Four-page synopsis

Map Branches

• One-sentence summary
  • Take an hour to write a one-sentence summary of the story.
  • Example: “A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul.”
  • A selling tool you will use forever to interest editors, bookstore owners, and readers.
• One-paragraph summary
  • One sentence to setup the story
  • One sentence for each of the three main disasters in the story
  • One sentence for the ending
• Character summary
  • Do steps 1 & 2 for the personal story of each character
    • Character's name
    • One-sentence summary of the character's private storyline
    • Character's motivation (abstract)
    • Character's goal (concrete)
    • Character's conflict
    • Character's epiphany
    • One-paragraph summary of the character's private storyline
• One-page synopsis
  • Expand the one-paragraph summary from Step 2 into a full page.
  • Each sentence in the one-paragraph summary will expand to a full paragraph in your one-page synopsis
  • You are growing out the ideas already built into the story
• Character synopsis
  • Write a half-page or full-page description of each major character from Step 3
  • Tell the story from the point of view of each character
  • Put the resulting “character synopses” into your book proposal. Editors love them!
• Four-page synopsis
  • Expand the one-page summary from Step 4 into several pages (four or five)
  • Each paragraph in the one-page summary will expand to roughly a full page in your four-page synopsis
  • Make the big strategic decisions for the story
• Character charts
  • Expand your character synopses from Step 5 into full-fledged character charts
  • Write several pages about each character
  • Birthdate, description, history, motivation, goal, and everything else
  • Be obsessive here! The more work you put in here, the deeper your characters will be
  • Take A Break: Write Your Proposal Now
    • You have now done enough work to write an excellent proposal.
    • If you are a published novelist, you can sell this book with the proposal and some sample chapters.
    • Otherwise, sadly, you’ll need to write the whole novel. But it won’t hurt to write your proposal now anyway, because you’ll want to get some critiques on it and that takes time.
• Sketch scenes
  • You need to make a list of all the scenes in your novel.
  • Use the ideal tool for writing lists--the spreadsheet. Do not panic here. Just do it.
  • Make one row for each scene.
  • Make one column for each aspect of the scene.
  • Spreadsheets are better than 3x5 cards!
• Long synopsis
  • Expand each scene to one or more paragraphs.
  • Each paragraph should sketch out everything you want to remember about the scene.
  • What is the setting?
  • Who are the characters?
  • What is the conflict?
• First Draft
  • Start writing, using your spreadsheet or your long synopsis.
  • You’ll be amazed how fast you write.
  • You’ll be amazed how deep your story is.
  • You may decide to change the story at some point. Go back and modify the Snowflake when this happens and then continue the first draft. It’s OK to do this!

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