Surveying The Brick Wall



The brick wall represents the one thing I cannot write: blurb for my novels. I can do hyperbolic, predictable hook questions:
Will she wise up before death hits her some more in the struggle to break the pattern that will see her grow stronger or die…?
I did exaggerate that, but only slightly. It's because I dislike the set up, the need to sell oneself and I daresay it's not uncommon. There are too many people out there blowing trumpets they don't know how to play, I don't want to be one of Them.
(Secret snob! And the ones I am thinking of are enviably shameless so if you are worried that you might fall into this category, you instantly exclude yourself.)
These books are portraits of ordinary people. Most lives are odder than you think, when you look at them.
Is that a strap line though? Would I read anything advertised so casually? So I have inadvertently set myself the task of reinventing the blurb genre?
Cast an eye over the metaphorical blocks.
Think about the protagonist of the first book (logical order, to counterbalance my confusion.)
Anya is not her real name. She is a real person, interesting to me as someone epitomising the choice to be strong even when times are dire. You don’t have to suffer in order to find strength, that’s not the message I want to promote. I loathe drama, actually. But for a story, conflict is useful. The plus side of suffering is that you get to know how strong you are. You can get to develop that strength. And, being a real story, it’s already been lived, so it’s a kind of recycling really and although I do drag the reader through some horrible moments they are never the focus. The constant renewal of a determined life: that is the crux of it.
I couldn’t have written this if I hadn’t lived my own ordinary life. Every day of just about making ends meet means I know how it feels to be just one of billions of people milling about the planet, getting by and getting stuff wrong. Once you accept the humility of that, life becomes much happier. I don't want to compete or judge, just observe, attempt to help.
Later I will read through this, and pick at bits of it, and maybe I will chisel out a doorway or at least a spy hole to the other side of the brick blurb wall. 




Comments

The Cranky said…
My favourite protoblurb ever....'Just like Death of a Salesman only not so overblown and hokey.'

13 December 2012 at 08:43
Lisa Southard said…
Lol! And a flashback of watching Death Of A Salesman and a girl in the seat in front of me gasping 'Oh no, he's dead!' Guess she forgot the title of the play...
13 December 2012 at 23:48
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