[00:00:00] Jennifer Flodin: Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Fiction Refinery podcast. I’m so glad that you are joining me today. I’m actually really excited to talk about today’s episode. If you tuned in last week, then you know exactly what we’re talking about today. If you didn’t, well, you are in for a fun surprise. Today. We are talking all about.

[00:00:23] A big mistake that I see a lot of writers making, and that is writing the blurb. After you’ve written your story.

[00:00:30] Welcome to the Fiction Refinery podcast. I’m Jennifer, a writer and developmental editor, and I’m here to share my writing process As I work on the first book that I intend to publish, I’m going to be sharing the lessons that I’m learning along the way and the insights that we can borrow from bestselling books and fellow writers.

[00:00:51] Grab your favorite hot beverage and let’s dive in to today’s episode.

[00:00:56] It turns out that blurbs are a really great tool that you can use to hone in on what exactly your story is about, so that when you go to outline, you have exactly what you need to make a great outline.

[00:01:11] Waiting to write the blurb until after you’ve already written the story, can lead you to writing a draft that is unfocused and isn’t as meaningful or powerful as it could be.

[00:01:24] Without knowing what promise you’re making to readers, your plot can meander

[00:01:29] And your emotional impact weakens.

[00:01:32] In business, nobody makes a product without knowing how it’s going to serve. Their ideal client or customer, and it’s the same thing when you’re writing a book. You should not start writing a book until you know exactly what promise you are making to your reader.

[00:01:52] Great creators write the promise first.

[00:01:55] Writing the promise first allows you to create a message that speaks to your reader’s wants and needs,

[00:02:03] and then it allows you to build a story that fulfills that promise.

[00:02:08] So instead of waiting to write your blurb until you finish your story and you’re getting ready to publish it, write it before you start writing your story.

[00:02:17] You’ll get unbelievable clarity on your story’s direction,

[00:02:20] and you’ll know exactly what your story is about. Before you ever start writing,

[00:02:25] you can use it to identify areas of weakness in your story premise. And you can use it as a North star while you’re writing. So if all of that sounds interesting to you and you are ready to write your blurb before you write your draft, or maybe you’re gonna go back, maybe you’re in the middle of your draft, so maybe you’re gonna pause that and work on the blurb.

[00:02:48] That’s okay too. But that’s what I’m gonna be talking about today. I’m gonna be walking you through the process that I used to write the blurb for my story before I even outlined the book.

[00:02:59] So without further ado, let’s dive in.

[00:03:01] I am not going to lie to you. I put off writing this blurb. For the entire week. Last week, I decided that this was something I was going to need to do before I even bothered outlining. ’cause I knew that thinking through the story in this way would help me solidify all of the different plot lines that I’m really trying to bring into the outline.

[00:03:23] And because of that, I knew that doing this before I even tried to outline would be really beneficial. That being said, I was highly resistant to doing it because it sounded like a huge task. And if you had asked me a week ago how you write a blurb, I would’ve told you, I have no idea.

[00:03:41] So it definitely took me a little bit of research to figure out what. Kind of blurb. I even wanted to write for my story. So here were the parameters that I had, and then I’ll share the template that I used. I found it online. I’ll share the resource with you in the show notes as well if you wanna check it out.

[00:04:00] But I decided that I really wanted this blurb to have hook. That’s something that I added to this outline that was not in this outline. It was in another one, but I thought a hook would be really great. I wanted the first paragraph to be about the protagonist and her journey, and I wanted it to tie in slightly with her internal conflict.

[00:04:23] I wanted to show a bit of that. However it. Not explicit at all. And then I wanted to do the second paragraph to be the love interest. He has a point of view and because of that, he has a goal and he also actually has an internal conflict and a growth arc. You’ll see that in here as well. And then the last paragraph is the them coming together and what they’re working towards together.

[00:04:52] And the last paragraph, I actually did it as just a line and. That might not be typical, that might not be recommended, I don’t know, but that’s what I did. So this is by no means supposed to be a final blurb. It’s not supposed to be back of book ready by any stretch of the imagination.

