Synopsis / submission letters for futureshocks.

[Dave Wednesday]

Aaaaaaaargh!

Any tips?  Anyone?  It was easier writing the bloody script!

(I'm sat in front of the laptop - staring at the submission guidelines.  They all make perfect sense until I go to write mine and it all turns to cheese.  The worst thing is is its not a complicated story.  Its not like I'm thinking 'if the synopsis is this difficult there must be a problem with the script').

[Starkers]

You might not want to take my advice as I've yet to have a Future Shock accepted but...

I've always followed the principle that a synopsis should be a pretty factual, almost dry, retelling of the story. This isn't an elevator pitch where the idea is to grab their attention, they just want to know the plot. so something along the lines of...

Out walking in the desert Billy comes across a crashed UFO. Inside he finds a ring which he steals. When he gets home he puts the ring on and finds he can shoot lasers out of his bum...

That sort of thing. I don't think you need to do a blow by blow/ panel by panel account, you just need to show the flow of the story from beginning to end. This doesn't mean you can't embellish a bit, or add in commentary about parts of the story but I think overall they want a nuts and bolts retelling that will inform whether they want to read the script.

I'd be very interested to see what others think however.

[sheridan]

You might not want to take my advice as I've yet to have a Future Shock accepted but...

Out walking in the desert Billy comes across a crashed UFO. Inside he finds a ring which he steals. When he gets home he puts the ring on and finds he can shoot lasers out of his bum...

I can see where you went wrong.  You should have submitted it to Heavy Metal :-P

[Starkers]

I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I've never submitted a Future Shock about a kid with lasers coming out of his backside! 

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I've never submitted a Future Shock about a kid with lasers coming out of his backside! 

And that is why you fail

[pauljholden]

Aaaaaaaargh!

Any tips?  Anyone?  It was easier writing the bloody script!

(I'm sat in front of the laptop - staring at the submission guidelines.  They all make perfect sense until I go to write mine and it all turns to cheese.  The worst thing is is its not a complicated story.  Its not like I'm thinking 'if the synopsis is this difficult there must be a problem with the script').

Think of some classic future shocks and figure out what the synopsis of those would be; might be easier to do that to warm up before starting your own.
pj

[Starkers]

I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I've never submitted a Future Shock about a kid with lasers coming out of his backside! 

And that is why you fail

And now someone else will probably nab a wonderful idea 

[M.I.K.]

Astro Boy beat you to it by several decades...

[James Dilworth]

I'd like to make it perfectly clear that I've never submitted a Future Shock about a kid with lasers coming out of his backside! 

And that is why you fail

And now someone else will probably nab a wonderful idea 

I was thinking of changing Billy to a twenty-something female and calling her Billi Blaster Bum.