Origfic writing natter (instead of actually writing)

[sholio]

I was thinking about writing today, my own original-novel writing process to be specific, and it occurred to me there's something I do that I've never heard of anyone else doing, which may be unusual enough to talk about: I write the blurb first.

I'm not really an outliner, as such; what passes for an outline is basically just some scribbled notes on upcoming scenes and basically where I want the book to go. Effectively the blurb is my outline. I've been doing it since I sold a couple of books to Dreamspinner, at which point I discovered that they ask you to write your own blurb. I wasn't that great at it, but it soon occurred to me that if I wrote the blurb and then used that as, effectively, my outline, it might work really well. And it does.

This isn't necessarily going to be the final version of the blurb or even the one that's used (especially not if you trad publish). But the thing about a book blurb is that, in 2-4 paragraphs, it nails down all the major aspects of the book: who the main character(s) are, what the main conflict is, where it's set and what's interesting about it. And it does it in the most compelling, "hook-ish" possible way. It doesn't describe all the twists and turns along the way, or the ending, but the thing about writing the blurb first is that it gives me a "best parts" version of the characters and plot to focus on. And if the blurb doesn't sound compelling -- if it's hard to put my finger on the conflict, if I struggle to describe one or both characters using a few snappy adjectives, if I'm not sure if I would read the book I'm describing ... then it's back to the drawing board 'til I get a version I'm happy with.

Basically I want a blurb that would make ME want to read the book. Looking at a few dozen blurbs on Amazon in the genre I'm writing in can often be helpful at figuring out what kinds of blurbs draw me in -- which ones describe the plot setup in ways I find compelling, what kind of character dynamics are a draw for me if reduced to their component elements, etc.

I don't always do it at the exact beginning, but if I don't, I usually wish I had. Actually, one of the books I'm working on right now -- Metal Dragon -- is up to about 20K with only a few random fragments of blurb, and I've gotten lost in mid-book flounder. Writing a blurb for it is going to be one of my getting-back-on-track activities, because I think it might help me pinpoint any basic trouble spots in my plot and character setup.

I suspect it might work a lot less well for something that's less formulaic than the romances I'm currently writing. That being said, though, a lot of writing books advise that you should be able to write a one-sentence "pitch" of your plot, and I think of this as kind of the same thing.

Comments

[yhlee]

That's really cool--I must try that someday, if I'm ever free, freeeeeee. :3

(I had to learn how to write blurbs fast when Solaris asked me to provide them for my books. They didn't use mine for Raven Stratagem with good cause, because it was disastrously incoherent, but they used the blurbs for the other two books so now I know to be prepared...!)

[sholio]

That's really fascinating to me that Solaris asked you to provide a blurb as well - I've kind of wondered how common that is among small presses, because it tends not to be something you hear about much, but maybe people just don't talk about it. It definitely flexes different writing muscles than writing an actual book, that's for sure. It's also harder to do it on your own books than on someone else's. I've ended up writing a few blurbs for other people's books, since I'm reasonably good at it by this point, and it's really interesting to me how it is not only easier to get the gist of the plot of someone else's book down in a few sentences when you aren't carrying the whole thing in your head, but it really makes its usefulness as a plot troubleshooting tool stand out, because if you can't coherently describe the main conflict and/or setup in a couple of sentences in a way that makes sense, there might be a problem.

Anyway, I'm sharing this in the hopes it'll be useful to someone, so if you ever do get a chance to try it, I hope it works out! :)

[yhlee]

I was very surprised myself--like cover art, I had assumed it was something that they'd make the publicity/marketing people do and not let the actual author anywhere near, because what the heck do I know about what sells books?? Notably, for the other book, Disney-Hyperion had me approve the blurb, but their people actually wrote it. (I rubber-stamped it on the grounds that it wasn't misleading and presumably their marketing people have a much better clue about how to market to a middle grade audience than I do.)

I now use the one-line summary as a diagnostic of whether there is something seriously f***ed with my novels for exactly the reasons you mention--it would have diagnosed the major problem with the trunk novel before my first novel sale, haha.

Anyway, thank you very much for sharing this! =D

[trobadora]

That's fascinating! Does the book sometimes develop too far away from its original conception, and do you find you find it difficult to change a blurb you liked when that happens? Or is that not an issue at all?

[sholio]

Hmmm ... so far it hasn't come up to a particularly large degree. I don't really have trouble changing blurbs later, but I also have been writing fairly formulaic books that haven't had a significant tendency to shift on me. I think I'll really find out when I start doing non-romance this way. :D

[trobadora]

Hee! Good luck with that, then. :)

[lunabee34]

Thanks for sharing this. I had no idea authors might be asked to come up with their own blurbs. It sounds like it really functions well as an outline to keep the book on track.

[sholio]

Sure, anytime! I wasn't expecting it either (and I'm pretty sure it's not a thing large publishers do; interesting to find out that the small ones sometimes do).

[sheron]

Interesting! This kind of sounds like an offshoot of snowflake method. The snowflake method is much more involved outlining, but it does start with this central idea/blurb part.

I wonder if that's something that can be used for long-fic, especially the plottier kind.... ^^

[sholio]

YES. It is very similar to the snowflake method! Which I've actually used a few times and had it work for me - with fic mostly; for me the snowflake method works best with something pretty short and I don't usually take it past the "expand each sentence to a paragraph" point. But yeah, VERY similar idea. :D

[darthneko]

Heee! That's how my dragon works with her shorts. Blurb = outline, write that first and go from there.

Blurbs are, like, the bane of my existence. I despair at writing blurbs good enough because very few of them hook ME, so I really don't even know what to shoot for. Instead I'm poking at actual outlining because the story I'm working on is large enough I know I'll forget stuff if I don't jot it down, and I've got a few paragraphs - the first ones I wrote - which make for a very sloppy and melodramatic blurb right now. More like a voice over on a movie trailer? idek. XD

[sholio]

Oh man, blurbs ARE hard! But "voiceover on a movie trailer" is pretty much what I'm usually going for, so ... XD