Mostly Painless Synopsis Writing Workshop

What is your main character’s name?

Age and general description -

List up to five adjectives that describe your character. Describe more than their physical self.

Example: Dani Britton - 31, data analyst from a small town in Oklahoma. The daughter of a truck driver, she grew up either on the road or passed from family member to family member. Her father taught her to read people. She is a former dive bartender.

Petite, deeply private, observant, resilient

What is your character’s normal external world when the story starts?

(E.g. - attorney, waitress, assassin, housewife, barfly, student, foster kid)

Are they good at it? Does this fit them?

Example: Dani works at Rasmund, an exclusive investigation firm specializing in corporate espionage. She’s on the team that analyzes data brought in by the field operatives. She can read people by the trash they leave behind. Her motto is ‘know the pattern, know the person.’ She is very good at this and enjoys the work, in large part because she doesn’t have to be among the public.

This information is included in the video.

What is your character’s normal internal world when the story starts?

E.g. - happily married, striving in their career, wrestling with some inner demon like addiction or grief, bored and phoning it in, on the brink of growth

She is mostly happy. Loves the work and her coworkers. She also secretly crushes on her coworker, Choo-Choo. She knows she’s come a long way from her impoverished childhood and still can’t believe she gets to live a block from THE National Geographic building. Part of her is always aware that she doesn’t fit in.

This information is included in the video.

Who are the important (to the story) people in their world at this stage?

Spouse, coworker, evil boss, villain hidden-in-plain-sight

Her coworkers - the gorgeous society scandal turned audio analyst, Sinclair “Choo-Choo” Charbaneaux, her best friend and fellow analyst, Fay, her boss, the imperious Mrs. O’Donnell, the field agents, including the obnoxious Evelyn.

This information is included in the video.

What’s the first indication that their world is going to change?

This is usually the inciting incident or call to action but there can be small clues to this disruption.

Any other indications? List any and all.

When the job they have been working on is suddenly canceled, Dani must run home to get the bits of research she had at home. When she returns, a team of assassins is moving through the building, killing everyone she knows, including her best friend Fay.

This information is included in the video.

How do they respond to this disruption?

Do they understand what’s really happening? If not, how are they wrong?

Her first instinct, honed from her unstable childhood, is to hide. Her small stature serves her as she hides in a bean bag chair, listening to the assassins killing everyone she knows. She manages to call 911…or so she thinks.

This information is included in the video.

If we have not already met the antagonist (e.g. villain hiding in plain sight) who are they?

Name, age, five adjectives

The phones at Rasmund have been rerouted to the mastermind of the hit, Tom Booker.

Early 40s, dark hair, vividly blue eyes. He is an otherwise unremarkable looking man, perfect at moving through crowds without attracting attention. But people have a hard time holding his stare. There is something in his eyes that lets you know he is the apex predator.

Compact, efficient, calm, patient, deadly

This information is included in the video.

What is the antagonist’s goal?

Why do they want this?

He wants to finish this job for the money. He is burned out on being a hitman. There are no challenges, nothing new to do.

This information is included in the video.

What does the antagonist do that irrevocably changes the course of the protagonist’s journey?

This is a pinch point, a plot turn, a doorway.

He makes contact with Dani. He technically doesn’t lie but he deceives her. (He doesn’t tell her he’s not 911 but assures her he is coming to get her. It’s not a lie in the strictest sense.) He also underestimates Dani. She realizes the line is rerouted and she’s talking to the boss. This makes it all even more personal for Dani.

This information is included in the video.

How does the main character react to this change? What does she think is happening? How does she insufficiently try to adapt to/stop the change? Does she make it worse?

She is pissed. Tom Booker becomes the focal point of her fear and anger and that makes her brave. Always a survivor, she manages to escape to the roof of the building, where she learns Choo-Choo also escaped. They see their boss, Mrs. O’Donnell, being brought out, bound and hooded, and taken into Booker’s van. She believes this hit is targeted to capture their boss and that they are all just collateral damage. With Choo-Choo’s help, they get off the roof and back to Dani’s car before the building is blown to bits. Her only thought at this point is to run and hide. Booker promises her, via cellphone, that he will find her.

