Blurb, what a strange and yet entertaining word to say lol. I say dreaded blurb as most of us dread the moment we have to write one. Honestly, until I started this blog and my Facebook page I just thought it was called a summary. I don’t know where the name came from but hmm…hold on let me look it up lol….
Apparently in my moderately quick research just now…The word came from a man named ‘Gelett Burgess’. According to the web, he was a humorist and a nonsense verse writer. He wrote the term ‘Blurb’ on the dust jacket for a book he published. Over the years publishers began adopting the word. Well, you learn something new everyday lol.
Now that we are all on the same page on where the word blurb came from and had a mini history lesson for the day, we can talk about what we know about a blurb. Honestly I hadn’t even written one until this past week. Thinking it was going to be so much more difficult than it proved to be has made me put it off for quite awhile. Considering the current novel I am working on will be the first one I publish made it pretty easy to avoid.
Until now that is…I have finally gotten to the point where I am waiting for my beta reader to finish reading through my entire novel (as I just completed my sixth…or maybe seventh edit). So while I wait, I am trying to continue to be productive towards my dream of traditional publishing. The next step was the blurb and the synopsis. Now that I have finished the blurb, surprisingly in a couple days, I will be starting the synopsis (which I will write about when I am finally finished with it….right now the words are held up in my brain and wont come out lol). After my beta reader is finished, then it will be my final read through/edit and tweaking a few things before I send it off to some agents. So the blurb being done is just another step in the process.
Even though I only have one blurb under my belt I can share with you what I learned….
First off much like I suggest while writing the first draft of your novel, I just started writing. Just write whatever comes to mind first even if it’s terrible.
Second…read over it…Does it do everything a blurb is supposed to?
-Does it make you want to read the story?
-Does it give enough information to interest someone without giving too much away?
-Do you introduce your main characters?
-Is the conflict evident? Have you set the stage?
-What are the stakes?
*Obviously you need to make it exciting to the reader. Based on your genre, do you give evidence of that category in your novel? If you are writing a fantasy you want elements of that to be evident in your blurb. Or a romance, the same thing. Or whatever the genre make sure to let the potential reader get drawn in by their interest in said genre.
*However, be sure not to give so much away that they know what its about, how it progresses and how it ends. You want them to want to read it, not wonder if they should waste their money on something that they can already guess how it ends.
*Introducing your main characters is important. Meaning just by their name and maybe a small detail or two. You are trying to get the reader to get to know the character just enough to want to know more.
*The conflict, or the obstacle they will face through the novel to get to their point of happiness or at least till the end of the story you are telling, will help draw the reader in. Be careful not to give too much away but to give enough of the vague idea of the conflict. You also want to know what is at stake for the main character or characters. Will they die? Lose the love of their life? Go to jail? Why does your main character keep fighting?
Then I read it to my husband. He has always given me unbiased feedback on my writing. Reading it to another person can really be a big help because you can find out how it sounds through the ears of someone else.
Then finally I have been reading it everyday for the past few days to see if I feel any differently about it and honestly I haven’t. Yes, there was some editing to do but now I think it’s just right.
Whatever the case my be, don’t be afraid of writing the blurb. I mean take it from someone who thought it was worse than it was and then got through it. The synopsis is my issue at the moment. Maybe that’s how it goes though, some of us are good at the blurb but have trouble with the synopsis and vice versa. That’s why I write these blogs though because if I can help a fellow writer, than I am doing what I set out to do with these posts. As both human beings and authors, we should be willing to help others as well as ourselves get through the trials and errors of the writing world.
Thank you for reading my blog.
Until next time…..JUST KEEP WRITING.
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