Synopsis-es? Synopses? Synopsipodes???

Does the plural of synopsis being synopses ever look wrong to anyone else? No? Just me?
Oh well.

ahem. I've fielded quite a few questions from various writer friends across my social media lately on how to write the dreaded synopsis.

Here's the secret: it doesn't have to be that bad.

I've got some advice for you, together with my favorite posts on how to write and format your synopsis, to ease the pain.
1. Remember that the synopsis does not have to be dry and boring. It can be used to showcase your novel's voice and style. Now, if you are dealing with A Very Serious Agent, you may want to see if they have a preference for tone in their synopsis. Given how much material agents and editors have to read every day, I'd think most would be happy to read a synopsis with some voice. BUT. That doesn't mean gimmicky and over the top zany. It's still a business interaction, after all.
2. Remember that not every event or character will make it into your synopsis. Your synopsis is the string of events that lead your character from point A to point Z. Figure out which incidents are pivot points in the novel, changing the character's emotional or literal journey. Those ones are important. Knowing that he stopped for cookies at Aunt Sally's before fighting the dreaded dragon? Not so important, unless the hero receives the magical amulet of awesomeness there.
Once I have a workable synopsis with what I think are the main events, I send it to a friend who hasn't read the story before or heard me raving about it in detail. That way they can read the synopsis and tell me if they can follow the events, the causes and effects, as I've laid them out.
3. Remember that the query's job is to hook someone's interest, and the synopsis' job is to lay out the bare bones of the story so an outsider can see if it makes sense. Most agents ask for them to make sure you don't have a nasty surprise ending that will infuriate your readers. You know, like all those TV shows with miserable finales that everyone rants about for years after? That's the biggest reason an agent will ask for a synopsis. So it doesn't have to be perfect. Grammar matters, and it needs to make sense. But they aren't expecting the most beautiful, engaging prose. Try reading synopses of TV shows or books online. They're a bit boring, and that's okay.

Now, my personal trick for writing a synopsis is simple. There are two steps.
1. I keep in my my character's emotional journey as I write, because I want to show that growth along with the events. Personally, I think that helps to make a synopsis more interesting and more compelling.
2. I take my plot chart, and turn the bullet points into sentences. Then I add in the transitions between them as needed. Ta da! It's a synopsis!

(I suppose there really are three steps, because then I revise. Always revise and edit and proofread everything. But hopefully that's a given.)
I like to use the four-act plotting system I learned from Rebecca Petruck. She teaches plotting webinars, and you can find out more about Rebecca and her classes at https://www.rebeccapetruck.com/. Since she charges for her workshops, I'm not going to go into detail on her method, but I will tell you that I love it. And I'm a pantser. I use her method to plot my manuscripts after I've written a first draft, to reorganize and restructure the story properly. Her method is simple and easy to use.
It has a lot in common with all the other plotting methods out there, so whichever plotting method you personally like, you can give this a try. Take your major plot points, and use them to form the bones of your synopsis. You've already done all the work, you just need to move it from your plot chart to your synopsis.

And as promised, here are some other synopsis-writing resources that I'm fond of. These all boil down to the same thing, but different ways of explaining it and different methods for approaching the synopsis all make sense to different people. Hopefully one of these will work for YOU.

http://pitchwars.org/writing-perfect-synopsis-pintip-dunn-release-day-plus-giveaway-girl-verge
https://aprildavila.com/in-praise-of-the-synopsis
https://www.janefriedman.com/how-to-write-a-novel-synopsis
http://mikewellsblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/secret-formula-for-creating-short.html
http://www.publishingcrawl.com/2012/04/17/how-to-write-a-1-page-synopsis
http://writersrelief.com/blog/2008/01/how-to-write-a-synopsis-for-a-novel
http://theeditorsblog.net/2012/07/15/clear-the-dread-from-the-dreaded-synopsis

Good luck!