This information is included in the video.

How does the antagonist react then? Do dominos fall or is there a concerted effort to thwart the main character or forge ahead with the antagonist’s plan? (If this is a murder mystery, this is where you note misdirections, misinterpreted clues, red herrings, and other characters’ false leads and accusations.)

This is often called the fun and games part of a story, where we see the main character building a team, regrouping and re-regrouping, obtaining new skills and dumping outdated ideas.

Booker is intrigued by Dani’s reactions. She doesn’t threaten. She doesn’t cry. She never loses her cool with him on the phone and he cannot figure her out. When he’s told the job isn’t done because there is a critical piece of data missing from the site, something new comes to life within him, knowing he must pursue Dani to capture it. She is prey worthy of his attention.

He tries to unravel her mystery, figure out what is so compelling about her, all the while appeasing his impatient client. In the process, he suspects the client is not who he thought it was. This job has the potential to go sideways in a very bad way. Normally he would cut his losses and bail but his intrigue with Dani and his professionalism compel him to press on.

Meanwhile, Dani and Choo-Choo race through D.C. trying to figure out what she has on her that the killers want. This is where we see how the things that made Dani weird in normal times become her salvation. Her damage becomes her strength. She’s squirrely and clever, has cash stashed, knows how to become invisible, not draw attention. She trusts nobody. She reads the clues of the random evidence she has in the indestructible security pouch she carries her work in. (This bag plays a part in several escapes and the finale.) Choo-Choo uses his suave society skills to get them information and access to necessary places. They are an odd but effective team. All the while, Dani talks with Tom on the phone, trying to figure out what he knows and how to stay ahead of him. Their conversations grow longer and more personal. As her world turns upside down, she finds herself not freaked out by the ease with which she chats with the man hired to kill her.

This information is included in the video.

What is the large complication or reveal that leads up to the climax?

In murder mysteries, these are often the second dead body and/or a stealth attack on the sleuth

This/these complications lead to the ‘mirror moment’ or midpoint (although it’s not always at the center of the book.) These are the complications that make you think that shit is getting real.

Dani tracks down Evelyn, a field agent who also escaped the attack. It is clear Evelyn is not handling the pressure well. Her manicured facade slips and she reveals that Rasmund was not private security but rather an institute for the CIA to operate illegally in the US, interrogating and disappearing foreign prisoners. The evidence they’re looking for is a small drive hidden in a champagne cork that Dani has been carrying in her bag. (The champagne is Veuve Cliquot, which means Widow Cliquot. Dani should have known this, studying the habits of the rich clients for so long. Choo-Choo should have as well. This is their haunting error, which is always a nice thing to have in a thriller.) Evelyn has been in contact with Mrs. O’Donnell, and says her captor will swap the hostage for the drive at the WWII Memorial that evening.

This information is included in the video.

What does your main character see in her mirror moment? This is the moment when your main character really assesses the situation honestly, perhaps for the first time in the story. They truly grasp what is at stake and have to determine if they are up to the task. (Per my development editor, it’s also an ideal opportunity to recap the story thus far, refreshing the important details for your readers.)

Who the fuck is Daniel Kathleen Britton, a hick bartender and forgotten child of Flat Road, Oklahoma to take on the CIA? She thought she was so clever, so free, so unentangled in the real world, only to find out she was a pawn all along. And because of her naivete, dozens of human lives have been taken in the same building where she worked. Dozens more will be taken if she cannot find a way to get the file to the public. She is unarmed. It’s just her and her not-too-tough sidekick against the most dangerous people on Earth.

She knew she shouldn’t have trusted anyone.

She knew ALL institutions are inherently corrupt.

She has known all her life that she is the only person she can count on and she doesn’t have much to draw on.

This information is included in the video.

