What's up Wednesday, still going strong! :)
It is the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo!! Yay! (and if you somehow DON'T know what that is...google it :)
So a while ago I had sat down and wrote what I called "pitches" or "book blurbs" for all three books of the first trilogy. I was pretty happy with them, thought they were good to go, and then I decided to share them with my dad...
For those of you who may not know, my Father is the reason I love Fantasy as a genre. He gave me my first Terry Brooks novel, The Sword of Shannara when I was twelve, and I've been hooked ever since. He has read tons of books, and is actually one of my first beta readers. And for those of you doubting that a father can be objective about his daughter's writing, have never see the amount of red pen on the drafts when I get them back! Brutal, but fair :)
As I finished reading the second one, he pointed out that they were giving away too much of the plot, and sounded more like a mini synopsis rather than a "teaser trailer" as he called it.
AND HE WAS RIGHT.
I trudged back to my laptop at my desk and googled, and after reading more advice articles than I care to admit, I had nothing. I had no idea how to start, what to include, or what I even wanted the back to look like.
My muse had utterly deserted me!
I wanted to cry, shake my fists, tear my hair out. (Okay, maybe not the tearing hair part, but I was close!)
The level of frustration I felt was like none I had felt before. And I wondered if I should actually be writing at all. Doubt crept in and clutched around my soul like tendrils of fog. Why would I think that I could do this? Why did I think I could write books? Why did I go to college and spend 4 and half years on learning craft? Was it all useless, was I to quit? Had all the people who believed in me, enjoyed my stories...were they wrong, and that I actually had no potential?
I think a few tears did escape, but I shoved all of that aside, and decided that I would look at it fresh the next day. By then the clouds should have lifted, and I would be able to put aside the doubt and shaking fists.
But it didn't take me all night to puzzle it over. As I was laying down to sleep, my muse appeared. It gave me one sentence.
"To Riona, life was simple."
I felt my slowly decompressing brain pick up on it, and after about 5 minutes I leaped out of bed and grabbed my laptop. (I feel bad for the future spouse I will share a bed with...writing with a laptop, or scribbling notes on a pad of paper at all hours of the night/morning are normal) I pounded out that first sentence, and within a few keystrokes, had an under 200 word book blurb that was not a "mini synopsis", but more of a "teaser trailer".
I just had to get out of the way of my muse! I was being my own roadblock. I am not sure why my muse decided to take so bloody long, but she tends to hide until I'm sleeping, driving to work, or running, to show up. But at least it did come. The blurb is far from perfect, but it's a great start!
Until next time, keep writing!
