Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Summer Reprise Series #2: Ideas for Preview Language to use when describing your book to others.

Summer Reprise Series #2: Ideas for Preview Language to use when describing your book to others.
First published July 29, 2014

If you’ve seen Star Wars, Episode 4: A New Hope, you know the story. But, what if you were George Lucas and someone asked you,

“Hey, George! I heard you wrote a book. What’s it about?”

If you were George Lucas, after clearing up that this was part of a series of stories, how would you answer that question?

  • Classic story of good versus evil set in a galaxy, far, far, away. Lots of aliens and sophisticated equipment. Good prevails at the end.

This really doesn’t tell enough about any part of the story, except that it takes place somewhere far away from Earth. This is NOT enough information and description to convince anyone to read the story.

  • It’s an outer space story. You meet Luke Skywalker, the hero, as he’s working for his uncle. Someone or some thing, kills off all of Luke’s family. He decides to get revenge. He finds a pair of robots. While cleaning one of them, he turns on a holographic message from a princess in distress. Luke goes hunting for an old-timer that can use his mind to control a power called The Force. This allows him to do amazing things with matter and the minds of some lesser beings. The old-timer and Luke hire a pilot named Han Solo who works with a giant big foot type character. They go looking for and find the Princess in the hologram. Eventually, you find out the princess and one of her suitors are twin brother and sister. There’s a big fight with hi-tech swords called light sabers at the end of the movice between Luke and Darth Vader, the villain. Luke survives.

Of course, this version provides waaaay too much information. And it gives away several of the key plot elements that drive the story. Chances are, you would feel like you really don’t need (or want) to read the story because you know so much about it.

A happy medium is what is needed. Enough to intrigue, but not enough to require spoiler alert status. Try writing your own logline—a ONE-SENTENCE “best description” or summary of a story—for Star Wars Episode 4.

Are you writing yet?

What you read next will be more impactful if you’ve tried writing your own logline.

Check to see how you did. Here’s an original logline for “A New Hope.”
Luke Skywalker, a spirited farm boy, joins rebel forces to save Princess Leia from the evil Darth Vader, and the galaxy from the Empire’s planet-destroying Death Star.

How do YOU answer the question, “What’s your book about?” for your book?

  • Do you skim over the whole plot too quickly and superficially to generate interest?

Hopefully not.

  • Do you find your questioner looking at his/her watch as you drone on and on?

Again, hopefully not.

  • Have you found your sweet spot in describing your book?

I hope so. But, if not, you’ll find more people will want to read your book when they know enough about the story to be intrigued and want to know how it ends

For Traveler’s HOT L, my elevator speech--another term for the logline--is:
  • It’s eight stories of time travel where each traveler travels for different reasons and with different results.
The name elevator speech comes from the amount of time it takes to give the speech--the time it takes to ride an elevator up/down one or two floors.


My first expansion of the logline adds:
  • Some choose to make the trip. Others are recruited by the proprietor’s of the Harmonic Overlap of Time Location (HOT L) or the time synchronizers who work with them to travel and fix something from their lives or for the timeline as a whole. Each story is unique, and some of the results of the time travel fail to meet, or exceed, the expectations of the travelers.


If I have more time, I provide a brief description of the plot of each story. 
  • I emphasize that the stories are not related to one another in any way except by the HOT L.


How’s your pitch for your book?

Bottom line for this blog: 
Make your pitch hittable.
After all, you’re not trying to strike out with your readers.

Next week: Quick Tip: BE aware of what one word can help you do

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My website: www.crdowning.com

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