How to plot your novel on one page
There's no reason to fear the one-page synopsis! It's easy, I promise.
As a ghostwriter, I get multiple requests a month from authors who don’t want me to write their novel—just summarize it for them.
Writing a synopsis is hard. Writing a short synopsis, which is what most agents want to see? Even harder.
But having a one page synopsis of your story is going to help you out in so many ways. Even if you’re not an outliner, I think having a one-page synopsis before you start drafting is incredibly valuable.
First and foremost, it forces you to drill down to the core of your story. It’s something you can come back to when you’re in the middle of writing your draft and you feel yourself getting off track, because it will remind you what your book is really about. If you’re planning to traditionally publish, literary agents and editors sometimes want to see sample pages and a synopsis. Best to have it written before they ask for it so you’re not scrambling.
Wait, isn’t a one-page summary the same as a pitch?
Nope. Let’s talk about queries, blurbs, and synopses.
A blurb is the description you see on the back of a book, or on the jacket flap. It tells you what the story is about, but not how the story ends.
A synopsis tells you all the major events of the story, including the ending.
A query letter to a literary agent contains a blurb, along with a short introduction and your bio. The agent might then request to see the full manuscript, or sample pages and a synopsis.
Both your blurb and your one-page synopsis need to be short, snappy, to the point.
The query formula
I’ve shared this formula in a previous post, but here it is again. I highly recommend you fill it out early on in your brainstorming process because it’s really going to be an enormously helpful guide in writing synopses, queries, outlines, your draft...everything. But if you’ve already written your draft, no worries, it’s never to late - do it now!
Here’s the formula...
[CHARACTER] was [STATUS QUO] until [INCITING] happens, and [HERE’S HOW THAT AFFECTS THE MAIN CHARACTER’S LIFE].
Now [CHARACTER] must [GOAL] despite [CONFLICT] or else [CONSEQUENCE].
When you’re filing this out, don’t worry about being voicey or even grammatically correct. The point is just to get these beats of the story on the page. I created a Skillshare course around this, and here’s the example I used:
Jack is working up the courage to ask Jill to go to the Up the Hill dance until aquatic aliens crash-land in their small town's lake and claim Jill is the long-lost heir to their planet's sovereign power which is now being challenged by a rival family, throwing Jack's plans for Homecoming King and Queen in peril.
Now Jack must prove the aliens have the wrong girl despite increasing proof that Jill might be a little less human than everyone thought or else they'll take her from Earth forever and Jack can kiss his Homecoming Court dreams goodbye.
This is a great basis for a blurb. You have a character with goals, an inciting incident, an antagonist, a conflict, and stakes or consequences. Now, let’s write that one-page synopsis.
The paragraph summary
That’s right, we’re starting small. Five sentences. Here’s how you’ll break it down:
Set up
End of act one (entry into the ‘new world’)
Midpoint
End of act two (low point)
Climax and wrap up
The first sentence is the set up, the second sentence is the end of act one, the third sentence is the midpoint, the fourth sentence is the end of act two going into act three (aka your hero’s ‘dark night of the soul’), and the fifth sentence is the climax and how things wrap up. And here’s where it’s really going to deviate from that blurb you wrote in step one. You hinted at the climax, but you didn’t actually include how the story ends—and of course, you don’t want to do that in a query or jacket copy. But in this summary, you do.
Here’s the one-paragraph synopsis for my alien love story.
(1) Jack has spent all semester working up the courage to ask the beautiful and popular Jill to the Up the Hill dance. (2) But when aquatic aliens crash-land in their small town’s lake and drag Jill beneath the waves, claiming she’s the long-lost heir to their planet’s sovereign power who’s needed back on their home planet, Jack risks everything to save her. (3) His mission is a success, but back on land, Jill begins to exhibit some decidedly unhumanlike behaviors, and though she tells Jack it’s because the aliens performed tests on her, Jack is increasingly unsure she’s telling the truth. (4) He fights the aquatic aliens and they retreat into the lake, but the night of the Up the Hill dance, a rival alien family arrives and throws the evening into chaos. (5) Jack realizes Jill is not only an alien, but a spy planted by the rival alien family, and after they’re crowned Homecoming King and Queen, he defeats her in a duel, allowing the aquatic aliens to return safely to their home planet.
