BOOK REVIEW #1

WRITING THE FICTION SYNOPSIS

A STEP BY STEP APPROACH

AUTHOR: Pam McCutcheon

Reviewed by: Linda J. Dunn

I had purchased Pam McCutcheon's book over a year ago and it was in my to-read stack when I decided it was time to take it for a test drive. The book proclaims itself to be a hands-on workshop in a book and I agree that the book does an admirable job of taking the reader by the hand through the steps involved in writing a synopsis.

With this work for every aspiring writer? No more than any book will work for any reader. Still, I think this one is worth the price. If it doesn't work for you, then there's always E-Bay.

The book is divided into six chapters: Getting Started, Knowing Your Characters, Understanding your Plot, Filling in the Gaps, Writing the First Draft, and Pulling It All Together. There are blank worksheets in Appendix A and sample synopses in Appendix B and C.

I found the chapters to be quite easy to follow. It helped, of course, that the author used three fairly well-viewed movies as guidelines for writing the synopses. I have seen The American President, have heard of Speed (but could follow the process despite not having see the movie), and Star Wars. If you are even vaguely familiar with those three movies, then you're well on your way to being able to relate to what the author is pulling from each to show how to go from worksthee to synopsis.

I took my most recent WiP and went through the first five chapters fairly easily. The final chapter, of course, is more difficult in the same way that learning to drive a car is more difficult than sitting in the driveway and going through each individual step. Still, the book test drove fairly well and I recommend it.