The Hidden Danger Lurking in Your Lengthy Outline—And How It Could Ruin Your Writing
I do think there’s value in writing the shorter synopsis, though, because it will ensure that you’ve got a balanced story structure. So let’s try to put you back on track without wasting any of that hard work you’ve put in so far.
Getting Back on Track
Here’s what I recommend:
- Save that six-page synopsis somewhere—you can call it Step 6.5, your Super Long Synopsis.
- Now try to summarize it in one page. This will be the first chunk of your Long Synopsis in Step 6.
- Now try to summarize it in a single paragraph. This will be the first chunk of your Short Synopsis in Step 4. If you’re not clear on how you could possibly make it this short, remember that you already wrote an even shorter version of it in Step 2, the one-paragraph summary.
- Write three more paragraphs to summarize the first half of Act 2, the second half of Act 2, and Act 3. Keep these short, focusing on just the details that lead up to the major disasters. You now have a full one-page Short Synopsis, which is what Step 4 is all about. Make sure it is an accurate expansion of your one-paragraph summary from Step 2.
- Go on to Step 5, the Character Synopses. These can be as long as you want. You might want to use some of that material from your Super Long Synopsis here, if any of it is special information about one particular character.
- Finish Step 6, the Long Synopsis. You already made a start on it, but now finish it, trying to expand each paragraph of your Short Synopsis into a full page. If you feel the urge to write more, do your best to restrain it. You are still working out the big picture here. Details can come later.
- Finish the other steps of the Snowflake as you like. When you get to Step 8, which is the Scene List, resist the urge to write more than one sentence about each scene. If you really have more that you want to write about each scene, save it for Step 9, where you can amplify on each scene as much as you want. There is no limit in Step 9. You can write as much or as little as you like.
Good luck on this, Lindsey! I confess that I haven’t often seen a writer go over their word count on the Short Synopsis. Usually, writers hate synopses (I’m not too fond of them myself), and they want to write less. The fact that you’ve written a lot more tells me you’re excited about your story.