These are run-on sentences for sure, but look: I’ve got three acts, a midpoint twist, the climax, the ending.
This is why I encourage you to do the query formula before you write your draft. Because it’s so much easier to take a few sentences and expand on them than it is to take a whole book and shrink it down.
The one-page synopsis
From here, you can take this paragraph and expand it into one page. Separate each sentence and develop it a bit.
Jack has spent all semester working up the courage to ask the beautiful and popular Jill to the Up the Hill dance. Here I might add a line about Jack, his lack of confidence, why he’s so enamored with Jill.
But when aquatic aliens crash-land in their small town’s lake and drag Jill beneath the waves, claiming she’s the long-lost heir to their planet’s sovereign power who’s needed back on their home planet, Jack risks everything to save her. This is such a run on that first I’d split it into two sentences. Then I’d definitely elaborate on this last part, that Jack risks everything—what exactly does he risk? His life? The safety of his family and friends? The future of his town? What are the stakes at this point, and what does he do exactly to save her?
His mission is a success, but back on land, Jill begins to exhibit some decidedly unhumanlike behaviors, and though she tells Jack it’s because the aliens performed tests on her, Jack is increasingly unsure she’s telling the truth. Again, first thing I’d do is split this run-on into two sentences. Next, this is the midpoint of the book, and I really want to highlight the big twist here, which is that Jill might very well be an alien herself. “Jill begins to exhibit some unhumanlike behaviors” is fine for a shorter summary, but if we have a whole page, I want to drill down on the exact moment this happens. Does Jack witness her breathe underwater? Does he spot gills behind her ears? Does he overhear her speaking in an alien language? I’d get specific. Midpoint twists are fun.
He fights the aquatic aliens and they retreat into the lake, but the night of the Up the Hill dance, a rival alien family arrives and throws the evening into chaos. So this is pretty abrupt—why does he fight them here? Does Jack attack them, or vice versa? I’d take a few sentences here to clarify how Jack ended up in this fight and how he temporarily won and got them to retreat before getting to the next twist, which is the arrival of a rival family of aliens.
Jack realizes Jill is not only an alien, but a spy planted by the rival alien family, and after they’re crowned Homecoming King and Queen, he defeats her in a duel, allowing the aquatic aliens to return safely to their home planet. Finally, I’d revel in this final battle for a few sentences and really dig into the emotional core of it. Jack is dueling with the girl he loves—yikes, that’s rough. Does he kill her? How exactly does it play out? Is Jill redeemed at all, or does she go down fighting for the enemy?
Do this, and you’ve got your novel plotted out on one page. And the great thing about this is that if you need a three page synopsis, or a five page synopsis, or a full scene by scene outline, you can just keep growing it from here.
The posts I publish here will remain free. But I have a new series called Ask the Editor, which will publish every Friday. The short pitch: Dear Abby for writers.
The longer pitch: paid subscribers ($5/month or $50/year, cancel anytime) will receive a link to a form where they can submit pretty much anything within a two page limit. Things like…
Queries
Synopses
Pages from their novel
Questions about writing or traditional publishing
A current problem or situation in their writing journey (ie: trying to decide if an agent is a schmagent, disagreeing with beta feedback, etc)
A rant about this whole “trying to get published” endeavor to a sympathetic ear
Every Friday, I’ll respond to/critique as many submissions as I can and publish them together in one post. Because they’ll be behind a paywall, there’s some privacy—your query, pages, or rant about that one really horrible rejection won’t be online for editors to discover when they Google you.
That’s it! I hope to see you over there. :)
Michelle
Great post! I've only ever been able to get my synopsis down to two pages, so this challenges me to become more concise. We don't include subplots, correct?
You seriously need to write that Jack Vs. The Aliens story, Michelle! It always reminds me of an "Are You Afraid of the Dark" episode, "The Tale of the Thirteenth Floor". Should you ever decide to write this story, you already have a great reference to start with :)