A friend of mine just came back from a year in Thailand. Upon returning she was, of course, asked by everyone she encountered, “How was it?”
“That’s so hard to answer,” she told me. It was, after all, a whole year full of change and transformation. How are you supposed to describe all of that in one word? The default reply is obviously, “It was good!” Or even, “It was really good!” But imagine if a whole year of your life was “really good”. Has it ever been as simple as that?
As an author, I run into a similar problem. What is your book about? I’ve heard again and again that you need to know the answer to this question, because otherwise the honest answer might be “nothing”. But I am inclined to disagree. Story starts from characters, and exploring these characters will frequently be what brings you your plot. When you’re in the early stages of a novel and people hear that you’re writing a book, feeling like you should know the answer to this question can be damaging. To be entirely honest, I didn’t have a good explanation for “Untold” until I wrote my query letter and sent it off to the contest.
Coming up with a synopsis took most of the afternoon. Condensing my plot was strangely satisfying, and the end result amazed me. The book I had written sounded like something I’d actually want o read! I had finally made it past stammering, “Oh, well, it’s, um, well, I don’t want to give anything away…” and had instead a smooth summary to share with people. Since then, I’ve been collecting a list of different length blurbs I can use to describe my book. The longest is still the query letter, the shortest, added only recently, is a tweet. Don’t feel bad about being proud of your story summary; people would much rather hear an intriguing description than a vague overview or overly long rant detailing every part of the book.
Once you feel comfortable with your story line, sit down and think it over. What are you going to say? What is your book about? What information can you give to pique the reader’s interest without giving anything away? I’ve found a helpful way to do this is to choose an excerpt from your novel, one you’d be happy to share, and see what plot lines and themes are running through that segment. Not only will that help you get an idea of what overtones are important to mention, but it may also help give you a solid place to start. Explain the scene, explain how the character got to that scene, and take it from there. When you do that, let me know. I’d love to hear what your novel is about.
— Amy
The hook is a perfect segment to put on a business card. Mine came in yesterday!