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

Saturday, August 15, 2020

WeWriWa: EU41

 

 


                                                                Happy August!
     Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors. Thank you to everyone who left a comment last week. If you'd like to participate or read tempting morsels from other authors, please sign up--or check the linky list at: http://wewriwa.blogspot.com/

      Also, check out the Snippet Sunday group on facebook. 
     This snippet is from Emmily, Unbound, an SFR story. 
To read a compilation of all snippets posted for this story, click Here: Emmily Unbound, Chapter 1  Emmily, the main character, has lost pretty much everything in the last twelve months: her marriage, her parents, her job, and her house. She and her dog, Murphy, have moved to the mountains of Pennsylvania into an old, remote, hunting camp her parents willed to her. It's her first full day here and after a trip to town to get supplies, she's in the midst of being carjacked--or kidnapped or taken hostage--out in the boonies. One of her kidnappers demanded--help at gunpoint. They've carried a body out of the woods--she thought was a dead body. It ended with:
The injured man seems every bit as steeled to keep me away as I am to stay away from him. Judging by the looks he’s giving me.
        Now, the  snippet:

    I swear under my breath as Kade comes my way. Even though he’s no longer holding his maybe-fake gun, his intense look tells me he’s not taking “no” for an answer. He says, “Get inside and drive.” 
    “No.” 
     He says, “I… repeat…you have no choice.”  He looks inside the SUV where Murph stands watching, his tail half-tucked, the tip timidly wagging. He holds the gun up in front of me and raises his brows as he tips his head toward Murph. 
    “Where?” I say without a second of hesitation.
     He nods toward my lane. “Your home.”

        That's the snippet. A few more lines if you're interested. :-)
     
     
     My heart starts racing again. They know where I live? How? Then it comes back to me—that feeling of being watched. I think about last night when I thought I saw someone vanish into the woods. I’m a fool. These criminals already staked out my place and now it’s too late. 
    I need to find a way to escape with Murphy. But for now, I get inside and I drive.

        That's the end of Chapter 2.  I'm closer to publishing this story than I've ever been with a ms. I wrote. It's intimidating, but I'm absorbing the encouragement of fellow authors. The writing community  is such a supportive group.

I'll get there. I'm trying to write the blurb. Holy cow! This is a challenge. Any advice? :-)

Thanks so much for reading, and if you left a comment, I'll throw in a virtual hug.

Note*
I'm re-posting the bit about the relaxed rules in case I've missed anyone:
     In short, the WeWriWa rules have been relaxed. The goal is to maintain ease of finding the weekly snippet, but allowing more promo for published books.  You can check them out here: http://wewriwa.blogspot.com/p/the-rules-of-wewriwa.html
      We love our core group, the close-knit community that has evolved here at WeWriWa, the ease and joy of our weekly 'gathering,' but we also recognize that the time authors spend sharing and commenting has to make marketing sense, too. Time is precious.  This change would also eliminate the need for the "wonky punctuation to stay within guidelines" disclaimer.   

14 comments:

  1. Definitely intrigued to find out what happens next. Congratulations on how far you've gotten with this story!

    As for blurbs, I have a formula I use. Each main character must be introduced in the blurb, along with their wants, and what is standing in their way. It takes a couple days or weeks, and running it past other people to get the wording right, before I'm satisfied.

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  2. What Jessica said! And have a tag line to intro the blurb that you can also use in promo, something short and punchy that describes the gist of the story. Like where its going. Congrats on getting this close - now to gitter done and published!!

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  3. Getting deeper into the mystery of these creeps and I want to read more! So glad you're getting close to publishing it! What I usually do with the blurb is write it out in detail, then pare it down to 150-200 words for a tight copy. Good luck!

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  4. I like how this ties back to the scary scenes at the start.

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  5. So how does he know where her home is? Or are we to assume they've been watching her? It gets a bit disjoined, reading in snippets, so I'm guessing that's the answer. Glad the book is proceeding so well for you - great excerpt today.

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  6. Yeah on nearing publication! I've always wanted to read one of your books.

    Blurbs always seem to be in present tense. It helps if you can make it clear if it's SF, fantasy, modern day. Probably if you have "aliens" in it that will take care of that. Character+situation+problem.

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  7. This is definitely getting intriguing.

    And woohoo on nearing publication! I usually write a summary as part of my plotting process. I'll do a paragraph for each of the main characters(usually 2) then one that introduces the plot/stakes(since I usually write romance, it usually involves what's keeping those characters apart). That's what I usually use for my 'back cover' copy(I've only ever published e-books, so I guess there's not really a back cover, but... *shrug*).

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  8. Don't give away too much. Be vague, but like Jessica said give your primary characters information. Name, maybe occupation. Location can be a good attention grabber. Think to yourself 'what would make me want to buy this book?'

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  9. You've gotten a lot of great advice about the blurb, but feel free to run it by us once you have it written.

    BTW, based on your snippets of yours that I've read, it surprises me you haven't published before. Yes, that's a compliment.

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  10. I'd give in too if they threatened my dog.

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  11. Did he just threaten to shoot the dog? Now I want to open a can of whoop ass on him!

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  12. If you need blurb advice, I suggest doing one of the free workshops offered by Bryan Cohen of Best Page Forward, or at least checking out his blog. He really knows his stuff. https://www.bestpageforward.net/

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  13. *takes notes of blurb advice*
    Congrats on getting this far! I haven't published anything either so I'll live through you lol. This snippet it great it really ups the stakes.

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