Synopsize Me, Baby (NaNo 2016)

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Matt T.

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All I’m going to preface this with is that writing queries/synopses for stories with more than one POV character is every bit as hard as I expected it to be. :p It took me probably fifteen minutes of staring at my monitor before I figured out which of my two protagonists would be a better choice to use. This ended up overlong and too loose in parts for my taste, but here goes:

Even the few friends that sixteen-year-old Charlotte Gaines has made over her last three years at her remote boarding school wouldn’t describe her as a particularly nice person to be around. Bitter and cynical, she spends her days and nights acquiring and selling everything from foodstuffs to alcohol and condoms to her classmates—anything to keep her busy until the end of high school, when she fully expects her life to collapse and for her to fall back into the depression and impotent anger that defined her life after the death of her brother years ago.

However, Charlotte finds an even more compelling distraction from the past when she meets a withdrawn violin prodigy named Elliott. In the process of saving him from a group of their less savory fellow students, she sees that his upper body is covered in scars.

Suspecting bullying or abuse, Charlotte finds herself increasingly preoccupied with the highly intelligent, but frustratingly optimistic Elliott, who ignores his present problems and keeps himself focused on an ideal future studying music. Even as his troubled relationship with his parents and her long history of antagonizing other students and breaking school rules comes back to haunt them, the two form an unsteady friendship. However, as both of their lives begin to crumble both from trauma in their pasts and their mistakes in the present, Charlotte becomes increasingly convinced of her belief that both love and happiness are temporary, and life doesn’t get better.
 

CoffeeBeans

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Loving the ideas in the thread so far. I also third "Virtually Hellish"!

This is the most un-like me project I've had in ages... Working title, "The Stand In"

Athena isn’t a sexting, drunk-driving, child star-gone-wrong. She just plays one in the tabloids. After a mixup at LAX on the first day of her summer vacation, she’s mistaken for her childhood idol, Alaia, who’s been secreted off to yet another rehab. Once the arrival pictures hit the net, Athena is face to face with Alaia’s Momager. She has a deal for Athena -- fill Alaia’s louboutins for the entire press tour to keep up Alaia’s end of her film contract, and Athena’s non-existent college fund gets filled to the brim.


Alaia’s life comes with a lot more than an amazing shoe collection -- costars who hate her guts, a closeted popstar boyfriend, and a little sister who already needs therapy. Those are the everyday problems. Athena doesn’t even like to think about Momager’s little pills problem, or the super-fan leaving love notes in her car.

Six countries and a million press events later, Athena’s finally getting the hang of Alaia’s life. Unfortunately, she’s gotten there just as Alaia wants it back, and the super-fan wants to end it.
 

Engliman

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I've never written a synopsis before, dear god this is torturous. Write, delete, write, delete, write, delete. Gah! How about a basic premise instead:

Talbot Little is being sent away to Boxwood Academy after being bullied at his previous school. The night before, he has a surreal nightmare where he encounters a guy who is being chased by a scary thingamajig called a night terror. Random guy gives Talbot a message (warning) to deliver, but doesn't have time to tell him who to deliver it to.

Talbot wakes up, thinks "what a weird dream", goes to Boxwood Academy, blah blah, goes to sleep that night only to find himself back where he was with two people waiting for him. There he learns that he is an Aware, and now exists consciously in a real world when he goes to sleep. Also, what did he do with guy who gave him the message? Has to attend an academy there as well, and has to have a mentor. No-one believes his message, except said mentor. Also, lots of people suspicious of Talbot because of disappearance of other guy who gave him the message. Dun dun duuuuuuunnnnn.

So now, Talbot has to balance being awake, and being aware, and has to try to figure out how to prove his message (of warning) is genuine before the thingamajig that got to other dude gets to him too. Because yeah, thingamajig attacks him because it knows he has said message. All this while not knowing whether mentor guy can be trusted, and trying to not get bullied at Boxwood Academy in awake world. Also makes friends in dream world.

