Seekerville: The Journey Continues

 

Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. Back in January I posted about writing book blurbs (you can read that post HERE) and promised you a Part 2. So today I'm delivering on that promise.

First a caveat - this is just my thoughts on what makes up a good blurb. There are likely other methods that are as effective if not more so.

 

First let’s talk about what goes into a blurb.
I consider that these the four components are the minimum of what you need.to create an effective blurb. 

• The Tag Line
• The Characters:
• The Conflict:
• The Close:

 

For the purposes of this series of posts, I’m going to use the blurb from the first book I had to craft a blurb for all on my own. We’ll look at what I did right, what I did wrong, and what I might do differently today. It’s for my book The Unexpected Bride, an April 2019 release. It reads as follows: 

 

Fleeing an arranged marriage, socialite Elthia Sinclare accepts a governess position halfway across the country. But when she arrives in Texas she finds more than she bargained for - more children, more work and more demands. Because Caleb Tanner wants a bride, not a governess. But marrying this unrefined stranger is better than what awaits her back home, so Elthia strikes a deal for a temporary marriage. She says I do and goes to work—botching the housework, butting heads with her new spouse, loving the children.

Caleb isn’t sure what to make of this woman who isn’t at all what he contracted for—she’s spoiled, unskilled and lavishes her affection on a lap dog that seems to be little more than a useless ball of fluff.  But to his surprise she gets along well with the children, works hard to acquire domestic skills and is able to hold her own with the town matriarchs.

Could the mistake that landed him with this unexpected bride be the best thing that ever happened to him?

 

 

So today I want to dig into the first component.

The Tagline.

Technically, the tagline is optional, but I think having one adds a little extra punch to your blurb. The Tagline, also called a log line, is a very short teaser, designed to hook the reader and introduce the tone of the book. There are several different ways to approach this.

1. You can do the A meets B format. Here’s an example
   Jane Austen meets Sherlock Holmes in this new Regency mystery series
   (from Erica Vetsch’s Jan 2022 release The Debutante’s Code)
   
   Another version of this format is to simply reference to the genre/tropes you’re mashing together – i.e. A regency era female turns detective in this new mystery series. (My apology to Erica if I didn’t properly capture the tone of her book)
   
   
2. You can pose a question, as in this one
   As her plans unravel, can she give her children what they truly need?
   (from Mindy Obenhaus’s Nov 2021 release Their Yuletide Healing)
   
   
3. Then there’s the contrast method.
She mixed danger, desperation, and deception together. Love was not the expected outcome.
(from Mary Connealy’s March 2022 release The Element of Love)


4.  And lastly, you can simply showcase the heart of the story as was done in the blurb for my upcoming May 2022 release Her Amish Springtime Miracle.
   In this delightful and heartwarming novel, an orphaned baby brings together an unlikely couple who learn the true meaning of family.

Unfortunately, I didn’t include a tagline for The Unexpected Bride (shame on me!). So if I were to try to craft one today, how would I go about it? Well, let’s see how it might look using each of the four methods above.

Using method one:  A runaway heiress must serve as housekeeper and nanny in this accidental Mail Order Bride story

Using the second method:   Can a klutzy socialite who ends up far from home provide the care and love six orphaned children and their determined uncle so desperately need?

Using the third method:   She ran away from home to escape an unwanted engagement. So how did she end up agreeing to marry a disagreeable stranger?

And using the last method:   In this heartwarming story, an inept runaway socialite must build a loving home for six orphaned children and their much too serious uncle.

So which one would I actually use? The test would be which one I thought provides the best hook while remaining true to the story.  Right now I'm thinking it would be the third one.

A couple of tips:

• Just because the tagline appears at the top of your blurb doesn’t mean it needs to be created first. If you’re having problems figuring it out, craft the rest of your blurb first and then come back to it. Hopefully the key tone and story essence you want to convey will pop out to you then
• To figure out what part of your book would make the best hook, ask yourself what is most unique or interesting about your story. 

