Thiiiiiiiis close!

The last five days have been harrowing, dreadful, bone-chilling days. With my latest revision complete and polished, and with my Query Letter and Pitch polished for #PitchMadness, I really only had one thing missing from my arsenal: A Synopsis.

Let me define that little eight-letter-word for you as best I can: 

Synopsis [si-nop-sis] (n):

1. A brief or condensed statement giving a general view of some subject.
2. An evil  creation of agents and editors for the express purpose of torturing writers.
3. A soul-sucking vampire in word form.

There's no perfect consensus in the writing world on what exactly a synopsis is but this is what I've found to be most often repeated:

• 1-5 single-spaced pages
• Block formatted paragraphs (no indents)
• Double-space between paragraphs (a single blank line)
• No smaller than 10pt font
• Outline ONLY the main plot of your book

From what I've seen, 2 pages is the standard length for an agent (at least with the agents I intend to query in my first round that require them).

Sounds easy enough right? Just take your ~60,000 - ~115,000 word (240 - 460 page) book and boil it down to ~1,000 words. Oh, and keep it interesting! Remember: You're selling your idea here!

Simple right?

ARGH!!!

So here's what I did: 

I went through my manuscript, skimming chapter by chapter, and making notes of the major points of that chapter. I tried to keep it short and ended up with around 2,900 words.

Then I went through and mercilessly cut anything that didn't directly have anything to do with the main plot. 1,900 words.

I pared, whittled, reworded, and tweaked every sentence, revising from my quickly written notes to the most sparse text I could get while still maintaining clarity and some semblance of flow. 1,300 words.

I did that two more times, ending at just over 1,000 words, which fit nicely within 2 pages at 10pt Arial and 10pt Times New Roman.

Then I called it a day.

Now, that ordeal is done until I've had someone other than me, who's read the last revision, go over it and tell me what I've done wrong.

I have to apologize and thank my wife and children for bearing with me and giving me the time to work on this and a sounding board for my complaints, and my friends and followers on Twitter who have had to deal with me exploding/ranting/whining/begging over the past five days. I'm sorry if I've gotten on any of your nerves.

- Alex