How does she take this knowledge and regroup? What has she learned and how does she apply it to the problem?

While Evelyn unravels over drinks, telling them the truth about Rasmund and the CIA and insisting they meet Mrs. O’Donnell to hand over the file, Dani manages to upload the file to a stranger’s laptop. It’s all she can do to try to expose them. From there, all that is left is her courage. She, Choo-Choo and Evelyn head down to the National Mall to save Mrs. O’Donnell. Exhausted but clear eyed, she is willing to do anything.

This information is included in the video.

What does the antagonist cause that is the absolute worst case scenario for your main character? Why is this the WORST thing?

Trigger those emotional wounds, folks!

In this case, there are two antagonists, a minor and a major. The killers behind Rasmund who have hired Booker are the minor (from an emotional standpoint.) Booker is the major. The minor confrontation comes first.

At the WWII Memorial, Mrs. O’Donnell waits for them. We learn she had not been kidnapped but had, in fact, orchestrated the entire operation. She asks if they had seen the drive or made any copies. When they all say no, she shoots Evelyn in the head and tells Dani and Choo-Choo there is a sniper waiting to take them out too. She explains (in glorious villain fashion!) that she is a patriot doing the unpleasant work of freedom, blah blah blah. She ordered the hit on Rasmund because someone had grown a conscience and wanted to expose the operation. She gives the signal for her sniper to shoot them both.

(Triggers Dani’s deep distrust for all institutions and authorities.)

However, Booker is on site, having gotten a tip from his contact. He realizes what is really happening. He had not been aware that O’Donnell was the mastermind and regrets not abusing her when she was in his custody. (This is a parallel to the haunting error. More on that in the villain workshop.) He kills the sniper but not before shots are fired. Dani is hit in the leg. Choo-Choo is shot in the chest and falls into the memorial fountain. O’Donnell tries to taunt Booker but he shoots her in the head without hesitation. It’s just Dani and Booker now. Bleeding, exhausted and terrified, Dani runs.

(Triggers Dani’s basest survival instincts.)

This information is included in the video.

How does the antagonist react to this uprising? What’s their last-ditch effort?

This is the final showdown. Booker slowly stalks Dani toward the Tidal Basin. He is conflicted but fascinated. He doesn’t want to kill her but pities letting her die like an animal of cold and shock. He hates the people who brought all of this to pass but knows Dani has to die. If she doesn’t, he knows they will interrogate her and learn everything she may know about him and he will not be incarcerated.

He finds Dani collapsed and in shock. He tells her he would save her if he could. She is reduced to begging and, for once, Booker is moved. He comforts her in his weird way and promises to make it quick. But when he tries to gut her with his knives, the security pouch thwarts him. Dani rallies and almost manages to push him away but he punches her in the bullet wound. He is not fucking around but he is more fascinated by her grit than ever. In a gesture of what is really starting to feel like seduction, he wraps the strap of the security bag around his neck and puts her hand on either side. Then he pulls out his knife and asks her who she thinks can kill the other first.

This information is included in the video.

What is the victory scene?

Dani surrenders. She cannot get away. She is no match for his strength. She shows him tenderness, stroking his face. He tells her “I would save you if I could.” She smiles, sliding her arm underneath the security pouch strap and says “You will save me.” With that, she throws herself backwards into the Tidal Basin, dragging Booker with her. His head slams on the railing. She loses consciousness and falls into the water.

(This is the final hurrah of her deepest emotional wound - that she is too small, too powerless against the massive forces of the world. In this moment, she uses her apparent helplessness and petite stature to literally tip the balance of power.)

This information is included in the video.

How is the main character’s world different upon finishing the fight?

This is the place to show the character’s growth and the theme of the book. This is the payoff of the story so don’t be afraid to be more expressive than you might have been in the rest of the synopsis.

Dani spends three months in a military hospital being treated and interrogated. Choo-Choo barely survived. She is told Booker survived as well and is in the same facility. After all of the pain and brutality she has endured in the recovery, her view on ‘enemy’ has changed. She has lost everything.

