-evaluates how her life has unfolded in order to progress as a mother to herself. Renderings of Ava’s childhood — a heartbreaking recollection of a favorite red belt, memories of a father’s girlfriend entering her life and then leaving it — are especially astute and rich.

At times, the novel’s disparate parts compete with rather than complement one another; some characters seem predictable, and certain ideas redundant. When things are meant to get weird, as in the rituals, it can feel more Scooby-Doo than genuinely haunting. For this reason, more than once, I felt like shaking the book like a snow globe, as if its fascinating contents, suspended, might set free more of its wildness.

Landau’s prose can also lift off the page, as it does in a prolonged memory of Ava’s first childbirth and its aftermath. Here, Landau’s writing is intimate, tender and full of terror. The sentences breathe with the softness of shared human experience across time — absolutely sufficient to the moment, and to eternity, too.

THE MOTHER OF ALL THINGS | By Alexis Landau | Pantheon | 336 pp. | $29

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The complicated, generous life of Paul Auster, who died on April 30 , yielded a body of work of staggering scope and variety .

“Real Americans,” a new novel by Rachel Khong , follows three generations of Chinese Americans as they all fight for self-determination in their own way .

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All 28 jack reacher books, ranked worst to best.

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Reacher Season 3: Cast, Story & Everything We Know

10 jack reacher book traits that alan ritchson's reacher has nailed, 10 jack reacher book moments we want to see in reacher season 3.

The hit Amazon Prime Video series takes its inspiration from Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels.
All 28 novels chronicle the action-packed adventures of the military investigator turned drifter.
Newcomers to Jack Reacher can take what the full canon offers.

Reacher expertly takes its inspiration from Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels. For decades, all 28 novels chronicle the action-packed adventures of the military investigator turned drifter. Although not every book in the series is a masterpiece, it has consistently delivered incredible page-turners. Lee Child’s enduring character has transcended the page through movie and television adaptations, including a Tom Cruise film franchise and most recently the hit Amazon Prime Video Reacher starring Alan Ritchson . Movies lifted plot lines directly from printed chapters, further cementing the literary stories’ cinematic promise through the adaptation process itself.

Now with over 20 books chronicling his exploits, Reacher’s world provides extensive terrain for mining the taciturn veteran’s mysterious background and death-defying escapades going back to his military police days. For newcomers inspired by fiery explosions onscreen or devotees debating each book’s place among the intricate mythos, taking measure of the full canon offers guidance through exhilarating moments testing one man’s wits and will from small towns to the global stage. Whether these books are an introduction or an old favorite, gauging the most essential embodiment of Reacher’s blunt force justice provides a blueprint into the wandering character’s iconic appeal.

Prime Video's Reacher is coming back for a third season, and there are already a ton of exciting updates about the upcoming episodes.

28 Blue Moon (2019)

A convoluted and gratuitous installment.

The 24th novel in the Jack Reacher series, Blue Moon, was released in 2019 and is widely considered to be the worst of the bunch. Unfortunately, the plot of Blue Moon involving Albanian and Ukrainian mobsters in a small town was more convoluted than previous installments. The action aligns with Reacher's character, but the frequent violence and loss of life comes across as gratuitous.

Many critics felt that Blue Moon relied too much on recurring elements of Child's series.

Reacher works through moral dilemmas as usual, but his white knight persona feels unrealistic. While still delivering on series staples, aspects of this entry didn't fully captivate. The frequent deaths and do-goodery are hallmarks of the series , but in Blue Moon , they fail to compel. Many critics felt that Blue Moon relied too much on recurring elements of Child's series, which — by the 24th entry — had more-or-less become tropes. Blue Moon was a Jack Reacher novel that tried to play it safe, but unfortunatley this just led to it feeling formulaic.

27 The Sentinel (2020)

An uninteresting story.

Released during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, The Sentinel was the 25th Jack Reacher novel. While it was an improvement on 2019's Blue Moon, it still failed to live up to earlier entries in the franchise as far as many readers and critics were concerned. The main flaw found in The Sentinel is the awkward writing, since Lee Child co-wrote this book with his brother Andrew (the pair are named James and Andrew Grant, though they write under the pseudonyms of Lee and Andrew Child).

The plot about criminals tampering with elections is too similar to real-life news, taking readers out of the fantasy elements.

The story doesn't create interest like other Reacher books , making it less enjoyable. Also, the plot about criminals tampering with elections is too similar to real-life news, taking readers out of the fantasy elements. Those who know Reacher's Rules well can see inconsistencies in the story. Due to the odd writing, unrealistic plot, and errors, this book ranks low in the series.

26 Nothing To Lose (2008)

Simplistic writing.