 

There you have it, my notes on how to craft your book blurb’s tagline. Next time we'll look at the second component, the characters.

So do you have any questions? Do you agree with this approach? Would you have chosen (or crafted) a different tagline for TUB than the one I chose? 

Leave a comment to be entered into a drawing for a book from my backlist

And if you're interested in learning more about The Unexpected Bride or ordering a copy, click HERE

 

 

 

 

 

by Mindy Obenhaus

Recently, a fellow author and I were discussing opening scenes, why some really grabbed hold of the reader’s attention while others lacked punch, despite having key elements such as the h/h meeting quickly, goal, motivation and conflict, etc.

An opening scene needs to be engaging and make the reader care about the character enough to embark on their journey with them and see it through to the end. But that doesn’t mean that all openings are cast from the same mold, does it? Curious, I went back and looked at the opening scenes of some of my books.

Just in my two most recent releases things varied considerably. In A Father’s Promise, book one in my Bliss, Texas series, the hero and heroine don’t even see each other until the end of the first scene. And when they do, it’s barely a glimpse and they don’t speak to each other. While in book two, A Brother’s Promise, the h/h are conversing by the bottom of page one.

I write for Love Inspired Books and one of their must-haves is that the hero and heroine meet in the first scene. However, whether they lay eyes on each other on page one or page fifteen or somewhere in between depends on the story. Wherever it happens, though, readers need to be engaged from the get-go. If they’re not, they’ll put the book down and we don’t want that.

So how does one craft an opening that will make readers want to keep reading?

Goal, motivation and conflict– You’ve heard this over and over again. Every character has to have a GMC not only for the story, but for each and every scene. In chapter one, though, it’s their story goal, motivation and conflict that needs to be established so the reader knows what the character wants, why they want it and what stands in their way. It’s what makes us want to cheer them on. Now, that’s not to say that their GMC might not change at some point during their story, but in the opening scene, it’s what starts them on their journey and invites the reader to join them. And it needs to presented ASAP.

Stakes – What’s at stake goes hand-in-hand with GMC. Stakes are what will (or could) happen if they don’t achieve their goal. In A Father’s Promise the heroine wants to name a guardian for her infant daughter so that if the heroine (who has no family) were to die, her daughter would be taken care of by someone who loved her. The stakes are that if she doesn’t name a guardian and something does happen to her, the daughter would become a ward of the state. Stakes are the driving force behind each goal.

Inciting incident – Once we know our character’s goal, motivation and conflict and what’s at stake, it’s time to contemplate the inciting incident. This is when something about the hero and heroine coming together changes the trajectory of their goal and/or life. Needless to say, when my heroine in A Father’s Promise sees her baby’s father, she knows her life is about to change in some way. In A Brother’s Promise, it’s when Christa learns that Mick is now the guardian of his five-year-old niece and she can’t help but reach out to them in hopes of making the transition easier for little Sadie. The inciting incident is what brings the hero and heroine together and often results in a common goal. But we can’t simply bring them together. No, we want to…

Rock their world – Example, my very first book was a secret baby story. Of course, the heroine knew her life was about to change as soon as she saw the hero she believed turned his back on her and her son nine years prior. However, the hero didn’t learn about the boy until chapter three. Then an editor asked me to revise it, stating that she wanted him to find out sooner. So I reworked things, bumped it up a little, though not by much and said editor bought the book. Imagine my surprise when I received my edits where she stated she wanted the hero to learn about the boy at the end of the first chapter. At the time, I wasn’t too thrilled about that, but I soon saw how right she was. Instead of simply seeing the girl he loved and whose heart he’d broken, his world was rocked by the knowledge that he had a son!

In my August 2021 release, the hero and heroine both want to purchase an abandoned castle. The owner refuses to sell but issues a counteroffer. The h/h—who can’t get through a church committee meeting without butting heads—must work together in exchange for exclusive rights to use the castle as an event center and a museum.

