Let's start at the beginning
How I pitched this novel to my publisher, why a synopsis can be a good diving-off point, and a discount
As I’ve mentioned, I didn’t plan any of The Household. Before I began writing it, I only had a vague idea of the key characters and their storylines. But I still wrote a synopsis, because publishers need to see these things before you begin a project. Even though I’d already sold my publisher the book, I still have to pitch the book.
The working title of the novel was Unfortunate Creatures. This is the pitch:
Stacey Halls Book 4
Working title: Unfortunate Creatures
Background
Charles Dickens is one of the most – if not the most – famous men of the 19th century, and his philanthropy and social commentary is much lauded. But few people know of an endeavour he embarked on in the 1840s to help vulnerable women. In 1847, with the help of his friend Angela Burdett-Coutts, Dickens established Urania Cottage, a “home for homeless women” in Shepherds Bush, west London, for young women who were recently released from prisons or forced to work as prostitutes. The aim was to get them back on their feet, and at the end of a year they would emigrate to Australia, Canada or South Africa to begin a new life. This story is inspired by Urania Cottage and the young women who found refuge there. ‘Unfortunate creatures’ is how Dickens referred to his protegees in various letters to Miss Coutts. That said, though Dickens’ venture is at the heart of the novel, the man himself will be absent from the page. This is not a novel about Dickens, or one that has him as a character; he is alluded to indirectly and directly, and there may be a scene where he features on the page, but he won’t have an integral part.
Story
Set in 1847, when the home opens, the novel follows three principal characters: Josephine, Martha and Angela Coutts.
Jilted by her lover Annie in prison, Josephine is depressed and heartbroken when she arrives at Urania Cottage. A life of crime has made her surly and mistrustful, and she doubts she has what it takes to go the distance.
After having lived a year in a penitentiary for prostitutes, Martha is the first inmate at Urania, and ready for a clean start. But when news arrives that her younger sister Amy has gone missing, Martha is forced to choose between her own future and her family’s.
The richest woman in England, Angela lives a full and satisfying life. At 33 with no husband or children, she finds pleasure in her friends and work. But a stalker who has plagued her for a decade has been released from prison – and this time he wants revenge.
Unfortunate Creatures explores the entwined fates of all three women, as they embark on the biggest journeys of their life – to freedom.
I wrote this before I began the novel. This is the synopsis on the published jacket of the book (which I also wrote. What can I say? I like writing synopses):
London, 1847. In a quiet house in the countryside outside London, the finishing touches are being made to welcome a group of young women. The house and its location are top secret, its residents unknown to one another, but the girls have one thing in common: they are fallen. Offering refuge for prostitutes, petty thieves and the destitute, Urania Cottage is a second chance at life - but how badly do they want it?
Meanwhile, a few miles away in a Piccadilly mansion, millionairess Angela Burdett-Coutts, one of the benefactors of Urania Cottage, makes a discovery that leaves her cold. Her stalker of ten years has been released from prison, and she knows it's only a matter of time before their nightmarish game resumes once more.
As the women's worlds collide in ways they could never have expected, they will discover that freedom always comes at a price . . .
As you can see, it has changed somewhat, particularly the first half. The first synopsis doesn’t explain what Urania Cottage is. And then once you’ve done that, it would be a little convoluted and lengthy to introduce all the main characters one by one. Even though I wrote it this way, I don’t personally love synopses that introduce loads of similar-sounding characters with their individual dilemmas. Especially when you start adding more names into their dilemmas. In the first one, we have Josephine, Annie, Martha, Amy/Emily, Angela and her stalker. That’s way too many people to expect someone who is just browsing – or an agent reading your submission email – to care about. It’s overwhelming and, I think, off-putting. If I get sent proofs where more than about three characters are mentioned in the synopsis, you’ve lost me already.
Synopses are for the top lines of the drama and the ironies that come into play.