Released in 2008, Nothing To Lose is the 12th novel in the Jack Reacher series, and by far the worst one released in the 2000s — and many critics found that it was far too similar to the 1972 novel First Blood by David Morrell, upon which the first Rambo movie was based. Situated in the fictional twin towns of Hope and Despair, Colorado, the setting in this installment fails to fully pull the reader into the narrative . The recycling plant disguising the criminals' questionable operation is written as too simplistic to be believable as a thoroughly guarded base of operations.

While the scale of the antagonists' enterprise is acknowledged as vast, their thin disguise detracts from the story's ability to immerse the reader in a world of high intrigue and high stakes. Where past books in the series have expertly combined setting, characters, and other elements, this addition misses the mark.

25 Make Me (2015)

The partnership between jack reacher and michelle chang fails to resonate.

2015 saw the 20th novel in the Jack Reacher series — Make Me — and, sadly, the story failed to live up to how much an important milestone for the franchise reaching 20 books was. In Make Me , the relationship between Reacher and Change follows expected lines, with Reacher, typically morally upright, teaming up routinely with Chang, an ex-FBI agent. There is also a lackluster romantic subplot between the two characters. As a result, this part of the book is largely forgettable.

It would likely be difficult to recall specific details about this story.

While Child is far from a one-trick-pony as far as authors go, Make Me definitely left the impression that he's stronger when writing tense action than he is at writing romance. Despite the extensive book, it would likely be difficult to recall specific details about this story. This underscores the narrative's overall lack of impact, especially when contrasted with more compelling installments like Night School . The unremarkable nature of Reacher's time with Chang contributes heavily to Make Me 's weak attempt at engagement.

24 The Midnight Line (2017)

Interesting characters, but it ultimately falls short.

The 22nd Jack Reacher novel was 2017's The Midnight Line, and in this story Reacher finds himself caught in an investigation into an illegal opioid trade in the American Midwest. In The Midnight Line , the story falls short, as Lee Child's attempt to experiment with a different approach ultimately doesn't pay off. It attempted to incorporate aspects of real-life critiques of pharameceutical companies, which many readers and critics felt didn't quite work.

While sharing a similar feeling to Nothing to Lose , this book distinguishes itself with the introduction of the character Rose, who is acknowledged as a positive aspect. However, the deviation from the traditional Reacher narrative seems to be the book's downfall , as the experimentation with a new style fails to resonate. The effort to innovate doesn't yield the anticipated results, impacting the overall quality and reception of the book in comparison to others in the series.

23 Past Tense (2018)

Unorthodox storytelling misses the mark.

2018's Past Tense was the 23rd Jack Reacher novel. While it was a slight improvement on 2017's The Midnight Line, it was also quite experimental as far as Child's Jack Reacher books go — a decision that both helped and hindered it, but on the whole didn't quite pay off as well as it could have. Despite having a somewhat dry tone and some notably creepy segments that are riveting to read, Past Tense faces criticism mainly due to its unorthodox creative direction.

The inclusion of a bonus backstory, a compelling woodland setting, and the presence of a group of human game-hunting antagonists elevates the book above some later works.

However, the installment manages to salvage its shortcomings through notable strengths . The inclusion of a bonus backstory, a compelling woodland setting, and the presence of a group of human game-hunting antagonists elevates the book above some later works. Additionally, the narrative benefits from Reacher's adept close combat skills, showcased in suspenseful nighttime encounters, and the incorporation of well-executed Reacher point-of-view kills.

22 No Plan B (2022)

Not as good as earlier novels.

No Plan B, the 27th novel in the Jack Reacher series, was released in 2022 . Much like 2019's Blue Moon, No Plan B fell short of reader and critic expectations because it played things too safe, relying too much on what had made earlier novels successful without trying anything new (when it came to both the plot and the writing style).

No Plan B delivers what is expected: an action-packed and plot-driven Jack Reacher thriller. However, this installment falls short of recapturing the magic of earlier releases when the character first debuted. While still an objectively strong and fast-paced story, it lacks the spark that made readers fall for Child's almost self-parodying style. For a subjective ranking system tapping into that nostalgia, No Plan B ranks lower than hoped, even though it objectively hits the Reacher marks.

21 A Wanted Man (2012)

A necessary story, but unable to stand on its own.

2012's A Wanted Man is the 17th Jack Reacher novel, and while it's not one of the worst, it's definitely not one of the best either. A Wanted Man delivers an energetic plot continuing the Nebraska storyline — picking up after the events of Worth Dying For following a slight muddying of the timeline in 2011's The Affair — but is ultimately a low point in the series when the franchise is appraised as a whole.

Despite the high stakes involving a burnt corpse and threats reaching the highest levels, the story itself feels missable.