Forced to sign an imposing nondisclosure agreement that she knows is ironclad, she is given $5,000 and the keys to her car. Her apartment has been searched and ransacked. She takes nothing with her but a few clothes, a picture of her father, and the refrigerator magnets she had collected with her father growing up.

She drives to Lexington KY where we learn she has been implementing a lesson her father taught her. Twice a year for five years, she had been mailing cash to a PO box under a fake name. The post office box key is hidden within a souvenir magnet. She has $45,000.

As a child, she’d been told it was better to be careful than lucky. As an adult, she has learned it is even better to be both.

Introduction of characters and their normal world.

Hint at change, and the inciting incident.

VIDEO ONE: questions 1-2ish

First paragraphs: Who is the main character? Use the information you wrote down in questions one and two to build an introductory paragraph for your character. If you are writing romance, include the love interests information in their own paragraph.

Example:

WIDOW FILE by SG REDLING:

DANI BRITTON is a petite, deeply private thirty-one year old woman from a small town in Oklahoma. The daughter of a truck driver, she grew up either on the road or passed from family member to family member. Between her itinerant childhood and her years working dive bars, she excels at reading people.

She now works at Rasmund, an exclusive investigation firm specializing in corporate espionage in the D.C. area. She’s on the team that analyzes data brought in by the field operatives, reading people by the trash they leave behind. Her motto is ‘know the pattern, know the person.’ She is very good at this and enjoys the work. She also knows she’s come a long way from her impoverished childhood. Her coworkers - the gorgeous society scandal turned audio analyst, SINCLAIR “CHOO-CHOO” CHARBANEAUX, her boss, the imperious MRS. O’DONNELL, the field agents, including the obnoxious EVELYN - make a strange but effective team.

ROMANCE SOLD TO HARLEQUIN DARE: Note: both love interests are introduced.

​​

Wishing she could change her life as easily as coloring hair, stylist and San Francisco native, ADRIANNA DEL TORO, spends her days consoling her first-world-problem-complaining clients while dealing with her mother’s probate, selling her family home that’s appraised lower than the mortgage, and an asthmatic car. Life is manageable in that sort of crossed-fingers, eyes closed, kind of way, until the day her least favorite client, San Francisco District Attorney, GREGORY HERNDON, assaults her after work.

Enter ALEXEI VOLKOV, ex-Spetsnatz, now American restauranteur and real-estate mogul. He left Russia to live by a new code: life for family, honor always. Alexei intends to question Herndon about a rape case he’s refusing to file, but he finds Herndon choking Adrianna in an alley. She’s fighting hard, and when he pulls Herndon off her and tosses him into the trunk of his car, she accepts his offer to drive her home. She suggests they call the police, but accepts his reasoning the police will believe Herndon’s lies. He urges her to forget everything.

VIDEO TWO: questions 3-5ish

Next: give us a clue to the setting and situation (the character’s normal world) leading into the inciting incident (when something happens to upset their normal world.) These are the answers to your questions three through five.

Example:

WIDOW FILE:

When the job they have been working on is suddenly canceled, Dani must run home to get the research she had at home. When she returns, a team of assassins is moving through the building, killing everyone she works with.

Her first instinct is to hide. Her small stature serves her as she hides in a bean bag chair, listening to the assassins perform their brutal work. She manages to call 911…or so she thinks.

VIDEO THREE: questions 5-7ish

Using your answer to questions 5-7, give us the inciting incident–the thing that happens (at the end of Act 1) that forces our characters into a new direction. Introduce the antagonist or villain (or if you’re writing romance, you may have more than one antagonist). If you are writing suspense, you may have started your story with a situation that forces your main character to make a decision. Still, at the end of Act 1, the character will make a decision that sends them in a new direction.

Example:

WIDOW FILE:

The phones at Rasmund have been rerouted to the mastermind of the hit, TOM BOOKER.

