Whew. I’m an official graduate of Mary Buckham’s Short Synopsis class. My least favorite task as a writer has been distilling my book into two or three pages. My attempts until now have been pitiful. I wince when I think they were sent to people who would try to make sense of them.
I signed up for Mary’s class with mixed feelings. I needed to get a handle on this synopsis thing, but so help me I cringed at the thought of spending two weeks on the process. Mary started the class with character description, and then moved on to internal and external plots, conflict, and resolution. She posted a new assignment every day. I whined and groaned to my husband. “My antagonist outshines my protaganist, my villian (a journal) doesn’t have anything to say, and I just handed in homework I know will be skewered!”
I wasn’t alone. Twenty-seven others shared my agony. I learned gobs from watching their stories be dissected and sifted. The results were astonishing…rambling homework ground into sparkling clarity. Even my synopsis made sense with Mary’s guidance. I’m sad to say Mary announced she wouldn’t be offering this class again. I’m so glad I jumped, reluctant or not, at the chance to take it. Mary does teach other classes. Check out her website for info. And don’t be defeated by synopses! Grrr…snap.
Now, who’s teaching a class on pitches and queries? Whimper,whimper.
Susan ~~ Thank you for your very kind words and I do love the quoye “rambling homework ground into sparkling clarity’ – too fun!!
Cheers and happy reprieve from synopsis writing for a while
Mary B 
What a great class! Now that I know about it, I am sad too that it won’t be offered again. Who knew these peripheral docs would be part of the publishing process? Sounds like it was worth the agony.
Rahma,the difference in my synopsis was night and day. I learned so much. Mary, you’ll get angel wings for taking on the nearly impossible! You didn’t stop until the last question was answered and all those words made sense.