Describing your novel to others...

I absolutely struggle. I'm getting a little better now at conveying the plot and story but in the early days, I gave the most basic laughable blurb ever

I struggle. The concepts in my books don't always lend themselves to easy pitches and I am not a very good salesman. It all gets too tangled up in my head for me to present it very well.

my main struggle is knowing how much to give away. you need to tell enough that the person gets excited, but you can't tell them everything that happens. I'm talkative, so it's a struggle to not just infodump

Depends who asks the question, and where, of course, but we are assuming a friend or acquaintance, and perhaps a party scenario - not a potential pitch.

If someone discovers you're writing a book, 'What's it about' is a standard reflex question - one sentence should be sufficient to cover that.

Reply as concisely as possible, change the topic and see if you receive another direct question. Repeat.

Imagine the situation reversed - how long are you going to listen to someone waffling on about a book you know nothing about.

On the extremely rare occasions it comes up, I say it's pretentious shite and make a joke at my own expense ;-) Dodge plus deprecatory humour usually works well.

I have no interest discussing it with friends though. I hope to Cthulhu that no one I know in person ever reads anything I write. That would be horrendous.

Yeah, kinda the same for me. It never really comes up. But if it does, I usually joke and say it's about an old man who's visited by three ghosts to scare him into the joys of Christmas. If I have to answer seriously, I try to be as vague as possible: It's a ghost story; it's about a murderer; it's about a dysfunctional family, etc.

I hate talking about my writing to anybody that's not a writer, for some reason. I don't know. It's like there's no way to talk about it without sounding like a pretentious douchebag. I'm also a little superstitious when it comes to talking about whatever it is I'm working on. Even though I wish to be a published, successful author someday, I am oddly shy/embarrassed/uncomfortable when it comes to speaking about it with others---Absolute Write and other writers aside, I guess.

It depends on who asks. If it's someone who genuinely cares about me and is articulate about story, I chatter on until it looks like they might like a change of subject. With Tom (my husband who is discovering new reserves of patience as time goes on), I talk until he forcibly changes the subject. Hey, he bends my ear about baiting hooks for his long-line fishing, so I figure cosmic justice is served.

Other than that, I have a variety of responses: "I write fantasy--you know, dwarves and wizards and such." Or if they're more thoughtful sorts: "I really write about unlikely heroes and survival." Then I shut up unless they indicate more interest, and even then, I don't like to push it. But if they ask more questions, I'll give them another short answer. I don't want them to be trapped, like someone who didn't see the Jehovah's witnesses coming in enough time to hide behind the couch.

I'm in the same boat. I don't like being put on the spot, even if I was the one talking about my novel in the first place. Then when they ask me what it's about, I draw a blank. I do what some of the PPs do, and I just say it's fantasy or urban fantasy. Or sometimes, my boyfriend will be talking about it to his friends/family, and take it on himself to describe it to people. Sometimes his description is pretty accurate...other times, not so much, lol.

Harlequin said:

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.

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Guess it's only an issue because sometimes write in public where other people can see.

For my WIP, I say "It's a monomyth with epistolary elements" and wait for them to scream off into the woods with paper bags over their heads. If they don't, and they want me to elaborate, I tell them it's a story about a rock band set in the early 1970s, written in the style of a rock memoir except it's fiction and has a plot.

For my published novel, I go with "It's a love triangle among Pearl Jam fans in Detroit."

Most people asking what your book is about are just making small talk and don't really care.

Paper_Flower said:

...I'm starting to worry that perhaps my plot is just too complicated, perhaps not enough happens in order to break it down into key words or phrases.
...If I can't come up with an elevator pitch, is my novel not good enough?

Paper_Flower

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Not really. Discussions about my books rarely get into plot.

If you're looking to answer the "what is your book about" question in a socially not-awkward way, don't worry about plot. "It's a (genre) set in (time/location)." Then toss in something intriguing like "there are dragons/hot firemen/kracken in space." If someone is interested beyond that, they'll ask questions and you can try to answer them in two sentences or less.

A real elevator pitch is something more fine tuned, designed to get an agent/acquiring editor's attention in one to two sentences. It can be a high-concept one-liner, (Kraken in Space) or a quick genre/setting/hook (Sci-fi romantic suspense with space mafia and Kraken assassins. He's running for his life, she's the mercenary who must save him.)