Early 40s, dark hair, vividly blue eyes, he is an otherwise unremarkable looking man, perfect at moving through crowds without attracting attention. But people have a hard time holding his stare. There is something in his eyes that lets you know he is the apex predator.

Booker took this job only for the money. He is burned out on being a hitman. There are no challenges, nothing new to do. The motives of his clients feel petty and absurd. When he makes contact with Dani, he underestimates her, thinking she is just another corporate drone. But Dani, ever observant, realizes the line is rerouted and she’s talking to the boss. Tom Booker becomes the focal point of her fear and anger and that makes her brave. Always a survivor, she manages to escape to the roof of the building, where she learns Choo-Choo also escaped. They see their boss, Mrs. O’Donnell, being brought out, bound and hooded, and taken into Booker’s van. She believes this hit is targeted to capture their boss and that they are all just collateral damage. With Choo-Choo’s help, they get off the roof and back to Dani’s car before the building is blown to bits. Her only thought at this point is to run and hide. Booker promises her, via cellphone, that he will find her.

Booker is intrigued by Dani’s reactions. She doesn’t threaten. She doesn’t cry. She never loses her cool with him on the phone and he cannot figure her out. When he’s told the job isn’t done because there is a critical piece of data missing from the site, something new comes to life within him, knowing he must pursue Dani to capture it. She is prey worthy of his attention.

He tries to unravel her mystery, figure out what is so compelling about her, all the while appeasing his impatient client. In the process, he suspects the job may not be what he thought it was and has the potential to go sideways in a very bad way. Normally he would cut his losses and bail but his intrigue with Dani and his professionalism compel him to press on.

VIDEO FOUR: questions 8-11ish

Now we begin to tell what happens in Act II. This is sometimes called the Fun and Games, if you’re a Save the Cat fan. We want to know the internal and external struggles the characters are going through up to the point of the black moment, where everything falls apart. This section includes questions 8-11. You want to hit on the highlights and reveal all that’s important to the plot. If you’re writing a 2 page synopsis, this section may be just a few paragraphs.

Example: WIDOW FILE

Meanwhile, Dani and Choo-Choo race through D.C. trying to figure out what she has on her that the killers want. This is where we see how the things that made Dani weird in normal times become her salvation. Her damage becomes her strength. She’s squirrely and clever, has cash stashed, knows how to become invisible, not draw attention. She trusts nobody. She reads the clues of the random evidence she has in the indestructible security pouch she carries her work in. (This bag plays a part in several escapes and the finale.) Choo-Choo uses his suave society skills to get them information and access to necessary places. All the while, Dani talks with Tom on the phone, trying to figure out what he knows and how to stay ahead of him. Their conversations grow longer and more personal. As her world turns upside down, she finds herself not freaked out by the ease with which she chats with the man hired to kill her.

Dani tracks down Evelyn, a field agent who also escaped the attack. It is clear Evelyn is not handling the pressure well. Her manicured facade slips and she reveals that Rasmund was not private security but rather an institute for the CIA to operate illegally in the US, interrogating and disappearing foreign prisoners. The evidence they’re looking for is a small drive hidden in a champagne cork that Dani has been carrying in her bag. Evelyn has been in contact with Mrs. O’Donnell, and says her captor will swap the hostage for the drive at the WWII Memorial that evening.

This revelation nearly derails Dani. Who the hell is she, a hick bartender and forgotten child of Flat Road, Oklahoma to take on the CIA? She thought she was so clever, so free, so unentangled in the real world, only to find out she was a pawn all along. And because of her naivete, dozens of human lives have been taken in the same building where she worked. Dozens more will be taken if she cannot find a way to get the file to the public. She is unarmed. It’s just her and her not-too-tough sidekick against the most dangerous people on Earth.

While Evelyn unravels over drinks, telling them the truth about Rasmund and the CIA and insisting they meet Mrs. O’Donnell to hand over the file, Dani manages to upload the file to a stranger’s laptop. It’s all she can do to try to expose them. From there, all that is left is her courage. She, Choo-Choo and Evelyn head down to the National Mall to save Mrs. O’Donnell. Exhausted but clear eyed, she is willing to do anything.

