Start with a synopsis?

Maze Runner

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I guess I'm a panster of one sort or another, but lately I've had the idea that starting with a synopsis might be a good idea. Somehow outlines scare me, but I know from all the plot revisions that I've had to make that I can't always count on making the best story choices on the moment. So I was just wondering if any of you do or have done this, and how it has worked for you. Thanks!
 

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I guess I'm a panster of one sort or another, but lately I've had the idea that starting with a synopsis might be a good idea. Somehow outlines scare me, but I know from all the plot revisions that I've had to make that I can't always count on making the best story choices on the moment. So I was wondering if any of you do or have done this, and how it has worked for you. Thanks!

I guess that's kinda what I do? My outlines are just very casual synopses broken down a chapter or scene at a time to get an idea of voice and events. Much more detailed than a synopsis normally is, but gives an idea of events and pacing. I rarely do the whole story in one go, though. I'll get a bunch of scenes via outline/synopsis and then start, and if I finish up the planned scenes, I use what I have to work on the next scenes in o/s form. It's worked for me so far.

Example from a WIP:
Day 2: Sports. Oh god, why sports? Syn is miserable, especially because she’s playing on a field beside Ardent Greene. During a break, she checks in with Kalie who needs her artificial hand fixed. They’re joined by Ardent who accidentally kicks a ball their way. Kalie pops it with her fixed hand, disappointing Ardent.
 

Maze Runner

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I guess that's kinda what I do? My outlines are just very casual synopses broken down a chapter or scene at a time to get an idea of voice and events. Much more detailed than a synopsis normally is, but gives an idea of events and pacing. I rarely do the whole story in one go, though. I'll get a bunch of scenes via outline/synopsis and then start, and if I finish up the planned scenes, I use what I have to work on the next scenes in o/s form. It's worked for me so far.

Example from a WIP:
Day 2: Sports. Oh god, why sports? Syn is miserable, especially because she’s playing on a field beside Ardent Greene. During a break, she checks in with Kalie who needs her artificial hand fixed. They’re joined by Ardent who accidentally kicks a ball their way. Kalie pops it with her fixed hand, disappointing Ardent.

More detailed than I was thinking, but if it works for you, it works. My major issues, I think, are the big plot turns, you know, especially in the earlier parts of the story. So I figure if I can lick those before I start wrriting the story, it will be all smooooth sailing from there. hahaha, or something like that.
 

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Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

I think what might work for you is to write what most of us would do as an outline, but write it in paragraphs.

Cinderella, who's abused by her step-sisters, wants to go to the ball being given by the Prince, but her step-mother won't let her. After everyone else leaves, she's bemoaning her lot, when her Fairy Godmother appears. Etc.

Rather than the same thing numbered and/or lettered.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

Maze Runner

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Yeah, what is it about those numbers and letters that put some of us off? I guess we've all had to write a synopsis or two before submitting, and from that I've learned things about my story, seen flaws, etc, and I think that's where I first got the idea that a synopsis (mine are always longer than they suggest) might be a good way to start.
 

Marissa D

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I almost always come up with a rough synopsis before writing (or at least, a rough synopsis for a good chunk of the book). That gives me the important plot points to hit along the way while leaving things open for when my characters surprise me and do stuff I didn't know they were going to do. But certainly not a formal outline with numbers and letters and all that. Heck, no!
 

Maze Runner

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I almost always come up with a rough synopsis before writing (or at least, a rough synopsis for a good chunk of the book). That gives me the important plot points to hit along the way while leaving things open for when my characters surprise me and do stuff I didn't know they were going to do. But certainly not a formal outline with numbers and letters and all that. Heck, no!

Okay, so I'm not nuts. Well, no, I am, but that's a whole other story. (DM me for details)

It just recently occurred to me that of all the talk of plotters vs. pantsers, and variations therein, I'd never seen anyone say that they were synopsisers. What you describe Marissa sounds like exactly what I had in mind. I know I have to leave the possibility for those happy surprises, but solving the big questions up front seems like something that may work well for me. I think I'm gonna give it a shot...Thanks, Marissa.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Go for it!

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Will do. Thanks, Siri.
 
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Marissa D

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Also known as plotzing. Much catchier than synopsising. :) I liken it to walking down a dark corridor toward a well-lit room waaaaay down at the end, carrying a flashlight: the flashlight lets you see a small distance ahead, and sometimes it reveals interesting pictures hanging on the wall or even alternate side passages. But you know where you're heading because you can see that open door leading into the light.
 

