Words is your bizness: writing the blurb

This will be a rather short post, but I did want to talk about writing blurbs. I know a lot of authors tend to think that once they've gotten past the initial query letter, they'll never have to face the horror of condensing their novel into two paragraphs again.

Unfortunately, that is not the case.

With both the blurb and the query, you're trying to sell your novel, which is long and deep and complicated, in just a few words, and I know that is hard. One thing I did that helped me immensely was browse in a bookstore. I wandered the fiction section and jotted down taglines and blurbs that caught my attention. Then I went home and analyzed them.

A good blurb is about communicating the essence of your story to the reader, not the details.

Let's look at mine. This was an incredibly difficult blurb to write, because we were combining three novellas into three paragraphs. Here are a few things I learned:

Know your audience. If I am writing historical fantasy with nephilim, I want to target people who love history and magic. So I will design my blurb around the dates, the conflicts, and the how the magic works.

Nail it with a sentence. The biggest argument that I hear from authors is that their story is too complicated. You're a writer. Words is your bizness. Use them well.

Know what appeals to your fans and zoom the lens of your words on the aspects of your story that will appeal most strongly to your reader.

My Los Nefilim blurb encompasses three novellas with one sentence:

T. Frohock's three novellas--In Midnight's Silence, Without Light or Guide, and The Second Death--bring to life the world of Los Nefilim, Spanish Nephilim that possess the power to harness music and light in the supernatural war between the angels and daimons.

What have I told you in that sentence? The names of the previous novellas, what Los Nefilim are (Spanish Nephilim), how they use their magic (through music and light), and finally the nature of the big picture conflict (the supernatural war between angels and daimons).

Narrow the conflict to the protagonist. The next sentence is:

In 1931, Los Nefilim's existence is shaken by the preternatural forces commanding them ... and a half-breed caught in-between.

Here I center the reader in the time period (1931), because this is historical fantasy. I tell the reader all is not well in the world of Los Nefilim (their existence is shaken), and then I zoom the lens one phrase closer to my protagonist and his place within the conflict (a half-breed caught in-between). The word "caught" indicates the protagonist isn't a willing participant in this war.

Who is the protagonist and what makes them special? Now that I've given the reader the set-up for the world, I tell them about my protagonist:

Diago Alvarez, a singular being of daimonic and angelic descent, is pulled into the ranks of Los Nefilim in order to protect his newly found son.

Diago is not human, nor is he normal by the nephilim's standards (a singular being of daimonic and angelic descent). He is not in Los Nefilim entirely by choice (is pulled into the ranks), but he has a reason to be there (in order to protect his newly found son).

What is the protagonist's conflict? This comes in the last two sentences.

As an angelic war brews in the numinous realms, and Spain marches closer to civil war, the destiny of two worlds hangs on Diago's actions. Yet it is the combined fates of his lover, Miquel, and his young son, Rafael, that weigh most heavily on his soul.

Here I have reintroduced the angelic war and tied it into the Spanish Civil War while alluding to Diago's role in the course of events. I also introduce the fact that Diago is gay (his lover, Miquel) and that the fates of Miquel and Rafael are Diago's primary concern, which adds a very relatable human element to the story.

Sum it all up. The last line sums up the crux of the story:

Lyrical and magical, Los Nefilim explores whether moving toward the light is necessarily the right move, and what it means to live among the shadows.

This sentence refers to Diago questioning his decision to join Los Nefilim throughout the novellas. I also like it because it reveals the deeper meaning behind the story: Diago used to live as a mortal, eschewing his magic and trying to be "normal." With his newly found son, he forsakes that existence to join Los Nefilim, although by moving toward Los Nefilim (the angels and the light), Diago is also forced to live less openly. Now he is must move through the shadows of Los Nefilim's various lies in order to hide his true nature from the mortals.

Of course the reader won't understand that paradox until they have read the story, but that is part of the hook.

A blurb is merely a marketing a tool, but it's a very important one. Know your story, but also know your audience. Above all else, pay very close attention to your word choices so you can make your blurb pack a punch.

The Secret I Didn't Share...

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"Supernaturally" event

As soon as I posted my "Supernaturally" Tips For Aspiring Writers last month I realized that I hadn't shared the most important secret of all.

Tip 6: Writing is — and has to be — it's own reward.

Surely that's obvious, you may say, but I'm not entirely sure it is. Most of us may know that no business case in the world would ever support writing as a viable business proposition, but I think we're also often dazzled by the fame, glory, and commercial success achieved by (for example) authors such as JK Rowling and Stephanie Meyer.

The endurance event...

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with the stuff of dreams that comprises stardust and a little bedazzlement, it will not sustain a writer through the long distance endurance event otherwise known as the writing life. Those with writing ambition need to think marathon as opposed to a stroll amongst scented (& thornless) rose gardens blooming beneath a blue moon.

No question, marathons can be rewarding — we only have to look at their worldwide popularity to know that they bring exhilaration as well as grueling moments. But there usually comes a moment somewhere in a marathon where the athlete hits the wire and keeping going (see Tip 5 from last month) definitely becomes "the way is hard."

Promised treats...

When I hit that spot with writing, I try all sorts of different ways to "keep going." One method I tried when pushing myself toward he finish line for Daughter Of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three, was rewarding myself with treats (we will not say bribes!) for achieving milestones — only to find, when I did hit the milestone, that I wasn't interested in the promised treat.

