Describing your novel to others...

Maze Runner · Jun 14, 2017

"...it's difficult to distill the essence of a book sometimes, because it lives in the mind."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrVl1hWrWBs

Most people don't ask. When they do I give the shortest possible answer. Most people are nice.

Laer Carroll · Jun 14, 2017

I think coming up with a one-sentence description is just part of the job of every writer. It's a skill we have to develop, else it would be easy to do spontaneously when asked.

But it shouldn't be shirked. Though rare, sometimes answering the question can have important consequences. As when someone who knows someone mentions your story idea and that second someone turns out to be an agent or a movie producer. At the very least, though, it tells someone who was mildly curious an important aspect of ourselves.

My approach is to include all the three elements of a story: character, setting, plot. Though you can leave out setting if it is contemporary.

"It's about three kids who go searching for a missing friend and get into something way deeper than they ought to." Which is the story idea behind the Netflix TV show Stranger Things, a surprise hit last year whose season 2 drops this Halloween, October 31[SUP]st[/SUP].

Harlequin · Jun 14, 2017

BethS said:
I would like to hear GRRM's elevator pitch for Game of Thrones. Talk about a story that doesn't lend itself to a quick, easy-to-grasp description...

I'm quite poor at summarising, but it would probably be something like, Faced with dragons from the West, ancient evil from the north, and treachery from within, the Seven Kingdoms is plunged into bloody war.

Or something focusing on its three main characters.

But then I would summarise Lilo and Stitch as, a girl gets taken away by social services, so what the fuck do I know

He won't have had to do it though, being established already.

I would argue, still, that ASOIAF is at heart a very simple novel with a lot of bloated subplots. (I would know, since that's exactly the same trap I fall into!)

Stephen Palmer · Jun 15, 2017

Laer Carroll said:
I think coming up with a one-sentence description is just part of the job of every writer. It's a skill we have to develop, else it would be easy to do spontaneously when asked.

So true.

Paper_Flower · Jun 15, 2017

Thank you all!
You've all helped majorly and I'm feeling more motivated and inspired today.
I think you're right, I need to distinguish between who's asking just to be polite and who genuinely wants to know.
"It's a YA Urban Fantasy about Fallen Angels set mostly in Cornwall." as apposed to "It's really about anxiety and a young woman who's powers are tied to her emotions, which makes things difficult when she starts to remember her previous life in Heaven as an Angel and discovers that she's being hunted for something she stole there. It's also about corrupt governments, family, and revolutions. " (Still need to iron that last one out a bit I think

)
You're also right about tailoring descriptions based on the people that I'm talking to, and now that you mention it, I do remember doing this in the past. To the teenage girls that I volunteered with, I emphasized the adventure and love story, but to my cousin I emphasized the fights, the blood, and the war of good vs evil. Both seemed satisfied with their answers even if to me it didn't feel like the entire thing.
But I feel less overwhelmed by the idea of trying to explain what it's about now, so thank you again.

Paper_Flower

LeftyLucy · Jun 15, 2017

I'm glad you're feeling better. Remember that you don't owe anybody anything when it comes to talking about your work.

The only person I ever talk to about what I'm writing is my husband (who is my biggest fan and has far more faith in me as a writer than I have in myself - no matter how ludicrous the concept, he has absolute faith that I'll make it work). Other than him, I never tell people what I'm writing. I will only share genre. If they ask for more, I say, "I can't talk about it, or else I'll talk the story instead of writing it."

ecerberus · Jun 15, 2017

This is one problem I don't have - I never tell anyone I'm writing, and won't until I actually finish and publish. Until then I consider myself a pretender.

But I do agree we should make an effort to craft a single line that describes succinctly what the book is about. I have a vague idea but it's nowhere compelling as it should be.

Stephen Palmer · Jun 16, 2017

A while back on a different forum there was a phase of people writing haikus.
Writing a single haiku that describes one of your novels is a great exercise.

dpaterso · Jun 16, 2017

I've got short blurbs ready for those occasions when writing buddies ask me what I'm working on, what the novel's about, etc. Usually one-sentence loglines that try to explain theme and characters in a nutshell.

If Steven Spielberg ever steps into an elevator with me, sees the manuscript tucked under my arm and asks me what it's about, boy is he in for a surprise.

I'll fall at his feet and make whalesong noises.

