RITA ® Award-Winning Author of Fantasy Romance
//I’m still head-down on drafting this novel, absorbed in increasing my productivity – with good news to report on that front. Also thinking about invisible friends and creativity. I had them. Did you?
//How pushing my wordcount is working – I’ve had my best week since last May – and thoughts on POV: how to teach it, how to choose the “right” POV for a story, and a way of thinking about writing POV well.
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Last night, SFWA did the big online show to announce our Nebula finalists. Killian got to play a special role in a guest appearance as a catterfly, a denizen of Planet Friend. Isn’t he adorable?
But catterflys aren’t our topic at the SFF Seven this week. Pity. Instead, we’re discussing blurbs and how to write better ones.
Now, there’s some confusion out there about exactly what a “blurb” is. In traditional publishing, a blurb is what one author says about another. Along the lines of “Golly gee whiz, this book was better than espresso brownies!” In indie circles, self-published authors tend to call the book description a blurb, whereas the trad community refers to it as the back cover copy or BCC.
Taking my cue from KAK yesterday, I’m going with the BCC definition. Except there’s no freaking way I’m going to write that before I write the book. My writer brain doesn’t work that way. However, I can give advice on how to write your BCC.
The Basics
The BCC structure is very simple and looks like this for a book with romance:
Paragraph 1: What the protagonist wants, why they want it, and why they can’t have it. Should include both external and internal conflicts, if present.
Paragraph 2: What the other protagonist wants, why they want it, and why they can’t have it. Should include both external and internal conflicts, if present.
Paragraph 3: How these two intersect, make each other’s lives more difficult, and present a threat to them ever getting what they want.
Boom. Done.
Level Up
Once you have the basic stuff in there – and I just sketch it in to get the structure and dynamics – then I polish it up. Remember: while you want to give a sense of the story to the reader, you also want to entice. Exact details are less important than posing intriguing questions. Hint at secrets and drama. Resist naming too many names or places. Those aren’t important at this stage. A sense of who the characters are and the challenges they face are what matter. Make sure the genre is clear. Choose vivid, active words. Make it sizzle and excite!
Advanced Tricks
Once you have it polished and seductive, see if you can slip in some keywords for the genre. Think what readers might search for. References tropes. (Then go back and polish so it sounds good.)
//Why and how I’m going back to the basics in order to improve my creative output. Sharing some of my productivity metrics, why writing every day works for *me*, and how I think metrics helps all creatives.
//I’m (finally!) talking about book boxes and their business models. Some are great! Others not so much. How do you tell? Also on scheduling creativity, especially making a living as an author.
//How being a career creative means always continuing to learn and refine your craft, showing vs telling, how worldbuilding without info-dumping is an ongoing challenge, and why perfection is an unattainable goal.
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This week at the SFF Seven we’re talking ethics. We’re asking each other: what thorny issues have your dealt with or worry about as an author?
I can’t say that I’ve dealt with thorny issues as an author. The ethics there are pretty clear to me. But then, I’m often described as a very ethical person, which pleases me because being ethical is a core value of mine.
Most of the ethical issues I wrestle these days are author-tangential, primarily in my role as the President of SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association). As a 501(c)3 charitable organization, we have a fair number of ethical lines assigned to us by the IRS in order to maintain our tax-exempt status. One of the primary concerns is that I avoid “self-dealing.” What this means is that I can’t line my pockets with SFWA money. Remember Unicef in the mid-90s, when it came out that they’d “lost” billions of dollars? Lots of hands dipping into those pots of money and stowing the funds in their own pockets instead of using them for the charitable purposes of the organization. That’s the clear, bright line: don’t take money from the organization.
Where it gets fuzzier are the areas of conflict of interest (COI). In my old day job, I had to take COI training, so I find myself often in the position of explaining COI to people. A clear example would be that I can’t use my position as president to get the board to vote to hire me as an author coach for SFWA members. That’s absolutely conflict of interest, because I’d be using my influence to send SFWA money to my pockets. What’s less clear is when I’m not using my influence and the recipient isn’t directly related to me, but it might LOOK that way. This is where it gets difficult for people, because we have to understand that the APPEARANCE of COI is just as much of a problem as actual COI.
For example, if the board votes to pay my friend to be an author coach, that can look like I influenced that decision, even if I had nothing to do with it. Think about a Sopranos scenario, where the lucrative construction contract “just happens” to go to the niece who is a contractor. Because people can and have attempted to do scurrilous things with money they’re responsible for directing, everyone has to be so far aboveboard that no one could possibly believe there was anything shady going on. What do we do in these cases? To continue the example, what if my friend is the very best candidate? I recuse myself from discussion and voting. In that way, we avoid not only actual COI, but any appearance of COI.
Next week – Tuesday, March 7 at 6pm MT! – we’ll be announcing this year’s finalists for SFWA’s Nebula Award. I’ve been in rehearsals for the show and it’s very fun, so tune in! https://www.facebook.com/events/198142222865460 I’ll be there announcing, but I won’t be one of the finalists. That’s because, as long as I’m President, I recuse my works from consideration. It could appear to be a conflict of interest, should one of my books final. Recusing myself is the ethical thing to do.
//More granular insight into my revision process, including how I create and name “new” monsters, stealing from the best houses, and how we all borrow from other creators, whether we realize it or not.
//Breaking down my revision process today, including sharing some interesting thoughts from crit readers on where I can improve as a storyteller, and a bit on content/developmental editing.
//A bit more on organizing large reader events and how scaling up gradually is super important for all small businesses. Also, how to tell if an agent is legit, or – if legit – the kind of agent you need.