A Wanted Man starts strong, with Reacher decoding blinks from a kidnapping victim to uncover a conspiracy. Despite the high stakes involving a burnt corpse and threats reaching the highest levels, the story itself feels missable. While needed to transition Reacher out of Nebraska after previous installments, this sequel lacks the impact to truly grab readers. As a result, A Wanted Man comes across more as a bridge in the broader series rather than a story able to stand on its own.

It's almost universally agreed upon that Alan Ritchson is the perfect Jack Reacher, especially since he nails some key Reacher traits from the books.

20 Personal (2014)

Fails to fully captivate despite delivering all the expected jack reacher thrills.

The 19th novel in the Jack Reacher series, 2014's Personal, is another example of an entry in the franchise that felt far too by-the-numbers to stand out, with Child falling back on the formula of his proven successes without breaching any new narrative ground. The plot of Personal hits the usual beats, with Reacher uncovering an assassination attempt in Paris tied to his past in the military.

However, the pieces feel too familiar, lacking the creativity to craft a truly standout story. The stakes feel more routine than past books, and the exploration of Reacher’s history covers well-worn ground. As a result, Personal comes across as too formulaic , with the series elements failing to combine into a narrative that hooks readers. It moves briskly without slowing down, but lacks the innovation and intrigue to rank among the most gripping installments.

19 The Secret (2023)

Enjoyable, but not as thrilling as it could be.

The most recent Jack Reacher novel was 2023's The Secret, which was the 28th in the series (the next, due later on in 2024, is set to be titled In Too Deep). The Secret offers intriguing insights into Reacher's past while delivering on action, but characterization shortcomings weigh it down. The early 1990s setting proves fascinating, and the prose moves briskly between investigative phases. Descriptions of hand-to-hand combat also showcase Reacher's physical prowess as expected.

While the spy craft details entertain, The Secret misses opportunities to resonate emotionally or use its prequel status to fully enrich Reacher's enigmatic persona.

However, the narrative lacks cohesion, with an initial mystery abandoned abruptly. More disappointingly, the young Reacher on display fails to reveal revelatory dimensions about what molded him into a wandering hero . While the spy craft details entertain, The Secret misses opportunities to resonate emotionally or use its prequel status to fully enrich Reacher's enigmatic persona. It was an improvement on 2022's No PLan B, at least, hopefully signalling that the franchise is back on an upwards trajectory.

18 Night School (2016)

A disappointing conclusion.

2016 saw the arrival of the 21st Jack Reacher novel, and Night School was a marked improvement on 2015's Make Me - though it still failed to live up to the best Jack Reacher books from earlier in the franchise. Night School delivers an intriguing premise, pairing Reacher with former colleague Frances Neagley against neo-Nazis transporting nuclear material.

The setup of Night School promises a classic thriller tracing back to Reacher’s military days. However, the conclusion ultimately disappoints . Just as events build toward an expected dramatic, high-stakes finale worthy of the nuclear threat, the story ends abruptly. The resolution feels rushed rather than truly earned after the groundwork has been laid. Still, it’s easy to appreciate the chance to see more of his past with Neagley, even if the ending fails to fully capitalize on a compelling narrative.

17 Running Blind (2000)

The execution leaves some of the intrigue unfulfilled.

The 4th Jack Reacher novel arrived at the turn of the millenium in 2000, and after the success of the initial trilogy, Running Blind felt like Lee Child's first miss when it came to Jack Reach stories. Running Blind offers an intriguing premise, with Reacher hunting a brilliant serial killer targeting his former cases. The elaborate military-connected setup creates an insider feel that creatively expands Reacher’s past.

Having Reacher working to uncover a serial killer makes for an interesting genre-blend

Having Reacher working to uncover a serial killer makes for an interesting genre-blend — mixing the core elements of the previous three Jack Reacher books with more traditional crime novels — which Running Blind pulls of reasonably well. However, outside the core mystery, there are moments where the book drags. The lack of action through lengthy stretches makes it less engaging as a thriller. Still, the serial killer’s inventive methods using camouflage paint and lack of any marks on victims prove memorably unsettling.

16 The Enemy (2004)

Lacks excitement, but serves a key narrative purpose.

The 8th Jack Reacher novel, 2004's The Enemy , is one of the most interesting in the franchise, as it was the first that played around in the timeline. While The Enemy lacks excitement as a thriller, with minimal action or suspense, it serves a key narrative purpose as the first Jack Reacher novel chronologically . It was set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which made for some interesting changes in itself, and having a younger Reacher as the protagonist meant Child could experiment with the character a great deal more than usual.