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I can't outline. But not long after I start writing I kinda write a synopsis in my head. Very general and subject to change. It gives me a little sense of where things are going but still allows me to wing it while I get there. I think I foreshadow for myself :D
 

indianroads

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I use ordered lists in ms word.

Opening scene
This happens
That happens
.
.
.
Ending scene.

Then when I am doing the down and dirty writing, I fill in the blanks.
 

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I guess I'm a panster of one sort or another, but lately I've had the idea that starting with a synopsis might be a good idea. Somehow outlines scare me, but I know from all the plot revisions that I've had to make that I can't always count on making the best story choices on the moment. So I was just wondering if any of you do or have done this, and how it has worked for you. Thanks!

I don't have a clear distinction in my mind between an outline and an informal synopsis (not something polished that you'd send to a publisher, but just a rough description of the events as they occur in the novel). What I've been calling my "outline" is really just a synopsis. I've numbered the paragraphs to correspond roughly to chapters (though where the chapter divisions actually fall isn't that important at this stage). So to see someone say "I can't bear writing an outline but I think I'll write a synopsis" puzzles me, because I don't really see the operative difference. Can you (or anyone) clarify some of the differences as you see them?

ETA: I just went to take a look at my outline, and saw that I had actually called the latest version of the file "new synopsis". So I really have not made a distinction between the two at all!
 
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sideshowdarb

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I also am a unrepentant pantser, but I do keep a beat sheet that I generally work on before I start writing. This is a very loose, general flow of ideas - this happens, and then I think this happens - which coves the six or seven major beats of the story. These often change. It's just to provide a map - kind of like a subway map. It's all there, you kind of know where it goes, you're unlikely to go down most of those lines. Once I start writing, the writing generates its own possibilities and everything more or less goes out the window.
 

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Thanks for all the great responses. It's very interesting to see how everyone does it, and how methods vary depending on the writer.

Writing a synopsis as you go is a fantastic approach imo.

I'm an extreme pantser and still do them regularly. Emma Darwin calls these "developmental synopses" thta you write for yourself.

http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2016/07/please-dont-hate-me-for-loving-synopses.html

That was right on point. Interesting to me how different writers who do this do it at different times. I guess I was thinking that I'd do it at the onset, before I wrote one word of text, but I can also see how it would be helpful to do it after you'd already begun--or at the 30K mark?

quoted from your link:

then started writing, and at 30,000 words I paused to take stock and refuel by writing a long synopsis ... and discovered that the events I'd planned so thoroughly for the second half didn't actually lead one to the next at all. I'd used a grid and all sorts of mind-maps and notes to plan, but none of them had revealed this rather disastrous state of affairs. Only when I had to write whole sentences of narrative which did, by their nature, lead one to the next, did it become starkly obvious:

I don't have a clear distinction in my mind between an outline and an informal synopsis (not something polished that you'd send to a publisher, but just a rough description of the events as they occur in the novel). What I've been calling my "outline" is really just a synopsis. I've numbered the paragraphs to correspond roughly to chapters (though where the chapter divisions actually fall isn't that important at this stage). So to see someone say "I can't bear writing an outline but I think I'll write a synopsis" puzzles me, because I don't really see the operative difference. Can you (or anyone) clarify some of the differences as you see them?

ETA: I just went to take a look at my outline, and saw that I had actually called the latest version of the file "new synopsis". So I really have not made a distinction between the two at all!

Maybe the bit I copied and pasted might begin to address your question. As she suggests, I do see how the very nature of sentence structure might aid in coherent, dramatically structured, sequential ideas.

My aversion to what we would call a formal outline, like the ones we had to do in school, is that it seems like it might be, to me, confining. Then again, if we take each bullet point as something on which we must expound, almost as just a prompt, it may offer the same freedom.

A question I had is, for those who outline or do a synopsis at the start of the process, does it take you a long time (whatever's relatively long) to figure out the plot turns, any of the plot turns? 'Cause I know, for myself, as a pantser, when I've come to a place in the story where I just sensed that something had to happen, either a twist or a bend, or an escalation, just when something has to happen, I can get stuck in those times and have to step away for anywhere from minutes to weeks before the answer comes to me. Have you found this to be true when writing your outline or synopsis?

ETA: Just realized this ? (bolded) could apply to those who do it some time during the writing process. You still have to figure out your story.
 
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DanielSTJ

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My idea, when writing anything but poetry, is the synopsis.

For me, no synopsis= no story.