Embracing Tropes to Write a Blurb

How to Structure, Pitch, and Blurb a Novel

Hi, I’m L.J. and I don’t want to read your book.

• As a slush editor, I’m looking for reasons to reject your book and save my boss time.
• As a content manager, I cannot sell the book, if I can’t tell what it’s about.
• As a reader of self-published books, you’ve got a thumbnail to catch my interest and a quippy summary helps.

In Class-Exercise

• Tell me about your story in 30 seconds:

What makes it good?

• Covers the main characters, the setting, and the plot in under three paragraphs.
• Demonstrates voice.
• Interesting use of language.
• Hints at genre.

Example of Yes

Artemis by Andy Weir

…- a heist story set on the moon.

Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.  

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself - and that now her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.

What makes it Less Useful

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• First person narration or excerpts
• Giving too much away
• Asking the reader questions/ misleading the reader
• Gimmicky language: "In a world..." Or title dropping

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Example of No

About three things I was absolutely positive.

First, he was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him—and I didn't know how dominant that part might be—that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

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I’m not here to shit on Twilight. That’s a great hook.

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Example of Yes

Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife-between desire and danger. This is a love story with bite.

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Example of Yes

The Shining by Stephen King

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Jack Torrance's new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he'll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote...and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

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Did you notice the tropes?

• Twilight: Teenager moving to a small town and a new school. Thrills and chills. Supernatural creature with a secret identity. Forbidden love. Mystery in the Midwest.
• The Shining: Alcoholic writer in need of a fresh start. Isolated haunted house. Magic child.
• Artemis: Heist story. Roguish smuggler does what she needs to do to survive. Perfect crime. Political conspiracy.

Tropes vs. clichés vs. stereotypes

• Tropes (archetypes) are present in every work
• A character may be many different tropes at once, but I’ve never found a character who wasn’t a trope.
• Stereotypes are harmful
• Familiarize yourself with negative portrayals of all marginalized people before you accidentally write something damaging.
• Clichés are unexplored or overused tropes
• I for one am sick of romantic vampires; however, I loved We Who Walk in Shadow. Terry Pratchett would take a cliché and drive it to extremes.

Reader Expectation

• Plot is buried under genre expectations.
• A trope can be used to bolster expectation and act as short hand for a character.
• Abraham is a farmer (we know he’s probably religious and self-sufficent, lives in a rural area, and make certain assumptions about his education.
• Or subvert reader expectation.
• Abraham is a farmer, but before the apocalypse he was a scientist. (set our expectations, the immediately flips it and shows us a really interesting character.)

How to actually Write this Thing

Start with Timon’s Formula

• The Story = Hero + Goal (motivation) + Conflict
• Bored teenager + stupid vampire+ want to bang + but can’t because he’s going to eat her in a not sexy way.
• Alcoholic writer + wants to Fix Broken Marriage + moves family to Haunted Hotel.
• Smuggler + takes a huge risk to pull herself out of poverty + ends up at the center of a planet-wide conspiracy.

Examples of a one phrase pitch

• The Z-word: Butch Lesbian tries her hand at dating in the zombie apocalypse to catastrophic and hilarious results.
• Kiki’s Delivery Service: • A plucky young witch leaves home to start her own delivery service and discovers her worth is not tied to her work or what she can offer her community.
• It Follows: When a gory supernatural death is passed on through sex, a group of suburban teens fight to survive.

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Expand!

• Once you have that sentence, you can expand.
• How to show Bella is a bored teenager without playing into the stereotype? Hide it in the voice. “Perpetually rainy town… most boring move she ever made.”
• Check out the slow reveal of Jack’s issues too. “Fresh start” from what? “reconnect with his family” How did he un-connect? His anger and drinking issues are hinted at without the blurb saying “recovering alcoholic.”
• Lean into voice: “Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough…” Just. *chef’s kiss.

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The Z-word Pitch: Butch Lesbian tries her hand at dating in the zombie apocalypse to catastrophic and hilarious results.

�The Z-word blurb: ��Wendy, depressed, stressed, and undersexed, is on the rebound after a humiliating break-up in Arizona’s queer dating scene when all hell breaks loose. Literally, people begin turning into zombies at a Pride Planning party. Now, Wendy and a chaotic group of friends from all ends of the rainbow must come together to save the town and themselves from the oncoming hordes. Full of catty quips, big feels, and shocking surprises, this is a comedic queer horror for the ages.

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Brainstorm tropes

www.tvtropes.org (don’t go here unless you have time. It will suck you in.)

Brainstorm tropes from your WIP

• Romance:
• Horror:
• Sci-fi:
• Fantasy:
• Mystery:

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So you’ve got your tropes

• Tell your story in one sentence.
• Expand to three paragraphs.
• Definitely you want:
• Intro your characters (romance novels usually do one for heroine, then hero)
• Hint at setting
• Leave the last paragraph for conflict
• Use interesting language (don’t try to sound like a sale’s pitch)

In Class-Exercise

• Tell me about your story as quickly as you can using tropes