Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing.
Harry Potter’s life is miserable. His parents are dead and he’s stuck with his heartless relatives, who force him to live in a tiny closet under the stairs.
In the blink of an eye, everyone disappears. Gone. Except for the young. There are teens, but not one single adult.
These are the first lines of three different blurbs. Each of them is effective, as they either set up the world, set up the main character, or set up the problem. They allow the person reading it to understand some weird, or sad, or shocking aspect of the story. Winters can last lifetimes, Harry’s life is hell, there are no more adults. All interesting things we can latch on to. And that’s important, because the blurb is one of your book’s first interactions with the reader; it’s what prompts the reader to open the book.
And that is what this session is going to be about.
In Session 1, you told the basics of your story. In Session 7, you made a mess of what your story was about by spilling all the details. Now, in Session 23, we’re going to be meeting in the middle, and talking about writing a blurb, something that both needs to be short and to the point, but also exciting and with details.
That’s the session: write out your blurb.
But how? Is there a specific way? Well, no. But there are some useful tips you can use to help write your blurb. The first is to use some kind of formula. There is one that exists at the moment, one that suggests there are four parts of the blurb: situation, problem, twist, and mood. This formula suggests that the blurb should open with the situation your character finds themselves in, then lead into the problem they will soon face. Those a pretty straight forward. Then comes the next two parts: the twist and the mood. The twist portion is not actually to reveal a twist, but more to promise one. Let’s use The Philosopher’s Stone as an example:
There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it’s his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined.
Notice how the blurb sets up a terrifying force, but does not specify what it is. This makes the reader ask the question: what is this force, and why is it so terrifying? It promises the reader something shrouded in mystery, something that needs to be discovered. And that is the twist section.
Finally, according to this formula, the blurb should end with the tone, or the mood, which is basically something along the lines of:
Full of sympathetic characters, wildly imaginative situations, and countless exciting details, the first installment in the series assembles an unforgettable magical world and sets the stage for many high-stakes adventures to come.
Once again, Harry Potter comes to our aid. That last paragraph has nothing to do with the actual plot, but shows what mood you’ll be experiencing: sympathy, excitement, magic. And that is the formula: situation, problem, twist, tone.
However, it should be noted that this is just one way, and that it might not always work for your specific story. Which is why in combination with a formula, I’d suggest you go and look at books that are of a similar tone, type, genre, or style of your own book, and see how their blurbs were done. See how they started, what their hook was, how much and what type of information they gave away, and how they ended it.
Once you get a feel for what you’re going to write and how you want to structure the blurb, remember to do a couple of things. First, make sure the first sentence is strong. Make sure it grips the reader enough so they can move to the next sentence. Try and also make your first sentence set something up, to make the reader want to carry on. To use the three examples at the top, they all make a reader want to find something out. How are the seasons out of balance? Why is Harry’s life miserable? Where did everyone disappear to? Make your first line catchy, intriguing, or shocking.
The second thing to remember is to make sure you introduce your main characters. Let the reader see who they will be connecting with for this journey and the problems they will face. Once again, this depends on the story. If you read the blurb for A Game of Thrones on Goodreads, not one character is actually mentioned by name. However, that blurb does something else, which I will mention in the next point, as it links to the third thing to remember, which is:
Keep it simple.
If your story has seven storylines, great! But don’t try and include all seven in the blurb. If someone is confused because of a small passage at the back of the book, they probably won’t open it. Try and be as precise as possible. Choose your main storyline, and work with that. Once the person is reading the book, they’ll see all the other great characters and plots. This blurb isn’t to inform them of what’s coming. It’s to entice them to read the book; so, put your best foot forward. That being said, this may prove difficult with some stories, especially if there are a lot of storylines that are important in the book. But once again, we can look at how others have done it. Take A Game of Thrones for example. The blurb introduces the world and then talks a bit about the Stark family. It then goes on to say this:
Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.
There are four plots mentioned in that paragraph; five if we include the Starks. And while that may be a lot, the blurb does something smart with the plots: it puts them all under one umbrella. Yes, we’re following five different stories, but they all involve the games of thrones. If you must include several different plots, try using an “all roads lead to…” strategy, in that all plots fall under a specific thing, or all of them lead to a specific city, or they all revolve around a specific character. In other words, give it some form of organisation. Don’t leave your readers confused.
Finally, sit down and write your blurb. Do not make it too long; it has to go on the back of a book. Write it out until it is perfect; until it puts a smile on your face. Then minimize that document, open a new one, and write another entirely new blurb. Work on those two blurbs until they are as perfect as can be, and then figure out which one is better. Use social media, ask your friends, kidnap a bunch of strangers. I don’t care how you do it, just get the two blurbs in front of different people, and ask them which one they prefer, and why.
Then revise what needs to be revised and get it out there again, until you are happy with the one. And that’s the blurb you use.
Easy.
In all seriousness, the blurb is probably one of the most important things about your book. It’s an introduction to the story, to the characters, to the world. It’s the one thing that can and will help you get readers to open your book. You should make it with care. Not as an afterthought, not because you need it, but with the notion that is just as important as what is in the book.
Remember, fellow writers, every great story started with just one line.
Try make that line worth it.
Thanks for Reading, Fellow Writers!
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