[00:05:10] However, I worked through like almost eight iterations of this blurb to hone in on the vague language. And to also make sure that it was not too wordy to make sure that I was only looking at relevant plot lines and I was not providing too much detail specifically too much unnecessary detail.

[00:05:35] Currently my blurb is sitting at 176 words, and from my understanding, it’s a bit on the high side, but it is still within the recommended range. So this could. Be good enough.

[00:05:48] It was really important to me that I keep this within the relevant range because I wanted to test myself. I wanted to make sure that I was able to explain the story in a concise manner while also being very specific. Anyways, I’ll go ahead and I’ll share the outline that I’m using for this.

[00:06:10] Again, like I said, I’ll link to it in the show notes. I got it off the interwebs.

[00:06:15] I got this outline from Jeffe Kennedy’s website, so for a book with romance, she recommends the following structure. I’m going to be looking away from you for a moment just so that I can read it to you.

[00:06:28] So this basic structure is three paragraphs. So the first paragraph is what the protagonist wants, why they want it, and why they can’t have it. She recommends including both external and internal conflicts. And for paragraph two she says that what the other protagonist wants, and I do wanna pause right there real quick. I think of protagonists a little bit differently than she does. At least that’s the vibe that I’m getting. Could be wrong. I would not call this it for my story. The person who is represented by paragraph two is not.

[00:07:05] Another protagonist might consider them a main character, but they are certainly not a protagonist.

[00:07:11] But I digress. In this paragraph, you’ll want to share what that protagonist wants, why they want it, and why they can’t have it. And of course, this should include external and internal conflicts as well. And then the last paragraph, it’s how these two characters intersect, make each other’s lives more difficult and present a threat to them ever getting what they want.

[00:07:33] Very simple. It did not feel simple as I was trying to write mine, and I’m going to share it. If you have feedback, please feel free to share it with me. I think that’ll be great.

[00:07:44] But here is my final version, just so you can see an example of this. Of course, you can use this template, really this outline to write your own. You can use the one that I wrote as inspiration. Again, I’m not saying that it is perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and in fact, I will probably point out some areas that I think.

[00:08:07] Could use some improvement and why I think they could use some improvement. And maybe for funsies, I’ll share the original one that I wrote just in case you think that this happens on the first try, because it does not. Okay, so here is the version of my blurb, and remember I added a little hook in here too.

[00:08:26] And funny enough, the hook, the hook. the hook. Has a placeholder for the Kingdom name because I have not come up with that yet. Because we have to remember, I’m writing this before I’ve written the book. I’m writing this before I’ve outlined anything. There’s a lot of stuff that I still haven’t quite nailed down.

[00:08:42] In kingdom name. Magic is a death sentence. Marin has spent the last six years hiding her magic from the church, but when her ill-timed magical outburst gets her sister arrested and condemned, Marin must find a way to save her from the gallows to evade capture. She’s forced to rely on the protection of a vicious mercenary to reach her sister before it’s too late.

[00:09:08] August has spent the last 10 years banished life at sea as a mercenary, forced to carry out the dark wishes of the tyrant king. When the king threatens to leverage August’s hand in marriage, to win an alliance with a neighboring kingdom, August must find a way to sever the king’s control and gain his freedom out of time and out of options.

[00:09:27] He’s forced to seek refuge in a marriage to his sworn enemy, a witch. Can Marin and August learn to trust each other with their darkest secrets, or will they die trying to save her sister and all the persecuted witches? The church has condemned pom bum bomb. I hope that that feels as dramatic as I think it does.

[00:09:51] I spent a lot of time trying to make this. Super specific because I have not written the story yet. There were certain things that I had not taken into consideration yet. I don’t have a fully fleshed out idea of how August and Marin even meet. There is a marriage of convenience. I did know that August was going to be trying to gain his freedom from the tyrant King, who also happens to be his brother.

[00:10:24] You’ll have to please excuse my dog. He is apparently if you, I don’t know if you can hear it or not, but he is playing with some of his loudest toys right now, conveniently. But I knew that August was going to be trying to get his freedom back from his brother. ’cause his brother basically controls his life.