The prequel explores the factors leading to Reacher leaving the military, disillusioned by bureaucracy and eroding values. Important events take place that shape Reacher's worldview and rootless future. While the plot itself underwhelms, The Enemy resonates in its character study of Reacher. It's especially fascinating to see Reacher work while still serving in the military, as being pinned down by the codes and values he then had to follow during this period of his life influenced his decisions in ways that aren't present later in the character's timeline.

15 Echo Burning (2001)

A classic vigilante premise.

Echo Burning was the 5th novel in the Jack Reacher franchise, and was widely considered a return to form after 2000's Running Blind . Echo Burning delivers a classic vigilante premise with Reacher playing ranch hand to investigate a woman’s claims of abuse. His fish-out-of-water Texan journey evokes film noir tones. However, familiar tropes like a damsel in distress and precocious child feel dated rather than fresh.

Reacher's doubts around Carmen, the woman who reaches out to him for help, definitely make for some intriguing twists in the narrative.

The Western flair shows Reacher’s adaptability, but the story’s trajectory stays safely predictable . While the bar fight and confrontations with the woman’s menacing husband capture Child’s gritty style, the plot lacks the innovation to truly grab attention. While Echo Burning doesn't rank as one of the worst Jack Reacher novels by a long stretch, it's also nowhere near as memorable as the best of them — though Reacher's doubts around Carmen, the woman who reaches out to him for help, definitely make for some intriguing twists in the narrative.

14 Without Fail (2002)

A high-stakes, briskly-paced reacher novel.

Following on from Echo Burning, the 6th Jack Reacher novel, 2002's Without Fail , is still considered by many as one of the best in the franchise, especially when it comes to pacing and overall writing quality. Without Fail is a strong Reacher novel due to its intense cat-and-mouse thriller narrative. Reacher leverages his logical intellect, tactical skills, and thirst for vengeance to outmaneuver a threat to the Vice President.

The stakes are high throughout this briskly-paced plot involving political assassination and betrayal. Lee Child further expands Reacher’s backstory through the haunting presence of his late brother. The vivid writing makes classic scenes like the stakeout unfold cinematically in readers' minds. Altogether, the emotional ties, high intrigue, and expertly crafted tension cement Without Fail as a prime example of Reacher’s compelling possibilities as a complex hero.

13 Never Go Back (2013)

Adrenaline-fueled and introspective.

2013's Never Go Back is the 18th Jack Reacher novel, and directly follows on from the narrative arc established in an earlier story, 2010's 61 Hours. As one of the more gripping books in Lee Child’s series, Never Go Back thrives on reuniting Jack Reacher with the 110th MP unit he once called home. By colliding Reacher’s past and present, Child strikes an emotional chord while crafting a breakneck thriller.

This combination of character exploration and intense action made Never Go Back one of the most intense Jack Reacher novels to read.

The nonstop momentum of Never Go Back proves amplified with threats tied to Reacher’s own team. For those invested in the wandering protagonist, the deepened personal stakes interwoven with high conspiracy offer immense satisfaction . Child continues building out the Reacher legend, making the action heavier through ties to his roots now under attack. This combination of character exploration and intense action made Never Go Back one of the most intense Jack Reacher novels to read.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2015), the second movie in the Tom Cruise Jack Reacher franchise, is adapted from this book.

Based on Lee Child's Persuader novel, Amazon Prime Video's Reacher season 3 needs to include some key Jack Reacher book moments in order to succeed.

12 Better Off Dead (2021)

A collaboration that works well.

2021's Better Off Dead is the 26th novel in the franchise. It takes place in San Francisco, and is also one of the few Jack Reach books to be written in the 1st person (the first since 2014's Personal). Better Off Dead captures Reacher doing what he does best: hunting bad guys with wit and grit. However, unlike some other entries where this feels formulaic or uninspired, Better Off Dead manages to capture the core of what made the franchise so successful when it debuted.

Co-written by Andrew Child, Lee Child’s brother, Better Off Dead nails the adventurous spirit that makes the wandering protagonist so magnetic. Creative scenarios like Reacher posing as his own corpse allow Child to flex his writing chops. While a tonal shift from Lee Child’s solo efforts, Better Off Dead ultimately retains the crucial ingredients of Reacher’s fierce charm and an electrifying setting, creating a satisfying thriller.

11 Die Trying (1998)

Reveals interesting and hidden depths.

1998's Die Trying is the second Jack Reacher novel written by Lee Child, and it's the book that proved to readers that its hero more more than a single-story protagonist, and had the depth and appeal to carry on many more stories beyond his debut. With an insight into what makes Reacher tick, Die Trying cements key components of the wandering protagonist's appeal. This was especially noteworthy since the book was written in the 3rd person rather than from Reacher's perspective, a style that would then continue throughout most of the Jack Reacher novels.

