Hi, I'm new to the forum! My name is Aaliyah and I'm 17. I've been writing since I was about 10 I've been wanting and waiting to start this book for months now, but I didn't know where to start. This morning, I finally mustered up the courage to write a synopsis just to get myself going. Any criticism and feedback is beyond appreciated. This is also the extended version - the version I would hypothetically publish would likely be shorter than this. I've already shown my mom, who is also a writer, and she told me that it sounds more like an analysis than it does a synopsis which may be true: In the aftermath of her mother's tragic suicide, Nove Bailey's life spirals into a chaotic whirlwind. At just fourteen years old, she finds herself grappling with overwhelming grief and confusion, navigating an uncertain future without the anchor of her mother's love. Now living in her Aunt Sammie's dingy Chicago trailer, Nove feels like a stranger in her own life, desperately yearning for a sense of belonging. Little does she know that her path is about to intersect with Starr, the esoteric and indecent daughter of Sammie's neighbor. As Nove and Starr's lives intertwine, the troubled depths of Starr's persona begin to emerge. Nove is drawn into her web, initially captivated by her charisma and charm. But beneath the allure lies a deeply wounded soul. Starr's codependent and borderline personality leads her to seek validation and affection from older figures, desperately trying to fill the void left by her negligent and abusive mother. Unveiling the layers of Starr's traumatic past, Nove learns of the childhood assault she endured at the hands of one of her mother's old boyfriends. This unresolved trauma fuels Starr's rebellious nature and manipulative tendencies, which may leave readers torn between empathy and frustration for her character. Despite being only fifteen, Starr exudes a disconcerting level of promiscuity, reveling in her ability to seduce older men into fulfilling her desires for substances and material possessions. Her seductive teachings entices a dissociative Nove into a world of recklessness, where boundaries blur and consequences are an afterthought. In the midst of becoming entangled in Starr's web of mischief, Nove begins attaching herself to the dodgy adult women around her in attempt to find any semblance of the nurturing love she no longer has. This is exhibited during her regular visits to Jolie, the twenty-five-year-old cashier at the nearby 7/11 who's become a lifeline of guidance to Nove amid the tumultuous storm of grief and teenage angst. "Supernove" is a gritty and emotionally charged coming-of-age novel with elements of psychological thriller and dark realism that may be appealing to readers who enjoy immersive and thought-provoking narratives. ☆ © Aaliyah Collins, 2023. All rights reserved. ☆ For anyone wondering, "Supernove" combines the name of the protagonist, Nove, with the term "supernova," which is a powerful astronomical event that represents the explosive burst of a dying star. This symbolizes the profound impact of Nove's life after the tragic suicide of her mother, and how her world is forever changed as she navigates the dark and turbulent universe of her new reality.
Hi Aaliyah. I think I see what your mom was getting at saying it's more like an analysis. It seems like you have a good handle on the story emotionally, but the way you wrote about it here is vague and abstract. When you say things like You're not giving any solid, concrete events. It's like you're trying to draw people in but you don't want to reveal any of the actual specific things that happen. And a story is built from very specific, concrete things and events. A synopsis—wait, I just realized I might not understand what this is for. Is it a synopsis for yourself of what happens in the story, so you have a starting point for writing it? Or is more more a like a blurb to entice readers into buying it? Ah, Ok, I went back and re-read your intro at the top, it does sound like it's a beginning point for you to write the first draft from. In that case, yes, you should be writing in very specific and concrete terms. I don't know what any of the actual specifics are, so I'll have to do a n example by making some stuff up, just to show you what I mean: Her mother attempts to kill herself. [This actually should be even more specific, explaining what the mother actually did.] Nove is devastated and confused. It needs some details about what she actually does. You're only describing her emotional state, which is good for you to know as the writer, but a synopsis needs to be a series of actions and dialogues etc that create drama. More like: Nove walks in on her mother trying to kill herself, screams, and wrestles physically with her until her mother also cries and agrees to stop. This would be enough for a synopsis, but then to turn it into a first draft you'd just need to keep adding more detail until it's fleshed out. Basically take each sentence and turn it into a paragraph, or in some cases several. Parts of my synopses are very low-resolution like what I wrote above, parts of them are in much greater detail (depending on how much I already have figured out). And some parts I leave blank, because I haven't thought of what needs to happen there yet. To me a synopsis is very much a working document, something you'll be continually developing stage by stage, and it doesn't need to look nice or sound good to a reader, because it isn't for them, it's strictly for you, to help you develop your ideas or to see where they need to be developed more. Actually the best way I can demonstrate this is to show a little bit of one of my own synopses: Neighbor kids part-time friends There could be some kids that live near Grandma’s house that Rachel and maybe Sheri visit as friends when they’re here, and they know they show up every year just before Halloween. For Sheri it’s a boy, the one at the Halloween party. He’s become a real bad boy, drug dealer maybe, troublemaker. I name each scene in bold letters at the top so I can see them at a glance, and I make sure the titles alone make it clear what the scene is. So I can look at it in two levels of detail—just scan down the titles and see if each scene seems to be in the right place. (I can easily move them at this stage), and I can also read the text to see each one in more detail. And I use a lot of Maybes and Coulds in the early stages, and go ahead and write in alternate possibilities if I'm not sure yet which way it will go. You often don't understand these decisions until later in the process. This is exactly the purpose of a synopsis, to help you test out possibilities and gradually decide which ones to use. Then you delete the choices you decided against (always keeping PDF versions each stage of the way so you can check back later). Hope this is helpful.
Oh and I should definitely say this. My approach to synopses is based on the Snowflake Method approach, described excellently in this book: How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method You can also learn the technique by just doing some searches for Snowflake Method and you can find a lot of good info online about it. Personally I find the book far better though, because it goes into much greater detail, and uses an ongoing story about a group of nursery rhyme characters getting together at a writing seminar. The story is kind of silly but it really helps you understand the importance of each idea in the book. Lol, it's like the book is a whole book, but each online article or video is just a synopsis of it... Here's a good blog covering it: The Snowflake Method: 6 Steps to a Powerful Story Outline
