Dif. between Synopsis and Outline?

[Signal 30]

Is there any?

And is there a word/paragraph count standard for either?

[dpaterso]

I regard an outline as a rough draft of the story, from which the screenplay will be written. Details may change during writing, hence the rough draft label.

The synopsis is a shorter telling of the completed screenplay.

Since the outline is your personal writing tool it can be as big and as detailed as you want, or as short as you want. I find a 10-page outline (single spaced) or slightly longer gives me plenty of material for the screenplay.

If I'm writing a query letter, the synopsis is two, maybe three paragraphs at most -- all on the one page, after the logline.

A longer synopsis may be requested, at which point hopefully the requester will indicate the size and amount of detail they'd like, e.g. 3 pages, 5 pages, 10 pages, maybe even longer.

The above to be taken as my humble opinion, based on my humble experiences and limited dealings.

-Derek
-----------------------One of the many reasons you should never listen to dpat ~PipeWriter

[RatWriter]

A synopsis is like a book report summarizing the story. It is usually requested in half-page, full-page, and 3-page lengths.
An outline is optional and therefore never requested. So your outline, should you decide to use one, can be defined by tou. I outline my screenplays by using my scene sluglines as my outline headings.

Good Luck

[Deus Ex Machine]

A synopsis contains the main dramatic bests of the protagonist's journey. (typically 1-3 pages)

A treatment contains all the dramatic beats in the hero's journey. (Typically 10-30 pages)

Check out www.wordplayer.com (http://www.wordplayer.com)column "the proper treatment" for examples and an article on treatments.

[Cyfress]

A synopsis is more informal, three paragraphs about your story.

An Outline is more in depth, a scene by scene telling of your story.

An exec or agent will ask to see a synopsis or a logline to get the jist of your story, to see if it is based on a sound idea.