Ok. It's a start. A really crappy one, but there we go. Talk about convoluted nonsense. I way prefer writing the novel to writing the synopsis.
 

GeneBWell

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I finally managed to hammer out a super-crappy query! Yay!
(Edit: To clarify, this is for my NaNo novel. I realized the first time I posted this that I didn't specify that.)

Souffle Butcher, 13, wants to change her world. Where she lives, cooking is everything. Kids and adults work together with magical animals to create the tastiest dishes using the rarest ingredients. But commoners like Souffle are banned from preparing or eating cooked food.

Souffle refuses to choke down anymore raw vegetables or packaged gloop soup. She wants to start a revolution, and this year she has her chance. For one time only the chef licensing exams are open to all youth, commoners included. Souffle will take the exam and become the first commoner chef ever.

Souffle wields her mastery of meat, gained during her life as a butcher's daughter, to wow the judges with drool-inducing dishes. But, when she hears that passing the exam would mean throwing away her status as a commoner, she stops short. Even if she becomes a chef herself, her victory would mean nothing for her people.

Now Souffle has a choice. If she keeps her head down and passes the exam she'll become a chef, but nothing will change for her people. If she uses the national stage of the exam to send a message about the unfair treatment of the commoners she may fail the exam and crush the one hope her people have.

POKEMON meets MASTER CHEF in the MG fantasy WILD BRIGADE, complete at 50,000 words. Thank you for your consideration.
 
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Jade Rothwell

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He'd feel bad. He'd probably cry. (Even though he's all manly.) That's the rub, isn't it? But if the kid next to you in the roller-coaster car is falling out, and you're right there, because these things always happen when you're right there, then you have a choice. You can either do something about it, or ignore it. But ignoring it kinda turns you into someone you don't want to know. As weary as you are of the saving, and the adrenaline, and the constant disruption of your life, you don't want to look in the mirror and see a monster.

I like that duality of motivation. Wanting to be free but also needing to act in the moment, even if it traps him further.
 
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paddismac

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Oh lord... I am still completely locked up over this damned synopsis. I'm pretty sure I've written my 50,000 words already trying to come up with something that makes sense.

It's not the content that's throwing me, but the tone.

In turns it's come off as serious, sweet, juvenile, sappily sincere, even romantic at one point... and it's NONE of those things. It's a bizarre, dark comedy... ironic, sarcastic, borderline raunchy and offensive in places.

I have no problem at all bringing that out in the manuscript, but the synopsis... Why has this turned into such a problem?? If I don't come up with something PDQ, I'm afraid it will continue to eat away at me and totally sabotage any actual writing I need to do come November 1st. This just blows chunks...
 

ElaineA

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It's a bizarre, dark comedy... ironic, sarcastic, borderline raunchy and offensive in places.

SOLD! (Good enough synopsis for me.) Don't fret, Paddis! Try not to pressure yourself to tonally reflect a book that isn't written. Look how much Gamble changed. Get the guts if you need it to keep you from veering onto a fork in the road, but the finesse can wait for later.


My synopsis is very rough:

Katrina, once a child of the Chernobyl disaster and now a Russian government assassin gon rogue, drags an American Afghan war veteran into her plot to kill his boss, an undercover SVR (Russian CIA basically) agent. The man who first trained her, and then broke her. Michael, the vet, has learned more than he ever thought he would about the value of life and the personal cost of ending one. As Katrina and Mike maneuver toward the fatal encounter, he tries to convince her it’s not worth the scar to her soul. But for Katrina, a scar won't matter. It’s always been a suicidal mission. If she doesn't die in the attempt, the SVR will hunt her down and make her pay.

Each damaged by personal experiences in ways that make it hard to operate in the ordinary world, together they begin to glimpse how the jagged edges of two broken souls might fit together to become whole again.

But only after the assassination. On that, Katrina can’t budge.
 

OliverCrown

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Not particualy good at this, but not ashamed to try.

One Line Pitch:
During an attempted heist, a meticulous thief encounters vicious rivals and Murphy’s Law with cataclysmic results.