There are differences between the public-facing synopsis and the synopsis that’s for you, the writer. But the main similarity is to iron out your irony. To introduce the principal cast and their individual perils. The basic sentence structure is this: “So and so is xxxxxx. But then this happens xxxxxx. Can she xxxxxx?” Work-ups of my syponses tend to be quite repetitive, with lots of buts and questions. These are helpful, though, because the character’s dilemma – the question posed about their scenario, whether directly or subtextually – is the crux of their story. The question is explored on every page.
Writing a synopsis for your work in progress (or in thought) can help clarify things, but mainly it answers the question: “What is it?” You don’t have to know everything that happens in a story to write one, but it is the central pillar around which your story will grow and bind to.
Some publishers write their authors’ official synopses for them, but I have written all four of mine. Here they are:
The Familiars
Fleetwood Shuttleworth is 17 years old, married, and pregnant for the fourth time. But as the mistress at Gawthorpe Hall, she still has no living child, and her husband Richard is anxious for an heir. When Fleetwood finds a letter she isn't supposed to read from the doctor who delivered her third stillbirth, she is dealt the crushing blow that she will not survive another pregnancy.
Then she crosses paths by chance with Alice Gray, a young midwife. Alice promises to help her give birth to a healthy baby, and to prove the physician wrong.
As Alice is drawn into the witchcraft accusations that are sweeping the North-West, Fleetwood risks everything by trying to help her. But is there more to Alice than meets the eye?
Soon the two women's lives will become inextricably bound together as the legendary trial at Lancaster approaches, and Fleetwood's stomach continues to grow. Time is running out, and both their lives are at stake.
Only they know the truth. Only they can save each other...
The Foundling
London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter Clara at London's Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst, that Clara has died in care, Bess is astonished to be told she has already claimed her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why.
Less than a mile from Bess's lodgings in the city, in a quiet, gloomy townhouse on the edge of London, a young widow has not left the house in a decade. When her close friend - an ambitious young doctor at the Foundling Hospital - persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.
Mrs England
West Yorkshire, 1904. When newly-graduated nurse Ruby May takes a position looking after the children of Charles and Lilian England, a wealthy couple form a powerful dynasty of mill owners, she hopes it will be the fresh start she needs. But as she adapts to life at the isolated Hardcastle House, it becomes clear there's something not quite right about the beautiful, mysterious Mrs England.
Ostracised by the other servants and feeling increasingly uneasy, soon a series of strange events will force Ruby to question everything she thought she knew . . .
In effect, the synopsis presents thesis, inciting incident and antithesis from the three-act structure. Synthesis (ie. resolution) is posed as a question.
I don’t know how often I referred to my quickly typed pitch during the writing process. I didn’t spend much time on it; it was only rough. But by the time I’d finished a couple of drafts I had more clarity on the story and was able to come up with the one published on the jacket (an observation now I’ve seen them all written down together: clearly I love a quiet house outside London).
But the ironies remain the same. How badly do the girls want new lives? And will Angela ever be free of her stalker? It also introduces the theme of freedom.
A word on themes
I don’t dwell too much, or at all, on themes while writing or even afterwards, but they are often necessary for jacket copy or pitching your work to an agent. My publisher adds those bits to the synopsis; I’m not good at themes. I find it difficult to zoom out from my work and apply grandiose, macrocosmic keywords. It’s not how I approach story and even afterwards I can’t remove myself enough to reduce it to themes or concepts.
This might be confusing, because synopses are by their nature reductive. I’m confusing myself a little bit. But I find writing a story pitch an act of expansion and considering themes diminishing, like having to describe yourself in three words. This is where it can help to have a second opinion: a publisher, agent or friend tell you what they think the novel is about.
The Household is published next week! To celebrate, I’m offering a 20% discount on subscriptions. Because also from next week, I will begin to share my genuine, unedited first draft of the manuscript. I’ll be picking it apart over the coming months, so you’d do well to read the book first. That way you won’t be furious with me about spoilers, but these will always be flagged anyway.
This is my last free email; from now Housekeeping is for paid subs only. There might be the occasional free email, when I get round to it, but I can’t promise anything other than shameless self-promotion. Thanks for sticking around, and I hope to see you behind the paywall.