Child expertly amps up tension once Reacher becomes ensnared with separatist militants.

Though the opening stretches in confined spaces, Child expertly amps up tension once Reacher becomes ensnared with separatist militants. The antihero's composure breaks under pressure, despite his gift for calculation and inventive ruthlessness. Frances Neagley also makes an interesting character with her haphephobia condition . While tighter pacing throughout would improve its ranking, Die Trying immerses readers in formative experiences that reveal Reacher's hidden depths.

10 The Hard Way (2006)

A compelling read.

The 10th Jack Reacher novel was The Hard Way, which was released in 2006, and the first in the franchise that saw Reacher travel outside the US. The Hard Way draws power from Reacher wandering the vivid chaos of New York before confronting threats abroad, travelling to rural England for an intense gun battle in — of all places — a farm in Norfolk. Child uses the setting not just for kinetic action, but to underscore the character’s contradictions.

His compassion and ruthless, calculating nature coexist with subtle melancholy. An atypical detective story structure packs an emotional punch as Reacher investigates an elusive foe. False leads and intense legwork make the eventual face-off with Lane's private mercenary army cutthroat, as well as emotionally resonant. Keeping Reacher adaptable and injecting introspection between brutal showdowns deepens the protagonist, compelling readers to follow him wherever the road takes.

9 The Affair (2011)

Adds intrigue to the jack reacher mythos.

The Affair arrived in 2010 and is the 16th Jack Reacher novel, and is yet another that was written in the 1st person. It's also another entry that plays with the timeline, as it takes place six month before Killing Floor and is chronologically the fourth story in the franchise. The Affair sees the typically detached protagonist navigate graphic desire during his trip to Mississippi.

For those seeking more dimension from the stoic vigilante, The Affair delivers on learning what makes Reacher tick.

Raw intimacy fills gaps in formative experiences and relationships that humanize his persona beyond just brute force. While R-rated scenes in the book can feel controversial, the emotional insights resonate. This risky creative choice to elucidate Reacher’s backstory at a heated railroad crossing ultimately deepens the complexity around a character often defined more by cerebral calculation than fiery feeling. For those seeking more dimension from the stoic vigilante, The Affair delivers on learning what makes Reacher tick.

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It’s Time to Let Interview With the Vampire Seduce You

The age of “Peak TV” is over. We’re living in the rubble after the fall of the empire, in the damage it’s wrought, in a sulfuric landscape of pale imitators, mushroom monsters or nuclear zombies or whatever else I have no personal desire to ever watch, ruled over by Fury Road– style warlords like David Zaslav. We’re swimming in marital mysteries based on Strand-approved paperbacks, prestige comedies that don’t know how to be funny, dull Marvel nothings , and slick Netflix IP grabs . It sucks! And not in the pun-intended vampiric way I’m about to describe.

Popping up through the muck like a gorgeous swamp lily is AMC+’s horny-horror vampstravaganza Interview With the Vampire , which returned for its second season on May 12. This show slurps the marrow out of its many hours the way its vampires suck blood from their victims: sexily, dramatically, full of vim and deranged gusto. Based on the Anne Rice best seller and plié-ing out from behind the shadow of that book’s 1994 adaptation with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, Interview With the Vampire debuted in October 2022, which was ideal timing for its gothic spooky vibes. The premise: Aging truth-to-power badboy-journo Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) interviews vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac ( Jacob Anderson , brooding) about his immortal life, which began upon meeting sire-lover Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid, chewing scenery so hard he’s fracturing his special-effects canines) in 1910s New Orleans. Decades of chaos ensue: swimming up rivers to spy on cheating lovers, domestic disputes that end in one partner launching the other into space, and at least one costume ball .

The first season wasn’t the biggest, most talked-about show on TV (maybe because it streams on AMC+), but it was undoubtedly the most most show on TV. Season two is only more-er, taking the story to the sordid playhouses of postwar Paris and looping in Armand (Assad Zaman) as Louis’s co-interviewee and, of course, lover. If vampire-human love quadrangles appeal to the dormant Twilight stan in you, or if you just want to see some good multi-hyphenate-genre TV, stop spending time on shows that aren’t trying this hard to entertain and let Interview With the Vampire seduce you. Here’s why you should watch it, even if you have to go to the great lengths of using AMC+.

It’s better than the book.

Okay, you might disagree. And I’ve only read part of the first book. Anne Rice did some incredible world-building in her Vampire Chronicles , but based on what I’ve read, this show has made exactly the right amount of changes to improve upon the story, balancing reverence for the books with a willingness to make substantial changes, and the result lets her characters shine and resonate in new ways. It’s an adaptation that seems to please book devotees (like Sam Reid, who’s obsessed ) and newbies alike.

