How to write a summary of a story?: A Complete Guide

Have you ever read a story that you wished to tell your friends about it? But you do not know how to tell them without missing the details.

Summarising a story is an important skill and it helps you to share the main idea of a story. Knowing to how to write a summary of a story and how to present it, makes it way more fun to share it with friends. This blog will enumerate what a summary is, important elements of a story, how to write a summary, and how to write a synopsis for a novel. Read the blog to know more.

What is a Summary?

A summary is a brief and concise version of an original tale that captures main points and essential elements. A summary's focus is on the core aspects of the plot, important characters, main events and theme of the story.

A good summary gives a clear idea of the story without getting lost in the details of the story.

Steps for Summarising a Story

1. Read the story: You need to read the story carefully bit by bit from start to finish. This makes it helpful to understand all variations in the story, which is important for an effective summary.
2. Take notes: As you start reading, take important notes, write events and notable quotes. Highlight important junctures in the story that reveal the main plot, major characters and the story's resolution.
3. Key elements need to be identified: It is essential to understand essential components of the story such as plot, character setting, conflict resolution and theme.

4. Main ideas need to be highlighted: Look for the central idea, or message of the story. It should be the backbone of the story.

5. Thoughts need to be organised: A summary should be logical and organised to make it make sense to readers. It should have a clear beginning and should be able to convey the essence of the story in brief.

How to write a summary of the story?

You need to follow these steps to create an effective summary.

1. Start with a powerful sentence: Summary has to begin with a sentence that introduces the story's title, author and main idea. For instance, in the story of Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, a miserly man called Ebenezer Scrooge learns the meaning of Christmas through three spirits.
2. Main events need to be described: Describe the main events in the story. The main sequence of the story needs to be focused on, including the beginning, climax and conclusion.
3. Write about key characters in the story: Mention the main characters in the story. It must include the protagonist, antagonist and any other significant characters in the story.
4. The setting needs to be explained in the summary: For example, the story is set in Victorian London, during the Christmas season. The setting also needs to be explained in the context of the story. Like ''The dried leaves was strewn on the ground in the park.''
5. Describe how a conflict can be resolved: You need to describe in the story how a conflict may be resolved.
6. Summarise the conflict: The conflict needs to be summarised in the story. Explain the conflict in the story faced by the protagonist and how it impacts the overall plot.
7. Organise your summary to ensure a smooth flow: Your summary should be coherently organised to ensure a smooth flow. There should be a clear beginning, middle and end.

Now, a summary is useful for writing reports, academic papers or any other scenario where the aim is to inform the audience. Writing a synopsis for a novel is useful, when you are writing a book proposal.

A synopsis is useful to outline the entire story, including character progression, plot events and conclusions to enhance the appeal of the story/novel.

A synopsis should be much more detailed, it narrates a story, but also captures the flavour, themes, tones and the emotional journey of the story.

Steps to write a synopsis

Crafting a synopsis has a series of steps:

1. Start with the main theme of the story: You need to start with the main theme of the story. Detail the progression of the plot, characters and how they interact with the plot.
2. Describe the climax of the story: Explain how climax resolves the main conflicts.
3. Infuse the climax with your unique voice: The synopsis should be kept engaging by incorporating your unique style.
4. It should be persuasive: It should be clear and impactful to persuade the readers to assuage them to read it.

Significance of writing a summary/ synopsis

A synopsis and summary have different uses, a summary informs readers, and a synopsis can make them think and make their heads turn. They outline your story and decide the purpose after completing writing.

You need to inform, or persuade readers to read your novel, then, decide the best, when writing a book proposal for your novel, or a story.

Thus, writing a synopsis and summary both should have the power to enchant and be able to persuade readers in the academic work, or the story. A synopsis should be able to hook readers in its description.

A great synopsis can open doors, entice readers to make them delve into the novel. It should be able to catch the eye of the audience and make them turn the pages of a book/novel and a synopsis should connect to the beginning of the novel.

A synopsis and summary should resonate with what the readers want to know about the story, in addition a synopsis should go a step further and encapsulate plot points in brief.

A summary, or synopsis should introduce a story in a way readers want to know more from the first sentence itself, in addition makes understanding the story easier and makes it interesting.