-Derek

Layla Nahar · Jun 16, 2017

Paper_Flower said:
... I'm having trying to explain it concisely before they lose interest. I usually go with "Young Adult Urban Fantasy about Fallen Angels" but that never feels right, I think people are going to assume its a Paranormal Romance, which it's not, and I don't know how to explain it otherwise.

Have you done the query 'three questions' exercise? That will help a lot with the 'what's it about' question. Also a story is about a person. What kind of person is your story about? A retired teacher? A drunken swordfighter? More specifically a story is about a person with a problem. What kind of problem does your person have? 'he conjured up the wrong genie', or 'Grandma's recipie is missing, she'll have to wing it for the annual bake off'. Come up with a simple answer for each of these questions and you can give people a clear idea of what your story is about.

Altiv · Jun 18, 2017

Ugh. Whenever someone asks me what my novel's about... I can feel my hands start shaking and my heart flutter. Unfortunately, this is a question I can't seem to escape from

, because I'm such an antisocial, everything I do on my weekends is devoting myself to writing/revising my novels, so the typical Monday question, 'What did you do on the weekend?' is always answered with 'worked on my novel,' which leads to the dreadful 'what's it about?'

. To this day I can't summarize my novel into one sentence, which explains why I haven't come up with a query.

I think, however, that describing your novel to others is useful --you need to be ready to do it, though. It's our baby after all. Nobody wants a perfect stranger to say your baby is awful--. It's like the first step toward having a query. You need to have a clear understanding of what's your novel about to be able to write a query that works, and sharing a brief description of it to others might help you prune what works and doesn't of your book description. (Yeah, I need to work on this, too)

Cekrit · Jun 28, 2017

I freeze, instantly. I always end up saying

" Well the novel is about what would happen after we find god, i mean I don't believe in god- i have to explain that later. But in this world we find god....like shes no a god, but well we find her and we take her in for research- she doesn't fight back because shes too weak....because there's things going on in the metaphysical world that are stressing her....so she gives peoples these gifts right? Like, think x-men, but on a global scale. and these people get hunted. And well, my main character, like, she has the gift but she doesn't? Like she's been touched by her god but never developed any powers, but shes hunted all the same- and the book follows her personal growth and her finding god-who really isn't a god.... make sense?"

The "god" in my book is just a powerful spirit, and that is explained later- there are no gods, just entities that gained more power by being in the other realm longer, but trying to explain that ends up as a lesson in philosophy that I don't always want to get into since it ties to my spiritual beliefs.

Haven't found a way to word it better.

blacbird · Jun 28, 2017

When I'm asked, which isn't often, my stock answer is:

"No hablo inglés."

caw

xanaphia · Jun 28, 2017

I tried explaining my novel to my co-workers on the last day of work and it was a mess. I pretty much stick to "It's a fantasy novel about healing and redemption." The tone is similar to Game of Thrones, even if the content isn't, but most people don't know enough about fantasy to nitpick me when I compare it. I call it gothic fantasy (think the Diablo games).

_lvbl · Jun 29, 2017

For me it's always so easy to sum up another novel, but when it comes to mine...

noirdood · Jun 30, 2017

I can remember with laser-like brilliance the scenes I took out of my book because they were great but didn't quite fit, but I can hardly remember the scenes I left in. When proof-reading my latest, I kept asking myself "where's that great Palm Springs scene?" but finally realized I moved that scene to Burbank.
When others ask me about my book I speak right up -- "mumble, mumble, MUMBLE."

bwebs · Jun 30, 2017

Paper_Flower said:
If I can't come up with an elevator pitch, is my novel not good enough?
Paper_Flower

Maybe, maybe not, but nailing your elevator pitch will make it better and shine a light on it's weaknesses. When people ask me I rub my hands together with glee and give them my pitch like a movie deal was on the line. Writers in Hollywood make pitches to people in line for coffee just for practice. Chris rock practiced stand-up routines in Florida old-folks homes even though it was completely outside his demo. Maybe both those examples are apocryphal idk, but I'm making a point

Who cares if they are actually interested--make them interested. Also, I'm not really interested in how amazing their kids are at so it makes us even.

indianroads · Jun 30, 2017

You'll have to come up with a blurb for the back jacket of your book, so that's a good place to start.

