Planning the blurb

I spent some of today getting over the busy weekend and the rest starting on the first part of planning my novel. The blurb, what they in the movies call the ‘Elevator Pitch,’ is an important part of any writing planning. If you can succinctly put into a few (or less) sentences exactly what the story is all about so that a person can grasp it all from you in just 20-40 words, then you may just have control and guidance over what your story is all about.

It’s also called a logline by some parts of the writing industry. Whatever it’s called, it contains the following:

• It’s short
• It tells you who is involved
• It informs you of their desires
• It lets you know of their conflict during the story

The connoisseurs in this field will call this same section ‘the protagonist, the goal and the antagonistic power.

Some examples:

JAWS: (the movie most of us know)
After a series of grisly shark attacks, a sheriff struggles to protect his small beach community against the bloodthirsty monster, in spite of the greedy chamber of commerce.

The movie 2012 has been out a couple of weeks: this is described as:
Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists, and governments. 2012 is an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors.

For books, you tend to get space for a few more words (it’ll take you 7-10 hours to read while the movie will take you two hours to watch) thus:

CHRONIC CITY By Jonathan Lethem

Lethem’s eighth novel unfolds in an alternative-reality Manhattan. The crowded canvas includes a wantonly destructive escaped tiger (or is it a subway excavator?) prowling the streets, a cruel gray fog engulfing Wall Street, a “war free” edition of The New York Times, a character stranded on the dying International Space Station, strange and valuable vaselike objects called chaldrons, colossal cheeseburgers and some extremely potent marijuana.

Once complete the ‘blurb’ will keep you on track; to remind you what your story is about as you write it. It will also be necessary when you come to sell your manuscript to a publisher. Something that’s easy to grasp and digest, something that’s ready to go on the back page of your paperback.

Okay; must do the first few drafts of my ‘blurb’ now. I’ll let you know how it went. I might do a couple and then let it sit for a couple of days as I start working out what the story will be about, in real time detail.