REVISING
Step 3. Improving the Content
Your synopsis will almost invariably be too long. Begin cutting. Omit needless details. Shorten sentences. Use strong nouns and verbs in order
to omit modifiers. Keep cutting.Try this challenge: If you had to summarize the original in a single sentence, what would you say? If you could
add on more sentences, what would you say? Follow this progression until you have stated all the important ideas.
PROOFREADING
Step 4. Checking the Details
Once you have completed the revision, check for spelling, punctuation, grammar, mechanics, and usage. Refer also to the dictionary, a
thesaurus, and/or the spell check/grammar check for spelling and vocabulary problems. The steps above should enable you to develop a
synopsis. Compare your own with the example below, and study the analysis which follows.
SAMPLE SYNOPSIS
The following synopsis summarizes a novel of nearly 550 pages.
Ice-Age Novel
The second book of a trilogy, The Valley of the Horses, fictionalizes the beginning of civilization in the Asian area north of the Beran
Sea. Like Jean M., Auel’s other two books, The Clan of the Cave Bear and The Mammoth Hunters, this one gets its foundation from
archaeological research supporting the evolution of man. In this unusual historical novel, the reader follows Ayla, a child of the Others who has
been reared by the Clan of the Cave Bear only to be ejected from the Clan when she violates customs she cannot understand or accept. In exile
in the Valley of the Horses, she survives five year alone until she meets Jondalar, a man of the Others.
Ayla faces a lonely struggle for survival after her death curse by the Clan. To solve basic survival problems, she must use logic: alone,
how can she kill, butcher, and process an animal large enough to feed her through the severe winter; alone, how can she provide clothing,
cooking utensils, sleeping skins, and shelter for protection; alone, how can she protect herself from the dangers around her? Her training as a
medicine woman and her knowledge of hunting couples with the large brain characteristic of the Others allow her to succeed. Also, as a result