[00:10:40] His brother is the tyrant king. We talked about this in the antagonist episode and his brother is really trying to keep him at. Arms length because he is afraid, because he is so ruthless himself, he is afraid that August is as ruthless and is going to try and kill him to gain control of the throne because that is something that he would do and maybe he did. Do I, it’s a possibility.

[00:11:11] But he’s trying, he’s not trying to turn anybody against him. He’s trying to get August out of the picture in the cleanest way possible, and he wants to do that while also gaining something. So marrying him off to a neighboring kingdom in order to gain an alliance is something that he would absolutely love to do.

[00:11:33] Especially if he could end up using this to his advantage in maybe taking over the neighboring kingdom as well, to gain full control of that scarce resource that he would like to gain access to. So there’s a lot there. There’s a lot that I’m thinking about and I think you can probably tell that I don’t have.

[00:11:53] All of these things fully fleshed out, and I think that a lot of that has come through in vagueness, and I really had to work hard to even get to the level of specificity that I have here for funsies. I will read you my first version, and then you can cringe. It’s okay. I’m gonna cringe as I read it.

[00:12:15] Marin has spent the last six years dutifully keeping her sister safe from the turbulence wreaking havoc on the kingdom when her sister is wrongfully arrested for casting magic, Marin must shed the shadows to find her sister and save her from their parents’ fate.

[00:12:32] But when she runs into trouble, she’s forced to rely on a murdering mercenary. August has spent the last 10 years of his life exiled to the life of a mercenary. Serving every whim of the crown. When the threat of an unwanted marriage looms on the horizon, August must find a way to thwart his brother’s scheming so he can finally live a life he chooses.

[00:12:54] But when an ill-fated incident forces him to marry, he must rely on his greatest enemy. When forced into a marriage of convenience, Marin and August must learn to trust each other or risk losing the fight against the tyrant King. So there you go. That was my first version. It’s pretty cringey. It’s pretty vague.

[00:13:11] There was a lot of stuff that I just threw in there that I’m not even sure is gonna be in the actual story. And it was a lot of additional information that wasn’t really necessary. Like the whole thing with her parents definitely adds some backstory, but some backstory that’s just not really needed in the blurb.

[00:13:29] It is just not nearly as tight. And it is actually hilariously enough, it is shorter. It is a shorter blurb than the final version that I ended up with. But going back to the final version, I just wanna highlight some points that I think could still be improved. And I may spend the time to improve them before I start writing.

[00:13:49] I think though that this is solid enough for me to go ahead and work on the outline and then I might come back to it after I’ve completed the outline just to make sure that the two match up. You know, I don’t wanna end up with a blurb and then an outline for a completely separate book. That’s not the point here.

[00:14:08] The point is for them to match and work together beautifully. Here are the things about my blurb that I think could be improved still. So there is some vagueness between the church and the tyrant king. There’s these two forces, which I’m going to have the two forces, but it’s. Difficult to understand in the context of the blurb.

[00:14:36] It’s confusing having the church and the tyrant king, so I might need to just join those together for the purpose of the blurb. I think that might simplify and streamline it a lot more, but of course, I don’t know exactly how to do that while indicating that there’s also a little bit of a religious aspect to the.

[00:14:59] Persecution. I’ll work on it later, I think the next thing that is a little bit vague is Marin’s need to, evade capture, it’s a little bit disconnected from her ill-timed magical outburst in the blurb, but that’s really what’s causing her to need to lie low. It’s making it difficult for her to get to where she needs to go, the capital to save sister and it really forces her into the marriage of convenience.

[00:15:31] The next thing that I think is still a little bit vague is in August’s paragraph. It is the dark wishes of the tyrant king. That’s pretty vague. It gets across the point that August, especially because he is a mercenary, but that August is doing dirty deeds for the king. He is stealing from ships that belong to neighboring kingdoms and he is murdering and all of the awful things that one might associate with a mercenary who’s at sea. He’s basically like a sanctioned pirate. He’s sanctioned by the crown to act against neighboring kingdoms.

