The importance of a synopsis

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Like most writers, I hate writing synopses.  I find them hard and it's even harder to keep them down to a page of A4 while getting everything that is necessary in.  However, having recently reached the end of my WIP, I discovered the importance of a synopsis for keeping a writer on track.  This is a book I've been writing a while - a lot longer than I would normally take over a book, in fact, due in no small part to the disruption and uncertainty of the Covid-19 lockdowns.  But, finally, it was finished and I was breathing that wonderful and long-awaited sigh of relief at the prospect of sending it off to the editors when I realised the ending was all wrong! Totally wrong!!

As I'd worked through the book,the story changed a little, as often happens. I'd moved away from the original synopsis slightly, and I was aware of the fact. But it wasn't until I'd finished the book that I realised the original ending, as per the synopsis, was actually the right one.  So last week, I stepped away from the computer, took a long walk up along the coastal path above the Dyfi Valley and sorted it all out in my head.  A weekend of re-writing later and the final chapter is redone and I'm happy with it now.  And I will never grumble at writing a synopsis ever again!

 



 

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