How to write a synopsis for a screenplay, with an example

A synopsis is a short prose summary of a story that covers the main characters, the major turning points and the ending, usually in one page or less. For a screenplay, it tells a reader what happens in the film from beginning to end, so they can judge the story without reading a hundred pages.

Producers, managers, contests, fellowships and development executives all ask for synopses, and the document often travels further than the script itself. It is also one of the most useful private tools a writer has: summarizing a story in a page exposes a sagging middle, or an ending that does not answer the opening, faster than any rewrite.

What is a synopsis?

A synopsis is a summary of the whole plot, written in present-tense prose, that reveals the ending. Unlike the back of a book jacket or a trailer, it does not keep secrets: the reader needs to know how the story resolves to judge whether it works.

A good screenplay synopsis does three things at once. It tells the story in order, it makes clear whose story it is and what they want, and it gives a sense of tone. A comedy synopsis should read lighter than a thriller synopsis, even though neither contains jokes or action set pieces — the difference is in what you choose to describe and how quickly you move.

Synopsis vs logline vs treatment

The logline, the synopsis and the treatment are the same story at three lengths. The logline is one sentence, the synopsis is a page or less and the treatment is a longer prose telling, often several pages, that walks through the story sequence by sequence.

• Logline: one or two sentences naming the protagonist, goal, obstacle and stakes. It sells the premise and does not give away the ending. See how to write a logline.
• Synopsis: a few paragraphs to one page. It covers the setup, the main turns and the resolution, ending included, and leaves out most secondary characters and subplots.
• Treatment: several pages telling the story in vivid prose, with key scenes, some characterization and occasionally a line of dialogue. See how to write a film treatment.
• Outline or beat sheet: a working document for the writer, usually a list of scenes or beats rather than readable prose. See the beat sheet guide.

How long should a screenplay synopsis be?

A screenplay synopsis is usually one page, single-spaced — roughly 300 to 600 words. Some requests ask for a single paragraph of 100 to 150 words; development documents for a complex feature or a series can run to two pages.

Length depends on who is reading. A contest form may cap you at a few hundred characters; a producer may want a page they can pass to a colleague; a fellowship application sets its own limit. Write the one-page version first. It is far easier to cut a full page down to a paragraph than to stretch a paragraph into a page that still makes sense.

One-page synopsis structure

A one-page synopsis follows the shape of the story itself: a paragraph for the setup, one or two for the middle and one for the climax and resolution. Four to six paragraphs is the natural length for most features.

1. Opening paragraph: introduce the protagonist with one telling detail, their world and the inciting incident. The first sentence establishes who and where; the paragraph ends on the problem.
2. Commitment: the decision or event that locks the protagonist into the story — the end of act one — with their goal stated plainly.
3. Rising complications: the two or three biggest obstacles of the middle, including the midpoint turn. Choose events that change the direction of the story, not every set piece.
4. Low point: what the protagonist loses or learns that makes success seem impossible.
5. Climax and resolution: how the central conflict is resolved and what has changed in the protagonist. Do not hint — say what happens.

Introduce major characters in capitals the first time they appear, with an age or a defining trait, as you would in a script. Keep the named cast to three or four; anyone else can be "her landlord" or "a rival crew".

How to write a synopsis step by step

To write a synopsis, start from your logline and beat sheet, pick out the six to eight events that change the story's direction, then write them as connected present-tense prose in story order and revise for clarity and tone.

1. List the turning points. Pull the inciting incident, the act-one break, the midpoint, the low point and the climax from your outline.
2. Find the causal links. Put "because" or "so" between each pair of events. If a step does not follow from the one before, the synopsis — and probably the script — has a gap.
3. Draft without stopping. Write it long first, in the present tense and the third person, then cut.
4. Cut subplots that do not affect the ending. A subplot belongs in a synopsis only if the climax depends on it.
5. Show emotion through action. "She burns the letter" carries more than "she is conflicted".
6. Read it to someone who does not know the story and ask them to tell it back. Wherever they stumble is where your synopsis is unclear.

Synopsis example

This original synopsis expands The Keeper, one of the one-page scripts in our Screenplay Museum, into a feature-length story. The feature version is invented for this guide.

ELI MARSH (60s) has kept the lighthouse on Carrow Rock for nine years, writing "no vessels sighted" in his log every night. The island's owners tell him the light will be automated in the spring and he will be sent ashore. On his last winter, a light flashes back at his own from open water where no ship should be.

Eli reports it; the coastguard finds nothing. When the light returns, he answers in the old signal code his late wife taught him, and a reply comes back — a single word: STAY. Determined to prove he is not imagining it, Eli takes the station's boat out against orders and finds a drifting fishing boat with a young stowaway, MARA (19), who has been living aboard since her father's trawler sank.

Eli hides Mara in the tower, and the two form a wary friendship over the work of keeping the light. At the midpoint, the owners' engineer, CORMAC (40s), arrives early to begin the automation, finds signs of a second person and reports Eli, who lies to protect her and is suspended.

Facing removal, Eli finds an entry in the old radio log: Mara's father called the lighthouse the night his boat went down, and Eli, asleep after a double shift, missed the call. Mara reads it too, and leaves in the boat during a storm.

When the storm knocks out the new automated system, Eli breaks his suspension to light the lamp by hand. Its beam brings Mara back to the rock, along with a lifeboat crew who would otherwise have run aground. In spring the light is automated as planned, but Eli stays on as the island's caretaker, and Mara begins training as a coastguard radio operator on the mainland.

Notice what the example does: it names only three characters, states the ending outright, shows feeling through what people do and gives each major turn its own paragraph.

Common synopsis mistakes

• Hiding the ending. A teaser that closes on "Will Eli discover the truth?" is a blurb, not a synopsis.
• Too many names. Every new character is another thing for the reader to track.
• Listing scenes instead of telling a story. "Then… then… then" reads like an outline; causes and consequences read like a story.
• Describing the theme instead of the events. Tell the story that carries the theme and let the reader find it.
• Writing in the past tense. Synopses, like scripts, are written in the present tense.

Write it in Scenaloom

In a Scenaloom screenplay project, Worldview — the story bible — holds your logline, core issue and your own custom entries, so a synopsis can sit beside the logline it grew from. Novel projects have a Synopsis section in the story bible. Scenaloom AI reads the story bible when you ask it for help, and the outline and beats board keep the turning points you summarize in one place. Read about Worldview and knowledge files or start a project.