[00:16:16] Ships basically. I hope that made sense. Alright, so those dark wishes, those are vague. I’d like to make it a little bit more specific, but I’m not sure how to yet probably because I don’t actually know what exactly those dark wishes are. Oh goodness.

[00:16:35] I also think the line where August must find a way to sever the King’s control and gain his freedom. That the King’s control could probably be a bit more specific. How does the King have control over August? I think that specifying that might improve this quite a bit.

[00:16:57] And the other thing that needs a little bit of clarity, and it’s not that it needs to be more specific in the blurb, it’s just something that I need to clarify for myself is why witches are a sworn enemy for him. Sworn enemy seems a little bit strong, maybe a little bit personal. I might need to make that.

[00:17:17] Just his enemy. Maybe something else. I don’t know. I haven’t quite thought through it yet, but he is going to be, he’s gonna be swept in to everything else. All of the rhetoric that his brother or the Tarren king is. Spewing all the rhetoric that the church is spewing. ’cause basically the tyrant king is using the head of the church who’s basically who’s pretty evil but who’s doing everything in the name of God.

[00:17:50] He’s using his evil doings to gain power and so. This is all secretly too. He’s secretly gaining power, and so August is going to be swept up in that rhetoric, but I just don’t know to what level

[00:18:08] this I think, will clear up a lot when I go to outline. Right now, I have them working towards the same goal because ultimately they’re gonna have to work together. August is going to need to help Marin save her sister to a degree. I just don’t know what degree yet. I don’t really know how that’s gonna work.

[00:18:26] Oftentimes in romantic fantasies, fantasy romances, the protagonist in the love interest, they end up having to work together on the same goal and. That’s purposeful, right? Because two people who don’t wanna spend any time together are never going to spend the time together to get to know each other and actually fall in love.

[00:18:46] So they have to have some sort of glue, some sort of binding event that forces them to work together. It makes sense.

[00:18:55] That being said, I don’t know that at the moment I have a really great reason for August to start helping Marin, other than the fact that there was a marriage of convenience, and that’s a pretty terrible reason. So I think that I need to consider how. August is going to try to get his freedom from his brother and if helping Marin would also help him achieve his goal.

[00:19:26] So they’re not really working together to achieve the same thing, but they can each see how helping each other and working together brings them each closer to achieving their own goals. So I think that’s the route that I’m gonna go. I don’t exactly know how I’m gonna do that yet, of course, but that’s something that I absolutely have to think through because the way that it’s set up right now, it doesn’t quite work, I don’t think.

[00:19:51] So hopefully this shows you that you don’t have to have everything figured out. And the exercise of writing a blurb is really just to help you bring everything into focus. It highlights some of the weak spots in your narrative and will allow you to clarify a few things. And that’s really why I chose to write this before I bothered outlining.

[00:20:14] ’cause this is a really general. Summary of what’s gonna happen in the entire story. And I think that is super beneficial for when I go into outlining. I know some weak points that I need to figure out, but I also ultimately have a direction that I’m aiming for. So when I sit down to outline, I know what I’m trying to accomplish, and then at the end when I finished outlining, I can compare that outline to my blurb and see.

[00:20:44] How things look. So I think in the next episode we are actually truly going to start talking about outlining. So I hope that you have found this episode helpful, and I hope that you join me next week as we start talking about outlining. I think next week’s episode will be about outlining the main plot, and then after that we will chat about outlining the romantic subplot.

[00:21:10] If you are inspired to write your own blurb before you start writing, then find me on Instagram, send me a dm. I’m @jennflodin. I would love to hear from you. I’d love to hear the blurb that you come up with, so make sure you share it with me when you are done.

[00:21:27] And as always, if you want more content just like this, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter. The link will be in the show notes

[00:21:36] thanks so much for joining me, and I will see you next week in another episode.

[00:21:41] Thanks for listening to the Fiction Refinery podcast. Writing does not have to be a solitary journey. We are in this together, and if today’s episode resonated with you, I’d love it if you subscribed and shared it with another writer who might need it. And as always, if you want more content like this, then be sure to subscribe to my newsletter.

[00:22:03] The link is in the show notes. Until next time, happy writing.