A synopsis is essentially a distillation of your feature film (or short) into a few pages that outline the whole story. That might sound simple but writers often find it harder than writing the script itself, and it takes time, skill and a few drafts to nail it. Talent Exec, story consultant and published author Nadia Attia offers some tips on writing that tricky synopsis, which should help get your project noticed by funders, assessors, creative partners and producers.
One
Tell the reader everything, INCLUDING twists, reveals and (most importantly!) the ending. If it helps, you could structure the synopsis into acts, or include headings as guides: make the way through your story clear and easy to follow. Don’t make it feel like a slog to read.
Two
Go easy on the detail, BUT give us a flavour of your writing style and tone of the film. Yep, it’s a tricky balance! Let your personality emerge; this is essentially your voice, it’s unique to you and it’s gold dust. If you’re writing a comedy put some humour into the synopsis, if it’s horror or tragedy include some atmosphere and pathos.
Three
Tell, don’t show. This isn’t the same as writing flowery, detailed prose with lots of subtext and nuance. You have limited page space so use it wisely. It’s okay to simply TELL us what happens: ‘Meanwhile, xxx does xxx, and because of that xxx’. You can afford to mostly be blunt, fact-oriented and treat your synopsis like a blueprint or map of your film.
Four
We only need the BARE BONES of character description to understand who they are. You can’t afford to write reams on backstory and appearance (save this for your research notes), so what do we need to know about them to make sense of the story? Try and keep our introduction to them within the brackets: ‘At the dive bar they meet BOB SMITH (45, navigating a mid-life crisis in both looks and manner, always has somewhere better to be)…’
Five
Don’t treat the synopsis as a ‘scriptment.’ Including a few KEY quotes/dialogue snippets from your characters is fine but don’t overdo it, save that for your script. These “quotes” might help set the tone and allow us to sense your voice (see point 2, above), but use them wisely and keep them pithy.
Six
Think of your READER; that stressed, time-poor, red-eyed exec/producer. Format the synopsis clearly, run a spell-check, don’t cheat the margins, try and make it 1.5 or double spaced, give them some white space around your words.
Seven
Most companies have a specific policy on using AI so be warned. Using AI may risk you not being able to prove full copyright or IP. It might also make your synopsis sound like hundreds of others and strip away the thing about your writing that makes you special.
Remember, the synopsis will form most, if not all, of the 7-10 page treatment that you’ll develop with us if awarded BFI NETWORK Early Development Funding, which is open once per year and offers writers a grant of up to £5,000.