In the first book, Louis is a Louisiana plantation owner, and he and Lestat brutalize the enslaved people he owns, eventually killing them all to prevent an uprising. It’s southern Gothic, but Rice didn’t seem interested in going beyond shock value, which makes it difficult to lean in to the fun of the rest of the book. The show, on the other hand, makes the brilliant choice to anoint Louis the scion of a prominent Creole family, which introduces new themes, dynamics, and historical details into the story. Louis’s race gives the character much more dimension. As a human, he is in the awkward position of having access to New Orleans society’s halls of power while dealing with racism within those spaces. As a vampire, he has a unique lens on history as he lives through the decades. His identity makes his moral conflicts more pronounced and deepens his bond with Claudia (Bailey Bass in season one, Delainey Hayles in season two), particularly when the two are positioned against Lestat’s blond obliviousness. In this version, Claudia is orphaned when a racist mob burns down a neighborhood, and she’s aged up from being turned as a 5-year-old to something more like 13 or 14, which gives the character much more to do. And the most important change this adaptation made is …

Vampires have always been gay, and they always will be gay. The 1994 Interview With the Vampire is one of the gayer movies of that decade, and it’s perverse and fascinating in the ways it doesn’t let its characters actually name or act upon their desires. This has merit in its own intense, closeted way, particularly when you read it as a product of its era, but the AMC+ show busts the whole saga wide open by actually letting the characters fall in love and fuck. Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid have truly unreal chemistry, as do Anderson and Zaman as his present-day lover and former coven leader Armand. Even during normal, shirts-on scenes, there’s a horny undercurrent that runs through the whole show as IWTV explores these characters’ dynamics in their relationships to each other: predator/prey, dom/sub, lover/ex, couple/third. This isn’t like other R-rated prestige TV shows where the sex scenes — when they even exist — feel perfunctory . They are not an afterthought or an addition. Romance, desire, abuse, jealousy, yearning … they’re the whole point! It’s a hot and very queer show!

“Camp” gets tossed around a lot nowadays, often to (incorrectly) describe stuff that’s tacky and bad. Interview With the Vampire is “camp” in the true sense: in the Tiffany-lamps-and-gold-fringed-kimonos way, in the sense of ornamentation taken too far, in ecstatic bursts of genre horror à la midnight movies, in the emotional and aesthetic language of opera applied to a non-opera medium. Reid’s Lestat is a block-jawed Australian doing the poutiest French accent you’ve ever heard, enacting sadistic violence on the people of New Orleans with a skip, twirl, and upturned pinky until he decides to get dead serious and scary. Then there’s the production design: the French Quarter townhouse and its unhappy clutter, costumes inspired by by J.C. Leyendecker illustrations, goth makeup, ridiculous colored contact lenses to set the vamps apart, big group scenes at opera palaces and whorehouses. The occasional rips in the fabric — when a set or wig in an early episode looks cheap or a costuming decision feels off — only enhance the experience. They remind you this show is really just people having fun and trying shit. Wabi-sabi, baby.

This show goes through gallons of corn syrup and red 40. That’s not unexpected, but all the ways the show figures out how to use it is. IWTV makes good on all the nasty people-eating terror Yellowjackets teased for an entire season, but piles on decapitations, mutilations, immolations, and too many shots of Jacob Anderson eating a rat. Toward the end of the pilot , Lestat punches a priest in the face and his fist comes out the back of his head , which will either turn you off the rest of the show or hook you immediately . Later in the season, Lestat prances into the luggage car of a train wearing a conductor’s hat, holding the conductor’s severed head, and puppeteering his mouth while playing a sick game of choo-choo. Very few vampire romances also count as legit horror; this is one of them.

It’s crawling with undead theater kids.

In season two, Louis and Claudia go to Europe to find more vampires like themselves and soon fall in with the centuries-old Paris coven. What Rice imagined, and what this show brings to life in brilliant fashion, is that the Paris coven takes the form of a goth vampire theater troupe co-founded by Lestat. The show introduces a whole new supporting cast of immortal theater kids, which is maybe the most horrific thing it’s done yet. They wear pancake makeup and eyeliner to accentuate their vampireness, they bicker, and they sleep together backstage after the shows. Their elaborate snuff plays are packed with German Expressionist–inspired aesthetics and stage tricks that make their real vampire abilities (flying) look fake (Elphaba-style wires and harnesses). The Théâtre des Vampires seduces audiences seeking thrills and fun and ends up implicating them in a show of human suffering. It’s everything Eddie Redmayne’s Cabaret wants to be, but it actually has teeth.

The writing, mon dieu, the writing. It’s so much.