Sort-of-Synopsis/Back cover Blurb:
The Star Component represents bleeding edge technology. It exponentially improves the processing ability of synapse controlled systems and, in a city rife with cyborgs, will demand billions on the black market.

Simone Templeton knows where it’s kept. She’s researched the security of the facility, plotted her entrance and prepared her escape. Meticulous preparation is the hallmark of the most requested cyber-thief in Chicago known only by her trademark: Lemon.

The heist begins in the penthouse. A rival intent on poaching her target discovers Simone. She attempts to avoid him and discovers they are not the only ones seeking the Star Component. Enhanced humans hunt. Cybernetic hybrids lurk. Law enforcement will storm the building. Nothing proceeds according to plan. Lemon desperately tries to retain the prize at all costs.

Strap in for an action-packed adventure while Simone tells of her attempted escape from Archibald Tower with the Star Component.
 
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MeghS

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Here goes nothing! ;)

One sentence summary: When a new girl gets hired at the nonprofit Julia has worked at for two years, she points out all the damage mismanagement is doing to the organization in a way Julia can no longer ignore, and Julia joins her and a few of their coworkers in plotting a mutiny against the agency’s corrupt director.

Short Synopsis:

Julia has worked at “Mentors 4 Kidz” for two years, and she thought she had finally gotten the hang of “the way things work around here,” and given up on her nagging suspicion that their clients and their cause deserve better. But then, along comes Billie, a new hire who points out the mismanagement and corruption, and what’s more, demands that they do something about it.

Julia is used to the long hours picking up slack from the boss’s favorites, but when the toxicity in the office begins to seep into the lives of the young people they serve, it becomes harder to ignore. Julia overcomes her fear of confrontation to speak up and tell her boss that an unstable volunteer should not be assigned as a mentor, despite the woman’s strident interest. Billie, on the other hand, never hesitates to speak her mind. She is loud, she knows how to fight, and she is quick to shout any perceived injustice from the rooftops (or on her blog).

Even though she knows Billie is a “problem employee,” Julia finds herself spending more and more time with her. They meet at a bar after work and talk about their boss, their clients, and all the daily slights and stresses they endure in the name of their ambition: making the world a better place. Julia is swept up onto Billie’s soapbox, and when the mentor she objected to goes too far and hurts her mentee, Julia stands up and follows Billie to report their boss’s negligence to HR.

Unfortunately, the corruption at the agency does not stop at their boss’s level - it continues up, up, up to the highest recourse. HR does nothing, and Julia is now exposed and targeted by her boss and her boss’s right-hand woman. A constant barrage of harassment follows her into every inch of her life. Unable to sleep, sick from stress, and with her outside relationships falling apart, Julia spends more and more time with Billie trying to come up with a plan. As they exhaust every path to resolution, Billie and Julia start to suspect that for anything to change, they are going to have to resort to drastic measures.
 

eirbear

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Here is my incredibly rough synopsis for what I plan to write in November (working title is Pure Imagination):



Everyone has their demons to face, but what if you could escape?

Five teenagers, all born on the same day, within the same hour, in the same place. As they approach their 16th birthday, things are not looking up for any of them.

RACHEL finds herself in an abusive relationship. ANTHONY battles an eating disorder. SANDY can't get through a single day without being tormented by classmates. TRENT struggles with his parents not accepting him as he is. VIOLA contemplates removing herself from this life.

Each night, in their dreams, they find themselves in a perfect paradise, where they five are the only people around. Where magic exists and their demons momentarily stop haunting them. Where they can feel strong.

But nothing is perfect.

Everyone has their demons to face, but what if the escape only makes the shadows darker?
 

paddismac

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Okay, I give up. Time is short, and I can't begin to describe how much this thing has stressed me out. I'm definitely going for a finish of A Gamble With Goats, and I'll do a sort of logline placeholder until something better presents itself (and I never said it made sense!):


Every family has a skeleton or two in their closet. Some are history-making. Others merely embarrassing. But few of those skeletons boast cloven hoofs, a rotten disposition, and the unmistakable aroma of mead.
 

