Welcome to my world and beyond...

A collection of snippets of the books I write and, occasionally, my life and the things that inspire my writing...

Monday, February 27, 2012

Blurb

I just had to share this method.  I read it today on author Mike Wells' The Green Water Blog: A "Secret" Formula for Creating a Short Synopsis For your Book "  It made me giggle, it was so danged easy.

One note: It is more of a pitch or a blurb than it is a synopsis. :-) But it works.

I do find the method Mike employs to be incredibly simple and easy to do--whether writing a pitch, or a short synopsis.  And right now I am having a lot of fun with it--and while doing so, learning and growing as a writer.

If you know anything about my first book, you know how I have struggled trying to write a  pitch or a blurb for such a complex story.  And to try to keep it short?  Exceedingly difficult--had thus far escaped me.

In less than ten minutes, here is the unpolished version--using Mike's trick...

"Called insane by everyone who knows her—and even most who don’t, Marissa Kradle is trying to find her sanity.  Diagnosed delusional, she struggles accepting that her dreams are not really memories.  But  her dreams refuse to let her go--trying night after night to convince her that she did travel across the stars--she did fall in love and take a mate there--and that her dreams are the answer to her missing child and two years of her life for which she cannot account.  Finding her missing memories, and getting a firm hold on reality is what she seeks--but will the truth of her dreams change her reality forever?"

Be gentle. This was written in a few minutes, and is unpolished.  And please, check out Mike's blog. :-) 

6 comments:

  1. Oh, wow! How totally awesome! I was so impressed with Mike's post on the topic, I had to follow HIM, and so impressed with you for sharing it, I had to follow YOU. (Besides, as a former lab tech, I figure we science nerds have to stick together.)Thanks so much for visiting my blog. Not sure how you found me, but I'm glad ya did, because now I found YOU, too. Thanks so much for sharing this info on writing a synopsis. (I was trying to make it so DIFFICULT!)

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  2. This is good but I'm confused. Is it a pitch or a synopsis? I thought a synopsis was supposed to be longer...off to Mike's blog to answer my question myself.

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  3. It reads as a pitch, Johanna. As soon as I closed with a question, I think it became a pitch, lol, and agents don't want to be teased by questions--they want to know the story complete with the conflict resolution. I think in my excitement to have such a simple pitch formula at last...it just went right over my head. :-) I think that this might be helpful writing a short (one page) synopsis...and lord knows, I need guidelines for that! Thanks for giving this a read and for your excellent comment. :-)

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  4. :-) Big smile <------ Susan. Yes, simple and fun. A kindred spirit on another level...the science nerd one ;-) Writers and lab techs... that combination has some interesting implications for writers. I have a short story WIP that is drawing heavily on my work knowledge and experience. Do you use yours?

    I found you via the A to Z linky list. What a neat thing! Thanks for visiting, and I will be back to see you again :-)

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  5. Okay that is really cool. I am gonna try this. I normally write my synopsis at my first draft. It's how I know if I should go on. It gets polished after each draft. Evolving with my script.

    Plus, your story sounds really cool all snapshoted like that.

    Oh yeah, tag! Wanna play? You're it!

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  6. HI Tanya. It is pretty cool :-) I think your method is pretty practical though--and that might be better. I guess we figure what works best for us as we evolve with our writing ;-)

    I'm it! Oh no...I just couldn't get back to base in time. :-) Be right there.

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