VIDEO FIVE: questions 12-13ish

Give us the black moment, also known as the all is lost moment leading to the climax. Usually, this is where the antagonist wins the conflict, or for romance, it’s the break up scene. Use your answers from questions 12 and 13 to put this together.

Example: Widow File

At the WWII Memorial, Mrs. O’Donnell waits for them. We learn she had not been kidnapped but had, in fact, orchestrated the entire operation. She asks if they had seen the drive or made any copies. When they all say no, she shoots Evelyn in the head and tells Dani and Choo-Choo there is a sniper waiting to take them out too. She explains (in glorious villain fashion!) that she is a patriot doing the unpleasant work of freedom. She ordered the hit on Rasmund because someone had grown a conscience and wanted to expose the operation. She gives the signal for her sniper to shoot them both.

However, Booker is on site, having gotten a tip from his contact. He realizes what is really happening. He had not been aware that O’Donnell was the mastermind and regrets not abusing her when she was in his custody. He kills the sniper but not before shots are fired. Dani is hit in the leg. Choo-Choo is shot in the chest and falls into the memorial fountain. O’Donnell tries to taunt Booker but he shoots her in the head without hesitation.

It’s just Dani and Booker now. Bleeding, exhausted and terrified, Dani runs.

VIDEO SIX: questions 14-16ish

Using your answers from questions 14-16, show us how the protagonist regroups. What have they learned to overcome their emotional wound…and how does that knowledge provide the solution for their situation? Then, what does the antagonist do that really triggers your protagonist’s wound? What is your antagonist’s last-ditch effort?

Example: Widow File

This is the final showdown. Booker slowly stalks Dani toward the Tidal Basin. He is conflicted but fascinated. He doesn’t want to kill her but pities letting her die like an animal of cold and shock. He hates the people who brought all of this to pass but knows Dani has to die. If she doesn’t, he knows they will interrogate her and learn everything she may know about him and he will not be incarcerated.

He finds Dani collapsed and in shock. He tells her he would save her if he could. She is reduced to begging and, for once, Booker is moved. He comforts her in his weird way and promises to make it quick. But when he tries to gut her with his knives, the security pouch thwarts him. Dani rallies and almost manages to push him away but he punches her in the bullet wound. He is not fucking around but he is more fascinated by her grit than ever. In a gesture of what is really starting to feel like seduction, he wraps the strap of the security bag around his neck and puts her hand on either side. Then he pulls out his knife and asks her who she thinks can kill the other first.

VIDEO SEVEN: questions 17-18

YOU MADE IT! Using the answers from questions 17-18 write the protagonist’s new world, how they’ve changed, and what their future looks like.

Dani surrenders. She cannot get away. She is no match for his strength. She shows him tenderness, stroking his face. He tells her, “I would save you if I could.” She smiles, sliding her arm underneath the security pouch strap, and says, “You will save me.” With that, she throws herself backwards into the Tidal Basin, dragging Booker with her. His head slams on the railing. She loses consciousness and falls into the water.

Skip ahead three months.

Dani has been in a military hospital being treated and interrogated. Choo-Choo barely survived. She is told Booker survived as well and is in the same facility. After all of the pain and brutality she has endured in the recovery, her view on ‘enemy’ has changed. She has lost everything.

Forced to sign an imposing nondisclosure agreement that she knows is ironclad, she is given $5,000 and the keys to her car. Her apartment has been searched and ransacked. She takes nothing with her but a few clothes, a picture of her father, and the refrigerator magnets she had collected with her father growing up. She drives to Lexington KY where we learn she has been implementing a lesson her father taught her. Twice a year for five years, she had been mailing cash to a PO box under a fake name. She has $45,000.

As a child, she’d been told it was better to be careful than lucky. As an adult, she has learned it is even better to be both.