When people ask what my book is about, I tend to speak in broad strokes, and it needs to be short (you can add more detail if there are follow up questions).
For Dark Side of Joy:
(Description 1) "It's about perseverance, and what it takes to survive in really hard circumstances."

(Description 2) "I grew up in the 1960's around the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco. My parents were put in prison, and I was thrown into Juvenile Hall and later put in Foster Care. After a while I needed to escape the abuse of my foster father, and ended up selling drugs on the street for an outlaw motorcycle gang. It was a life altering experience, that taught me a lot about what it takes to succeed."

I'm not advocating this approach, only saying that it's what I do.

AnthonyDavid11 · Jul 6, 2017

The writing coach/blogger Kristen Lamb recommends summing up your novel in one or two lines. It seems daunting but if you can do it, you have your answer ready every time anyone asks about it. Really comes in handy. You can go to IMDB and look at the tag lines of your favorite movies. If they can sum up a 3-hour movie or even a whole ten season series in one or two sentences you can do the same with a novel.

divine-intestine · Jul 23, 2017

Paper_Flower said:
If I can't describe it. If I can't come up with an elevator pitch, is my novel not good enough?

Not necessarily. But you might not know the core of the story and its characters well enough yet? That's why a logline (roughly 27 words) can be helpful to really crystalize the essence of each main character and the plot of the novel.

Try doing it yourself and see how it goes. I like to use this template:

When incident occurs, character with role and motivation pursues goal, only to discover that opposition threatens disaster.

bluejaybooks · Jul 25, 2017

I don't know how all of you who don't tell people you're writing explain what you do with all that time. I get questioned about what I'm typing all the time, especially since I have a tendency to write in public while I'm waiting for things. People want to know what I'm furiously typing away at. The only alternative would be lying, and what then? I guess I'd have to say I was typing posts on social media or something . . . except this would be disproportionate to the number of posts I have on social media, so people would realize I was lying pretty quickly.

Svader · Jul 25, 2017

I'm so glad I read through this thread! I too have this issue, but next month I'm focusing on my blurb, synopsis, elevator pitch, and query. I completely forgot about QLH! I'll head over there before I start on mine. I learn so much from reading through the advice other people receive.

Laer Carroll · Jul 25, 2017

Stefani, nice web site.

One of several techniques I use is to tell of a CHARACTER and a PROBLEM they have. That encapusulates all parts of a story: character, setting, plot, with setting understood and plot just in embryo as a problem.

"Might sound silly, but I was wondering about how John Lennon (Ben Franklin, Anne Frank, Beyoncé) would handle his career if s/he got turned into a vampire."

Harlequin · Jul 25, 2017

bluejaybooks said:
I don't know how all of you who don't tell people you're writing explain what you do with all that time. I get questioned about what I'm typing all the time, especially since I have a tendency to write in public while I'm waiting for things. People want to know what I'm furiously typing away at. The only alternative would be lying, and what then? I guess I'd have to say I was typing posts on social media or something . . . except this would be disproportionate to the number of posts I have on social media, so people would realize I was lying pretty quickly.

Honestly, no one's ever asked. They're not generally around to see how much I do or don't get done

particularly since I mostly am confined to writing (or attempting to) at night.

borogove · Jul 25, 2017

The first time I tried to tell a friend how I had spent my weekend, the premise came out of my mouth as a hot, garbled mess. It was partly because I had never talked about my story cold before, partly because I was still developing and refining the plot. Practice always makes perfect, so instead of avoiding the subject, I started viewing (and using) my friends as test opportunities. I forced myself to be honest about how I was spending my time, and each time I gave someone the spiel, it sounded a little better. I didn't expect everyone to gush over it — I simply wanted to get to the point at which I was able to hit the major beats of the plot, give them a taste of the conflict, and maybe pique their interest. Not surprisingly, working on my query helped.

Describing your novel to others...

Maze Runner

Laer Carroll

Aerospace engineer turned writer

Harlequin

Eat books, not brains!

Stephen Palmer

Paper_Flower

LeftyLucy

ecerberus

Stephen Palmer

dpaterso

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

Layla Nahar

Seashell Seller

Altiv

Chasing the dragon...

Cekrit

blacbird

xanaphia

_lvbl

noirdood

bwebs

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.

AnthonyDavid11

divine-intestine

Hardened drinker

bluejaybooks

Svader

Laer Carroll

Aerospace engineer turned writer

Harlequin

Eat books, not brains!

borogove