A synopsis needs the ending

Tell the story that actually happens

A synopsis is not a back-cover teaser. Its reader needs to understand the manuscript's major developments, including the ending. David Higham Associates' submission guidance explicitly treats the synopsis as an account of the whole story. Suspenseful questions and promises of shocking revelations are therefore less useful than the events and decisions those phrases conceal.

Begin with the central character in the situation that matters to the main narrative. Identify the disruption and follow the chain of responses it creates. The synopsis should reveal why one development leads to another. “She finds the letter, so she returns to the island” gives a causal link; a list of discoveries and journeys may leave the story's logic invisible.

Use the current manuscript as your authority. A synopsis drafted before a major revision can preserve an abandoned motive or an ending that no longer exists. Read it against the book's actual sequence, paying particular attention to the middle, where compressed summaries often skip the changes that make the conclusion believable.

Decide which details carry the structure

The central plot needs enough space to show change. Important subplots belong when they alter the protagonist's choices, explain the ending or define the book's structure. They do not all deserve equal treatment. A subplot that occupies several chapters may require only a sentence if its structural function is simple.

Limit named characters to those a reader must distinguish. A name introduces a memory task; a role such as “her estranged sister” may communicate more with fewer words. If two people play different decisive roles, name them clearly rather than compressing them into an ambiguous group. Economy should not make cause and responsibility obscure.

Include emotional or intellectual turns as well as external events. An ending may depend on a character recognising a mistaken belief, not merely arriving at a location. Explain what changes their understanding and what they do because of it. Avoid assigning an emotion without the event or decision that makes it meaningful.

Compress without disguising a gap

Draft a straightforward account before tightening it to the requested length. Remove repeated explanations, minor transitions and details that do not affect the principal movement. Then inspect the joins. If an action seems abrupt after compression, restore the reason in a short clause rather than hoping the reader will infer an entire missing scene.

A synopsis can expose manuscript problems. You may discover that a character changes their mind without a cause you can explain, or that the central problem is solved by someone who appears only at the end. First check whether the synopsis omitted the necessary setup. If the setup is absent from the book too, the difficulty may require revision beyond the submission document.

Write in a consistent tense and an intelligible order. A novel with a complex chronology may need brief signals about its structure, but the synopsis should help the recipient understand that design. Reproducing every temporal jump without explanation can make a deliberate novel look confused.

Finish with the actual outcome and its consequence. If the protagonist fails, say so; if the apparent victory carries a loss, include it. Check the recipient's requested length and format, then read the synopsis without the query beside it. It should remain a complete, comprehensible account of the book's main story.