Plot Summary vs Plot Synopsis | What's The Difference & How to Write Both

[@timoburke]

This is an amazingly valuable vid, packed with the specifics for creating each of these items

[@milestrombley1466]

I like the one-page plot synopsis. It helps me plan my story quickly.

[@jackhaggerty1066]

Josephine Roe's first novel *A Loving, Faithful Animal* (Tuskar Rock Press 2021) has a compelling blurb & first sentence. *That was the summer a sperm whale drifted sick into the bay, washed up dead at Mount Martha, and there were many terrible jokes about fertility. It was the summer that all the best cartoons went off the air, swapped for Gulf War broadcasts in infrared snippets ... * Set in 1990, the story is set in a small town in Australia. The author is from Melbourne.

[@organboi]

Plan it? The story should already be created and much of it written by the time you write a synopsis. Are you referring to an "outline?"

[@milestrombley1466]

@organboi I have my own planning methods.

[@thesamuraiman]

Thanks for the advice. I always mix them up.😂 💜⚡️

[@ryanhowell4492]

Cool stuff, thanks that helps alot

[@clintoreilly]

Great stuff. Thanks

[@jackhaggerty1066]

Making the Synopsis *pop* is a winning phrase. Drawing a distinction between Summary and Synopsis is invaluable 'legal counsel'. As a reader of novels my needs are quite different from the submissions editor who has to make tough decisions on behalf of her publishing house. I know quickly if the novel I see in the bookshop is for me. Yet the process is too mysterious for analysis. I read unclassifiable literary fiction. Recently I reread *These Same Long Bones* by Gwendolyn M Parker & *A Crime in the Neighbourhood* by Suzanne Berne, 1990s novels. Hard to say why I knew these novels were for me but the publishers knew. The same with *The Door* by Magda Szabo, *Ghost Story* Toby Litt. The process is so mysterious that it can feel fated. Did Ruth Gilligan write *The Butchers* just for me? Or Helen DeWitt *The Last Samurai* ?

[@xensonar9652]

What's the difference between a summary and the main body of a query? Other than the additional info you include after a query (number of pages, bio, comps, etc).

[@cismontane]

I’m a little confused. Is the summary the same as the blurb, or are those different?

[@FromAnonymouse]

Specificity! (iykyk) 💛

[@billyalarie929]

Gang gang!

[@mrplatink]

Would it be an instant query rejection if I did my summary in 2nd person?

[@jackhaggerty1066]

Shaelin would be in a better position to answer your query than I, but don't you think it might be an advantage if you explained in a summary why you adopted the under-used 2nd person (about which Shaelin recently vlogged) ? The publisher will need to know your reasons. A crisp summary is of use to the reader too who casts her eye over the novel's blurb. Blurbs for me are less about story, though I am a story animal, than they are about character, theme, cultural setting, mystery, time & place. The other day in Oxfam Books I came across a novella *The Man Who Came to a Village* (1993 Quartet) by Hector Tizon. *Two men escape from prison on Christmas Eve and flee north into the Argentine mountains. One of them is fatally wounded and dies. His companion buries him in a sandy riverbank and rides on alone, astride an old donkey found wandering free beside the track. The escaped convict comes across a remote village where the inhabitants are preparing for their fiesta. He is greeted by an enthusiastic crowd bearing flowers and hailing him as their long-awaited priest; his protestations that they are mistaken are ignored. He is given a house and a woman to clean and care for him ... As their chosen leader, and their saviour, he is troubled by his shifting identity.* The blurb goes on for another paragraph, revealing more about the story and its twists, suggesting to me echoes of a Western by Clint Eastwood as well as Kipling's *The Man Who Would Be King* and just about anything by B. Traven, two of my favourite writers. What is important is that the author is laying out his wares for the potential reader: here is what you are getting, and much more. By writing your summary in the way Shaelin outlines you will be letting the publisher see what they could be getting, and it will clarify in your own mind your creative process, which will be a big help in future work. It is about standing back and seeing how your fictive brain works.

[@mrplatink]

@@jackhaggerty1066 We need to be friends.

[@mantashaft]

thanks... can you finish my paper?

[@blackboy7496]

💯

[@DirtyBobBojangles]

You look better with long hair

[@marymazzei1863]

If you have nithing positive to say, SAY NOTHING. She looks beautiful with BOTH

[@marymazzei1863]

Nothing

[@marymazzei1863]

Nothing

[@u_t_d_s_h-1_a]

Isn't plot synopsis same as story outline? New terminology to me...

[@organboi]

She's not answering basic questions here. Why?

[@organboi]

Many great points. Brava. But there are too many jarring edits here in the video. I actually had to abort viewing. I'll come back when I'm more patient and relaxed.

[@SteveJubs]

Imagine writing a novel for just pennies

[@jackhaggerty1066]

Poets write for pennies so why should novelists expect more ? Some novelists make a half living, supplementing their income with teaching, journalism, business writing, grants & fellowships. It must be a labour of love, discipline, meticulous craftsmanship. *What is the language using us for?* as poet W.S. Graham said. Writers can also learn from painters, sculptors, composers, singers, musicians, dancers and actors. It is a life's vocation. It's breathing. It is play. Children know that play can be a serious business.