StoryG27

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Every family has a skeleton or two in their closet. Some are history-making. Others merely embarrassing. But few of those skeletons boast cloven hoofs, a rotten disposition, and the unmistakable aroma of mead.
This sounds pretty awesome.


:)
 

Sage

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Finally!

---

Fifteen-year-old Hale Q would search the galaxy for a new family if he wasn't so afraid of the void between the stars. Orphaned at a young age, it's no wonder he admires Max Speed, child actor who was launched into fame by his parents and who happens to be the best Youth shooter on the ship where Hale's assigned in the war against the Hanaran Collective. When Hale saves Max's life from an explosion and loses an arm, it creates a bond between the two that leads to Hale expanding Max's show over the next three years to appeal to adults as well as teens. Of course, try to get a night off for a date when you're running from planet to planet to produce a weekly show. No way that's phrekin' happening.

When the boys meet two Hanaran sisters--one singer and one dancer looking for their shot at stardom and to leave the Collective--Max doesn't want anything to do with them. But Hale's fallen for Johee. She might be a troublemaker and a liar, and it's a little confusing that she's physically male, but he can't resist that glint in her eyes. He can't resist it all the way to the snow-bound planet where the sisters are performing. Convincing Max is easy: Hale's cybernetic arm may be superior to the original, but Max has all sorts of guilt over it.

To their surprise, they find their old captain has hired the girls to perform at his inn for the busy winter festival season on the planet. Once Hale's only father figure, he can't imagine his captain struggling to make ends meet as the planet's weather system goes on the fritz. The boys hatch a plan to help him launch the season, bring snow to the planet, and keep the girls safe from the vindictive commanding officer they're running from (What can Hale say? Johee hit the guy with an assault rifle). It may be a strange family he's found, but Hale will hold on to it any way he can.
 
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DavidBrett

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Late to the party, but finally taking my two steampunk short stories and building on the characters and world to create a full-length novel called "Oliver Cantrop and the Insatiable Rust". Synopsis is basically this:

The country of Albyun is flourishing under the benefits of the magnificent Second Steam Revolution, guided by the ever-watching eye of the mechanical monarch Queen Elizabeta. The capital of Lodnon is bustling with constant breakthroughs in science, technology and overall wonders and, at the centre of it all, Professor Rory Hartigan, an inventor equally genius and mad. So, naturally, when a large cloud of what can only be described as sentient rust begins to sweep through the country, consuming all machinery yet leaving organic material intact, the finger of blame lands firmly on the Professor - surely it's yet another of his madcap inventions gone awry!

Brought before the Queen, it is up to Professor Hartigan and Oliver Cantrop, his newly-appointed orphaned apprentice with a penchant for engineering, to clear his name, subdue the Insatiable Rust before it consumes all, and find out the truth behind it.
 

M_Writes

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Well, at this point this is a welcome distraction from staring aimlessly at my screen.

NaNo 2016 - The Unusual Suspects
When his wife is arrested for the murder of a superhero, Martin Monroe's job in corporate-hero public relations goes up in flames. Made up of a tenuous balance "normal" humans and superpowered Unusuals, the city of Aquapolis reels from the breach of unspoken ethics among heroes. As the body count begins to climb, Martin does his best to keep his head down. But his wife left behind more than her independant bakery when she was taken in - and the Unusuals who looked to her for protection turn instead to Martin.

Faced with fighting the system he helped to build or watching his wife's dream wither on the vine, Martin decides to show the world how much of the hero business is just good press. With help from his second-string hero co-workers and his wife's vigilante friends, Martin sets out to destroy the industry that's turning everyday people into action movie props.

But a new breed of villain is on the horizon, armed with more than bad quotes and collateral damage. If Martin and his team are ever going to stop the island's systemic, growing violence, they'll need the firepower of the very system he's out to destroy.
 
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