5 Tips on Writing a Memoir Synopsis

Pamela Jane
4 min readAug 18, 2019

I thought I had everything I needed for my memoir package: a beautifully polished manuscript, a well-written query letter, and a strong proposal. But — surprise! — I discovered I needed a synopsis, too. I swear, a root canal or, better yet, writing another memoir would be a lot easier and more relaxing.

I did some on-line research about writing a memoir synopsis and really it’s quite easy. All you have to do is toss it off, hitting the highlights while simultaneously demonstrating the dramatic arc in vividly evoked scenes that convey the universality of the story in the style and tone of the original piece.

It reminds me of my daughter’s driving lesson. She has her permit now and spent two hours on the road recently with Steve, a certified driving instructor. It was the first time she’d done night-driving on major highways. And then it started to rain.

“Turn on your wind-shield wipers!” cried Steve, as they merged on to Route 95, “check your blind spot, flip on your blinker and for heaven’s sake, speed up!”

What’s so hard about that?

Well, for one thing (driving aside; I didn’t inherit the merging traffic gene) writing a memoir is very different from summing one up. It involves different sides of the brain — special synapses for synopses. I think I may have missed out on that gene…

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Pamela Jane
Pamela Jane

Written by Pamela Jane

Pamela Jane is a children's author & essayist; her work has appeared in The NY Times, Wall Street Journal, NY Daily News, Writer's Digest, and The Writer.

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