Sound byte?

hello everyone,

i am having so much trouble with summing up my novel quickly. if someone asks what it's about i want to be able to lay it out really quick. any ideas?

Define the conflict in your novel.

Examples: Girl on eve of marriage is paralyzed in a car accident and must overcome the ghost of the invalid father who dominated her childhood before she is free to marry and find true happiness.

I have a similar problem. I can sum up any of the the story lines nicely and easily. But that does not say much about the novel which contains at least five story lines. And then they all wind up at the same place in a final confrontation against an opponant that is not directly related to their personal story line but effects it.

The conflict is between the main character, Sadira and a woman who she is dating, Jessie. Jessie pops in and out her life, while the main one puts up with it. But when temptation is really put in front of Sadira change. Three times she is tempted and falls for two of the three but it is the third that really counts. Because she found out Jessie slept with the girl First. (Jessie called the wrong name during sex) and more drama follows that. It has a soap opera feel though that is certainly not what I was aiming for when writing.

THAT sounds boring but the book is not because the interactions are explosive. The love scenes are off the thermostate. The club scenes pull the reader into the party.

But what really is the conflict? Being tempted and putting up with it is not really a good conflict for summarizing the story. I mean, it's your central characer's (internal) conflict, but when you try to summarize your story, be more specific and the conflict be more concrete and REAL.

Is it going to break the relationship? And if so, what's at stake here? Is it betrayal? Is it self-destruction? Revenge?

Things like:

Tempation leads Sadira down the path of falling for [name here] hard. When she discovers that her lover, Jesse, has slept with [name here], betrayal and revenge set a course for destruction...

(or something like that)

oh, I see.

hmm. Well thank you. That gives me more to think about and it helps!

Comparisons can help: "Think 'Wuthering Heights' meets 'Rocky.'"

oh now that's a different idea.

I was talking about this w/a friend last night who is a playwrite and without even reading the book she gave me something to star with. That was asking a couple questions about the main character.

"Is Sadira a sucker or just plain soft? Sex, struggle, strife mix in this exiting novel about the love of two women and the drama, drama, drama. 'Intimate Chaos'"

now that's Rough and like I said she hasn't even read a sentence from it yet but it's a lot better than I had I think.