Is it ok to write your sypnosis from characters POV?

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MNHRAIDS

Here is yet another stupid newbie question I have:

Is it ok to write a 2-3 page sypnosis posing as your main character? Almost as if your character is writing it? Or is it best to just be you, the author in your sypnosis, to describe your book?

I know it is a weird question, but I thought I would ask as I am now preparing a sypnosis (as well as a query) to be sent out to some agents.

Thank you all so much, once again, for your help, it is greatly appreciated.

(By the way, I will be posting my work in SYW for critique before I send them to agents)
 

Lyra Jean

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I think it's traditional to put the synopsis as the writer unless there is something about your book that makes it a selling point to put it in the words of your character.

I'm still unpublished so take my advice with a grain of salt.
 

MNHRAIDS

Thanks guys, that helps me perfectly. I love dropping questions on AW, straight to the point answers and very fast help!
 

50 Foot Ant

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What if it is first person before? Can't the synopsis be in first person then?

"The sound of gunfire had ceased, smoke still drifted across the battlefield, and I was still unsure of why I had survived and the rest of my platoon hadn't. There had been forty of us that morning, when LT Greeson led us up over the berm and into the teeth of the Black-Coat's machinegun fire, and I was all that was left. Our eight weeks of basic training, and our six weeks of infantry training had not made a difference in who survived and who had not. All of our discussions, all of our wishes, our dreams, our bs'ing, had come down to nothing more than hand to hand fighting with a broken bayonet in the pre-dawn darkness.

My wife and kid were probably still asleep, it was only six-thirty in the morning. The first battle of the war had been fought, and even though the generals and politicians would more than likely claim we had one, you couldn't prove it to me on that gunsmoke morning."
 

KikiteNeko

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It doesn't matter how your story is written, the synopsis is there to tell the agent how you, the author, can summarize your story. It's not a letter your character is writing. It's a letter you are writing. It's also how your agent would pitch it to a publisher. It's a business letter, not prose. It's supposed to be third person present tense.

You could do your own thing, of course, but would you want to risk losing an agent's interest because of something like a synopsis?

What if it is first person before? Can't the synopsis be in first person then?

"The sound of gunfire had ceased, smoke still drifted across the battlefield, and I was still unsure of why I had survived and the rest of my platoon hadn't. There had been forty of us that morning, when LT Greeson led us up over the berm and into the teeth of the Black-Coat's machinegun fire, and I was all that was left. Our eight weeks of basic training, and our six weeks of infantry training had not made a difference in who survived and who had not. All of our discussions, all of our wishes, our dreams, our bs'ing, had come down to nothing more than hand to hand fighting with a broken bayonet in the pre-dawn darkness.

My wife and kid were probably still asleep, it was only six-thirty in the morning. The first battle of the war had been fought, and even though the generals and politicians would more than likely claim we had one, you couldn't prove it to me on that gunsmoke morning."
 
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50 Foot Ant

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It doesn't matter how your story is written, the synopsis is there to tell the agent how you, the author, can summarize your story. It's not a letter your character is writing. It's a letter you are writing. It's also how your agent would pitch it to a publisher. It's a business letter, not prose. It's supposed to be third person present tense.
Why was I thinking the synopsis of the previous book in the beginning of a sequel book?

Aw man, that's what I get for writing for 8 hours before hitting the boards. I was in novel mode, not submission mode.

Nevermind, ignore what I said.
 
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