In a World... Demystifying The Blurb

For many authors, writing The Blurb is the most unenjoyable aspect of the whole creative process. I don’t know anyone who actually looks forward to it. But that’s hardly surprising: blurb-writing is one of those annoying but necessary chores that can neither be postponed nor procrastinated out of mind, an acute pain in the ass to be endured and, hopefully, done with as soon as possible. Perhaps one reason writers despise blurb-writing so much is because it’s a buzz-kill, the requirement coming precisely at that moment when the author is flush with the exultation of achievement, having only recently completed their masterpiece; the hero who just won the Big Game is nonetheless required to change the litter boxes and take out the trash. The Blurb is the party-pooper’s pin that bursts our happy-thought balloon.  

Then, too, the need to compose The Blurb often comes at a moment when the author is tired, having expended great energy to finish a book, and possibly beginning to suffer the natural symptoms of post-project let-down. It’s not exactly something that motivates people to drag themselves out of bed in the morning.

Must it ever be so? Let’s think a little bit about the elements of effective blurb writing, and how we might make it less of a chore.

At the beginning I said that writing a blurb is part of the creative process, and this needs to be born in mind. We don’t turn off our creative imaginations when it comes to composing The Blurb, it’s an essential part of the whole endeavor.  In many ways, it is also a challenge of craft: how many words do you need to compose an effective blurb? Fifty? Seventy-five? One-hundred? Three-hundred? It’s often possible, by working within a set of severe limitations, to create something not merely memorable, but powerful in its impact. So, as opposed to thinking of The Blurb as some looming shadowy menace with which one must do battle, think of it as nothing more nor less than a simple, garden-variety paragraph to be written.

But this is a paragraph with purpose! Regardless of how many words one has to work with, the paragraph that is The Blurb must accomplish the following: (1) Broadly synopsize the story, or at least, describe the problem the characters must face and overcome. (2) Compellingly introduce at least one important character. (3) Entice potential readers, not only to buy the book, but make them hungry to find out what happens inside.

Synopsis

As far as synopsis goes, The Blurb need provide little more than a thumbnail sketch of the beginning of the story; that is, describe the set-up. The author doesn’t have to know—and readers at this point don’t want to know—how the story ends, they only need to understand the problem or conflict that sets the story in motion. If that conflict is compelling—compellingly described—people will be inspired to explore. (Also note: the author doesn’t have to wait till the book is finished to write the blurb, but can compose it at leisure as the story takes shape.)

The Blurb sets up the story but does not finish it; gives potential readers a glimpse of the storyworld and the characters who occupy it, but does not flesh out details. An effective blurb piques readers’ curiosity, inviting them to pursue a tantalizing mystery.  It ought to go without saying—but often clearly doesn’t—that any well-written blurb eschews spoilers. The author’s primary aim in composing The Blurb is to whet readers’ appetite. Giving too much away too soon is as bad as providing too sketchy a description. Most readers’ attitude may well be “why bother?”

Perhaps the best way to pique curiosity is to pose a series of questions. As in a teaser for an old-fashioned dramatic series, it boils down to “what will happen?” Will the heroine escape the clutches of the wicked witch? Will the hero come riding to the rescue? Will love conquer all? If these are questions to which the reader badly-enough desires answrers, The Blurb has done precisely what it needs to do.

Character

Can you create a striking portrait of your main character with just a few well-chosen words? How much detail is required to make them come alive in the reader’s imagination? Is it more important to describe how the character looks, or how the character thinks or what they must do to overcome the difficulties that faces them?

The telegraphic nature of The Blurb allows for the use of descriptive modifiers that might otherwise be unwelcome in much serious writing. “Handsome, happily-married Jack falls madly in love with the beautiful mysterious Alison, who leads him into dark temptation… Is Jack under a witch’s spell…or is Alison the unwitting pawn of an even greater evil?” As a rule, keep the descriptions fairly broad, and allow readers to use their own imaginations to some extent.

Enticement

Regardless of genre or literary taste, The Blurb is akin to advertising fast food; you need to make the story sound tasty enough to get people’s mouths to water—you need to make them want it right now! And, just as a well-crafted opening sentence draws people into the story itself, The Blurb’s first line should grab them, suck them in, and make reading the rest of the paragraph, and then the whole book, inevitable.

Finally, here are some examples of blurbs I composed for my latest novel, The Seven Seductions. I began working on these a couple years before completing the book in December of last year, refining as required once the book was finished. I’ve included several versions of The Blurb in varying lengths. You may decide how effective (or not) they are.

(1) The Seven Seductions.

Short form (75 words)

Haunted by a demon’s prophecy…

Gretchen grows up dreading the destiny she cannot escape—not even within the walls of a convent— the lustful longings of the otherworldly creature she knows only as The Nameless One.

Now, after having become Sister Mary Chastity, Gretchen must struggle with the stirrings of her own long-buried desires. Can a handsome, carefree young artist help her to face her fears? Or is he, himself, the demon in human guise?

(2) The Seven Seductions

Medium (102 words)

Haunted by a demon’s prophecy…

Gretchen grows up dreading the destiny she cannot escape—not even within the walls of a convent—the lustful longings of the otherworldly creature she knows only as The Nameless One. Uncanny things have always had a way of happening ever since her older sister read aloud from a book of black magic, unwittingly awakening the demon. But now, after having become Sister Mary Chastity, Gretchen must struggle with the stirrings of her own long-buried desires. Can a handsome, carefree young artist help her to face her fears? Or is he, himself, the demon in human guise?

(3) The Seven Seductions

Extended (226 words)

Haunted by a demon’s prophecy…

Gretchen grows up dreading the destiny she cannot escape—not even within the walls of a convent—the lustful longings of the otherworldly creature she knows only as The Nameless One.

Uncanny things have always had a way of happening ever since her older sister read aloud from a book of black magic, unwittingly awakening the demon. But now, after having become Sister Mary Chastity, Gretchen must struggle with the stirrings of her own long-buried desires, the undeniable yearnings that overpower her flesh, and the guilt that inevitably follows when memory intrudes upon the present and dark secrets come back to confound her.

On “holy retreat” in a vacation house by the shores of a lake in the Great North Woods, Mary Chastity meets Magic, a handsome, carefree young artist who tests her vows even as he speaks to something deep within her heart. Can this beautiful boy help her to face her fears—or is he part of the future The Nameless One has foreseen for her all along? Is Magic the key to Mary Chastity’s salvation—or nothing less than the incubus itself in human guise?

All is ultimately revealed when past and present converge, and Mary Chastity is forced to confront her demons in a blazing finale that takes her to the very depths of Hell and back!