The reward was always the writing and the achievement of the book itself.

And has to be, because with writing there is no guarantee that you will ever receive any other reward. If you do, then treat it as the bonus that it us.

A bonus moment.

That's not a gloom and doom prognosis though — I believe it's the key to what the ancient Greeks meant when they said "Know yourself" and also to an individual's personal writing "success", which (the only thing we can be sure of, I suspect) will be very different for each of us.
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"Supernaturally" Tips For Aspiring Writers

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Over the weekend, I had the very great pleasure to chair the "Supernaturally" event with YA authors Laini Taylor and Elizabeth Knox at the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers' Festival.

L-R: Laini, Elizabeth, moi.

(My thanks to HachetteNZ & The Realm for the photo.)

With authors of Laini and Elizabeth's calibre speaking it's not surprising that the question time included a request for "tips for aspiring writers."

So I thought I'd share something from their replies and add a few "extry" tips of my own today.

Laini Taylor

The remark Laini made that really resonated with me was (& I paraphrase):

Tip 1:
"Writing takes at least 100% of what you have to give so it's important to make other life choices that support your ability to give that 100%+, for example choosing an undemanding part-time or day job."

While Elizabeth Knox made an equally important observation (and again I paraphrase):

Elizabeth Knox

Tip2:
 "No matter how demanding the writing life we need to make sure we keep having fun with our writing."

Yes indeed to both these points. I'd also add the following from my own experience:

Tip 3:
Write, not necessarily what you know (in which case no Fantasy would ever be written—a point both Laini and Elizabeth also made!) but what you love because that is the creative touchstone from which almost everything else follows.

Helen Lowe (that's me again!)

Tip 4:
"Life," to quote Hippocrates, "is short but the art long." So don't wait. Start now!

Tip 5:
The writing flows easily—keep going; the writing comes hard—keep going. Keep going!

Everything else is up to the writer, because every creative voice is unique and must find its own 'right path."

Write on—and may the muses be with us all.

How to Know the Unknowable

Man or Mar?

The adage write what you know works well for how-to manuals, cookbooks, auto repair guides or medical text. With such topics, writers need a certain level of expertise. When it comes to speculative fiction, however, it’s another story.

No one on Earth can know what a newly risen Mar, a Silver Metal Lover, a sympathetic, crazy hot zombi or a post apocalyptic witch is really like until the author creates them, from scratch.

Sometimes that process can be a challenge so I’ve put together some thoughts for writing what you don’t know.

Stefan, Elena, Damon

Tip #1: Research

This is totally fun. If you have a world that is primarily desert, you don’t have to live in the Sahara to write it convincingly. You do have to ‘know’ what it is like to have half and inch of rain a year and dust storms so blinding you can get lost between your camel and your tent. In other words, research the ecology of desert life.

You can’t have bright green grass and furry platypuses, unless you explain a turf that goes eleven and a half months without water and a river mammal that swims in sand. And what about that supernatural man or woman? How to characterize them?

Suggested research includes: Buffy, Angel, Spike, Drusilla, Eric, Sookie, Damon, Stefan, Elena, Klaus, Caroline . . . who else?

Tip #2: Savvy proofreaders

Klaus & Caroline

Research can take the place of direct experience, especially in world building, but there are exceptions. Horses are one. If you don’t know horses, you can learn about them, but if they are going to do more than graze in the paddock, you’ll need a proof-reader with horse sense to check your work. Readers who are also riders will spot ineptitude a mile away. Jolt! If it’s going to be a feature in your novel, get an expert to proof and/or offer technical advice. Same goes for quantum computers, wolves and witches.

Tip #3: Hands on

If you’re going to give a piece of art, animal, dance, ritual, music or machine a big role in your script, immerse in it, fully. As a bonus, your life will become richer for the experience. In my first two series, I researched quantum computing, physics theory, geo-engineering, bio-engineering and were-animal mythologies. I joined a local dojo and learned to wield a samurai sword. I can't tell you how much 'hands on' enhances the writing experience. :)

Tip #4: Start with a grain of truth

No matter how wild and farfetched your story becomes, that grain of truth (from history, mythology and lore) is what you build on and what will give your prose more weight. In my Quantum Encryption series, a main character takes my love of the Gray Wolf, an endangered species, and comes up with a solution to their looming extinction. I also look at possible results from geo-engineering projects that might do more harm than good (solar shields anyone?). It’s all about the speculation, but begin with something real. A truth.

Sookie & Eric

Add these tips together and you'll find your story not only rings true, it becomes a contribution to the future, what is possibly, probably or only ever to be imagined.

Happy reading, writing, dreaming and storytelling, everyone and let me know who your favorite original supernatural character is, from book or film. Right now, I'm leaning toward Orphan Black's Sarah Manning.  Yep, clone club. :)

xxKim

Kim Falconer is a Supernatural Underground author writing paranormal romance, urban fantasy, YA and epic science fantasy novels.

You can find out more about Kim at kimfalconer.com or on the 11th House Blog, and on FaceBook and Twitter. She posts here at the Supernatural Underground on the 16th of every month. Her latest release is"Blood and Water" in Supernatural Underground: Vampires Gone Wild.