And I mean that in the best way possible. The characters speak as if the scripts were written longhand in a giant, fluffy quill on parchment or anticipating their own fan fiction. Lestat, while discussing how he came around on the clunky English language, says, “I have English consonants to thank for this astonishing jawline.” It’s giving No one’s slick as Gaston, no one’s quick as Gaston. Or when Louis kills a racist white dude and says, “It was random and unfortunate that the man picked that night to dabble in fuckery.” Or lines pulled directly from Rice’s first book and delivered with a madman’s commitment, like, “You alone, of all creates, can see death with that impunity. You alone, under the rising moon, can strike like the hand of God!” It’s like nothing else on TV, except maybe Hannibal , if every character on Hannibal spoke like Hannibal . If you were to take a group of 400-year-old vampires, explain to them what a TV show was, and put them in a writers’ room, they would write a show that sounded like this.

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How to Write an Incredible Synopsis in 4 Simple Steps
How to write a novel synopsis in 4 steps. 1. Get the basics down first. When it comes to writing a synopsis, substance is the name of the game. No matter how nicely you dress it up, an agent will disregard any piece that doesn't demonstrate a fully fleshed out plot and strong narrative arc. So it stands to reason that as you begin writing ...
How to Write a Novel or Memoir Synopsis
However, I recommend keeping it short, or at least starting short. Write a one- or two-page synopsis—about 500-1000 words, single spaced—and use that as your default, unless the submission guidelines ask for something longer. If your synopsis runs longer, anything up to two pages (again, single spaced) is usually acceptable.
How to Write a Novel Synopsis: Step-by-Step Guide
Last updated: Sep 8, 2021 • 4 min read. After writing a novel, condensing it down to a short synopsis may seem impossible. But the book synopsis is an integral part of the novel writing process. It is essential to the initial query letter you will send out, and later, a good sales tool that provides potential agents or publishers with a short ...
How To Write A Book Synopsis
Show that your plot has all the key story elements in your novel synopsis, including an inciting incident, a climax, and a satisfying ending. 3. An introduction to your main characters. Make the reader care about your characters by offering compelling character motivations. 4. An outline of your major subplots.
A Guide on How to Write a Book Synopsis: Steps and Examples
These real-world book synopsis examples serve as excellent guides for writing a novel synopsis. Alright, so we've journeyed through the nuts and bolts of writing the synopsis of the book. Whether you're a student summarizing your favorite novel or a writer pitching to a publisher, remember that every great book synopsis starts from scratch.
How To Write A Novel Synopsis (With An Example)
A short summary of your story, in its entirety, from beginning to end, soup to nuts, nose to tail. Written in fairly neutral, non-salesy language. Follows the same broad structure as your novel. So if, for example, you have a novel with two intertwining time-strands, your synopsis would follow the order of events as presented in the novel.
How to Write a Novel Synopsis
First of all, synopses have a specific format. They begin on a new page and should have all your contact information in the upper left corner of the first page. Just below your contact info, centered, should be the book's title, its genre and your name. The body of the synopsis is double-spaced. Use dialogue sparingly, if at all.
How to Write a Synopsis
2. Introduce each main character and their character arc. A main character is usually a point of view character. A "character arc" means the way a character grows and changes throughout the story. (For a better understanding of this, you can check out my post on " What Is a Character Arc ," which includes examples.)
How to write a synopsis for a novel
Unless otherwise specified, the default is 1.5 to 2.5 pages. Put your book title and your name at the top and include the word "Synopsis" so an agent can easily see what it is. As with manuscripts, Times New Roman 12pt font is standard. Use 0.5″ indents and, again, single -space the rest.
How to Write a Synopsis for a Book (with Examples)
Story Synopsis Tip 3: Keep it concise and engaging. A synopsis is a glimpse into your story, not a blow-by-blow account. So, resist the temptation to explain every plot twist or character backstory. Stick to the significant events and how they drive the story forward.
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Have elements that set your story apart from other things they have seen. Story Advancement. A synopsis should include the characters' feelings and emotions. Use these elements to advance your plot and story. Write Clearly. Focus on clarity in your writing and avoid wordiness. Remember, less is more.
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Simply put, a synopsis is a summary of your fiction or nonfiction project. A synopsis will. have a beginning, middle and end. leave no plot questions unanswered. reflect the manuscript genre and tone. demonstrate your voice. That may seem like a lot to accomplish within a few pages, but you're not reinventing the wheel, here.
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The synopsis should focus on the content just enough for the editor to understand what your book will say. It's more important to show how that content relates to the needs, problems, and desires of your target audience. A book proposal includes many elements, including an Author bio, marketing plan, chapter outline, and writing sample.
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When writing a synopsis, we shouldn't be over-detailed and wordy. It helps in grabbing the attention and convincing the readers. A synopsis should be long enough to pack in everything good about the story or any writing piece. Synopsis of Cinderella. Cinderella, a kind and thoughtful girl, lives with her stepsisters; Clorinda and Tisbe.
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2. Make a list of your main characters. This may include the protagonist, a love interest, a villain, or a sidekick. Only the most important characters should be mentioned in a synopsis. Take a minute to write out who your main characters are. [3] Make sure each of your characters is dynamic, rather than flat.
How to Write a Book Synopsis: 12 Tips with Examples?
Here are several book synopsis examples to help you learn the craft: Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird". Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a sad story set in the Deep South in the 1930s. It is also one of the best book synopsis examples that looks at racism and moral growth through the eyes of Scout Finch, a young girl.
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Double-space the document, use proper indentation, and make sure you've thoroughly proofread the copy. Send it around to friends and colleagues for a second opinion before you start sending it out to agents. 10. Write a great pitch line. Your pitch line should be at the beginning of the synopsis.
How to Write a Compelling Synopsis for Your Book
Step 1: Promise Reader Benefits. A successful nonfiction book should empower readers to either solve a problem or to achieve a goal, e.g., "To learn to better manage their time.". Such a premise statement answers two questions: Who the book is for, and. What it offers them.
5 Steps to Writing a Captivating Nonfiction Book Synopsis
2. Take a Cue from the Tone of Your Book. Your summary should be an illustration of your writing prowess and style. You should be telling the reader about the book in a way that demonstrates what they can expect when they read the book itself. If your book is funny, your summary should make the reader smile.
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Finalizing chapter structure. An academic book chapter also requires a good outline. For example, you must have a title, a well worded introduction, informative paras that make up the main body, a chapter summary and a neat transition to the succeeding chapter. Try to make the outline clear and concise, organize your ideas effectively and ...
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Step 3: The One-Page Synopsis. The expansion continues, this time from a paragraph to a page. (Note: Synopses are typically single-spaced.) This stage is where you touch on secondary characters; Stay succinct—one page is not long. Limit yourself to naming just two or three characters.
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Released during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, The Sentinel was the 25th Jack Reacher novel.While it was an improvement on 2019's Blue Moon, it still failed to live up to earlier entries in the franchise as far as many readers and critics were concerned.The main flaw found in The Sentinel is the awkward writing, since Lee Child co-wrote this book with his brother Andrew (the pair are named ...
Let 'Interview With the Vampire' Seduce You
The writing, mon dieu, the writing. It's so much. ... Or lines pulled directly from Rice's first book and delivered with a madman's commitment, like, "You alone, of all creates, can see ...

