Synopsis writing is more than simply reducing a series of visuals to an array of carefully chosen words weaved in plausible language. It is carrying out the aforementioned task keeping in mind a few more factors. Writing synopses for television shows can get tedious and time-consuming unless the following points are considered by a writer.
Synopsis writing can be time-consuming yet fruitful!
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Acquaint Yourself With The Client
Synopses are pitches that make their accompanying visuals sell. Your client will always look at each synopsis from the perspective of a consumer, who is to be enticed enough to consider clicking to play the video. To achieve this aim, your client will expect a certain level of clarity in your language to which consumers from many strata of society can connect with, thus increasing their chances of hitting the play button and adding to the views. Therefore, knowing your client’s mind accurately helps.
Avoid Unnecessary Influx Of Words
What potentially smites the impact and meaning of a sentence is the unnecessary usage of jargon and bombastic polysyllabic words. Too many words lead the reader into a state of confusion where finding out what certain words mean gets priority over understanding the meaning of such sentences.
Narrate. Don’t Spoil
Yup. That is the unspoken, taciturn mantra for achieving your client’s assent. Somehow, your client may not communicate to you their exact definition of narrating an episode through a synopsis. However, if one keeps in mind that the suspense or the cliffhanger is to be preserved until the end, it helps in the long run. Spoilers are out of the question.
Concision Is The Key
Conciseness is modernity’s child. It is also the silent demand for a consumer and, thus, the client. Using easy words to replace three or four words saves the readers’ time and may give them more information. Keeping a thesaurus handy can be of help only if one doesn’t fish out more sesquipedalian or long words from it.
Create Intrigue
The name of the game is intrigue or suspense. A synopsis provoking even a disinterested reader to hit the play button does wonder for your client. Intrigue may at times be a part of an episode, which adds to the mood set by words later. However, even a normal episode can be made to appear full of suspense if one chooses words accordingly and places them in a manner that makes the reader demand answers, and thus move to the respective episode in search of it.
Avoid Dragging
Trying not to drag an episodic synopsis becomes a challenge for many people involved in synopsis writing. Sometimes, the episode lacks interesting events to offer, and the writer ends up stretching from one event to eternity. This is natural but can be avoided by having a keen eye for subplots or inconsequential happenings that are still parts of the episode.
Uniformity In Mood, Tense & Style
Once lost in the flow while being involved in synopsis writing, one often forgets the significance of maintaining continuity in tense and sometimes their own style of writing. It is preferable to write synopses in the general present tense which simplifies it for the reader. Setting a mood or a personal style and keeping it intact for each synopsis one writes is of utmost importance because a wavering style can indicate disinterest of the writer.
