Forum: Author Hangout

The FS/SOL blurbs usually come easily

The part of the long blurb that summarizes the story (I have other stuff in the blurb) is right now at 906 characters. That's a short summary of a 131,000+ word/48 chapter novel.

But the short blurb has a max of 400 characters. After chopping the above (butchering it?), it's now sitting at 396 characters. I found that very difficult.

don't summarize the story

I used the word "summarize" loosely. It's not a summary.

So it is a fallary, a wintery or a springary. Not so hot, but maybe with more precipitation.

When I clicked on the "thumbs down" icon, it said that it was for reporting abuse. I doubt that Lazeez had abuse of the language in mind.

Give the potential reader a reason to click on the story, to open it up for him or her to start the story. That leaves the opening chapter or prolog or some other writing to keep readers reading.

Another frequent adage of mine: the purpose of the title is to get the reader to pull the book from the shelf (or click on the link) and look at the cover. The purpose of the cover is to look at the story description (typically on the back cover) to see if they're interested. If they are, they'll open the book at look at the first line, who's purpose is to get the reader reading, the first paragraph, who's job is to sell the reader on the story, and the first page/chapter, who's job is to convince the reader that the writing is consistent enough to keep them entertained throughout the story.

Nowhere in there is the ending, or the details of the story, even a minor concern. Instead, readers are interested in the conflicts: man against self, interpersonal conflicts or man against world, which should be specific enough to pull in anyone addressing the same sorts of issues in their life.

My blurbs are more the premise of the story, which makes writing them much easier for me. I'm sure my summaries wouldn't be easy to write, if I could even write a coherent one.

In my case, since my blurb essentially summarizes the story's main conflicts, its best kept short (only two short sentences, in most cases). However, in the longer description, I'll often include one or two secondary conflicts (say the conflicts between the protagonists, rather than between the protagonist and antagonist).

That keeps with the central role of informing them of what what's the story's about, and why the reader would be interested in reading it, yet doesn't provide unnecessary details, allowing them to be surprised as the story unfolds.

But for me, the hardest part of writing is and has always been, my final revision phase. Writing a story is where you explore, and let the plot bubble up of it's own accord. The editing phase is where you focus on the details, cutting the fat, tightening the prose and ensuring the central elements don't get lost in a morass of word salad (something I'm prone to do anyway). The editing is also (at least for me), the loneliest part of the story, since the story is done and the characters are no longer involved, and I haven't yet brought in the editors to tear it apart, I'm essentially all alone, staring into the empty shell of the story, attempting to see whether it'll actually stand on its own. That's a harrowing experience, each time I face it.

The part of the long blurb that summarizes the story (I have other stuff in the blurb) is right now at 906 characters. That's a short summary of a 131,000+ word/48 chapter novel.

But the short blurb has a max of 400 characters. After chopping the above (butchering it?), it's now sitting at 396 characters. I found that very difficult.

As I've noted before, my story blurb (especially the short version) is the first thing I write (aside from the main characters names, as I also include those in the blurbs as well to help readers 'personalize' the characters). I then use the blurb to guide the rest of the story (i.e. any subplot which doesn't advance the story's central conflict, or further develop the characters, gets pruned).

Because of that, crafting the description is better done upfront, rather than at the end. If your story has drifted that much in the course of writing, then it's (IMHO) time to trim it back.

A summary is NOT a summarization of the plot, its telling the readers what the central issue in the story is, so they'll know the central tenets of the story, not who slept with whom, or what happened in ch. 128. There's no reason to tell readers what actually happens over the course of the story, otherwise, there's no reason to read it. Instead, you're telling them why they want to read the story in the fist place.

I have some sympathy for that. Chapter titles, too.

For me, though, it's edits that involve extensive surgery. Well, pure pruning, not so much, but replacing one thread or subplot with another, or turning a character into another person with the same name — the original draft of the story has, for what ever reason, a lot of inertia in my mind, and a lot of the time I have resort to tricking my brain into thinking it's writing something new. Polishing or otherwise improving the raw materials, those are easy. But not surgery.

When writing for money, I pay attention to my editor. They've all been pros and have generally known how to make the story better. Writing for myself and the love of it, the only editor I have to please is me.

When writing for money, I pay attention to my editor. They've all been pros and have generally known how to make the story better. Writing for myself and the love of it, the only editor I have to please is me.

In my case, I'm always trying to up my game and learn new things, as well as producing the most polished product I can. My subject matter is another story (pun intended), as I write what's the most challenging to read, rather than what's the most popular and sells the best.

But given all of my health concerns, that's my guarantee against the various dementias as I grow older. By continually pushing myself, and learning new things, I continue growing new synapses, which seems the best defense against Alzheimer's.

I'm always trying to up my game and learn new things, as well as producing the most polished product I can

Heartily concur. I'm always challenging myself to up my game with each story, whether it's content, structure, style, or characters. Make it the best one can, for its own sake.

My fave synapse defense is learning new languages.