How to Write an Incredible Synopsis in 4 Simple Steps

What is a synopsis?

How to write a novel synopsis in 4 steps

1. Get the basics down first

Start with major plot points

Include character motivations

2. Highlight what’s unique

Plot twists

Point of view

3. Edit for clarity and excess

Editing for clarity

Editing excess words

4. Make sure it flows

Get test readers

Use professional synopses as models

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How to Write a Novel or Memoir Synopsis

How long should a synopsis be?

Why the synopsis is important to agents and editors

What the synopsis must accomplish

A synopsis should get to the point—fast

The most common synopsis mistake

The secret to a great synopsis

For stories with considerable world building or extensive historical settings

Avoid splitting the synopsis into sections

Common novel synopsis pitfalls

Additional resources

How to write a great book synopsis

Let's define what book synopsis is

The synopsis has a very important role

The difference between a plot summary and a synopsis

How long should a book synopsis be?

What should a book synopsis include?

1. The premise of your book

2. A direct overview of the main plot

3. An introduction to your main characters

4. An outline of your major subplots

5. An implicit understanding of the appeal of your book

What tense should a book synopsis be written in?

What is the format of a synopsis?

1. The premise

2. The plot

3. The ending

How to write a book synopsis

1. Write a single sentence for each major plot point

2. Check on your characters

3. Join the dots

4. Come back to it later

5. Get feedback on your synopsis

Tips for writing a great book synopsis

Common mistakes to avoid in your book synopsis

Submitting your synopsis

Advice from a published writer

Does redesigning a book cover after a few years help sales?

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A good synopsis convinces me it’s a good story.

A good synopsis convinces me it’ll be an easy book to sell.

A good synopsis is a useful tool for discussing the story with others.

Here’s what a good synopsis is not : an overview of every single thing that happens in the book.

If possible , write the synopsis before you write the book.

1. Start with a one- or two-sentence logline.

2. Introduce each main character and their character arc.

3. Identify the inciting incident, three or four scenes that are major turning points, and the ending.

4. Now add the connective tissue between the big scenes.

Now you’ve got a draft of a synopsis.

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