When trying to come up with a rock-their-world moment, it helps to use an approach you all have heard me mention before. Ask yourself what’s the worst thing that could happen to that character at that moment and then find a way to make it happen. It can be a challenge, but it works.

When crafting the opening of your book, remember you only get one chance to make a first impression. If you don’t grab an editor’s/reader’s attention within the first few pages, they may not keep reading and that’s never good. Instead, we want to capture their attention with an opening that makes them want to journey with the characters all the way through to that satisfying ending.

Writers, what strategies do you employ for an opening with impact? Readers, what sorts of story openings capture your attention?  Leave a comment to be entered to win one of two copies of an anthology due out later this month. My April 2019 release, Her Colorado Cowboy, has been paired with Lois Richer’s, Rocky Mountain Daddy, and will hit store shelves April 16^th. (US mailing addresses only, please)

 

by Pam Hillman

So I got to thinking. I switched days with another Seeker because of a conflict on my regular day to post. Then I forgot that I’d switched and scheduled an appointment for this morning. All is well as I shouldn’t be out more than a couple of hours. (I’ll be back, so y’all behave!!!)

In addition, today is the 16th, and I blog in Heroes, Heroines, and History on the 16th of every month, rain or shine, much like the postman makes his rounds.

My topic on HHH today is taboo foods. I started mulling over the topic when thinking about why it is that the five whites (sugar, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes) tend to be shunned in American society these days. Is it a fad or truly that these foods can be detrimental to our health and our waistline?

Anyway, today’s post here in Seekerville isn’t about taboo foods, but more about writing-related taboos, and I’m not just talking about taboo topics. There can be all kinds of taboos, and they change as often as the foods that it’s currently hip to avoid.

Taboo Language. It’s no secret that there are certain words that many Christian readers would prefer not to see in their reading material. It’s not that we’re prudes or that we like to pretend we don’t hear or see those words in the world around us. But you can’t unsee a vulgar word. Sure, I can get past one or two here or there, but when my reading material is riddled with them seemingly just for the shock value, then I notice and I remember and I can’t unthink them. Same with the spoken word. I’m visual and soak up the written word more than what I hear, but I’m not a fan of being around people who curse with abandon or anything that comes over the “tube” that’s riddled with obscene language. I’m not even a fan of “potty” humor. It’s just not funny to me.

So it’s a balancing act. And words that were frowned upon ten, fifteen or twenty years ago would probably pass muster in a lot of Christian fiction these days. But in some cases, not, depending on the publishers guidelines, and each reader’s personal preferences.

Taboo Topics and Visuals. When I searched the internet for this, a blog post by Steve Laube from 2017 was one of the first to pop up. In his post, Edgy Christian Fiction, Steve says, “There are three main areas of dispute: Sex, Language, and Violence,” regarding taboo topics in Christian fiction. The post and the (very civil) comments are enlightening as visitors to the blog discuss what is “too much” or when it’s “too sanitized” for real life. I suppose we all have our hot buttons, but depending on the skill of the author, the purpose of including violence, etc. in a novel and the set-up leading up to the questionable scenes, I might accept or reject accordingly. Case in point: There were a lot of scenes in Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers that in many novels would have made me stop and never read that book again. However, the skill of Ms. Rivers to portray the subject matter in a tasteful, believable, and sympathetic manner made the book memorable, not stomach churning.

Taboo Styles. Maybe not taboo, but third person, first person, omniscient pov, and/or a mix of all the above has been in vogue or out of vogue depending on the season and which way the wind is blowing. While omniscient pov is out of style right now, a mix of third and first person within the same novel can be found. It’s not common, but it’s out there. Third person is the most common (at least in the novels that I generally read), and first person is a bit more rare.

Taboo, or rather, out of favor, genres. In 2005 (give or take a few years), publishers didn’t want historical romance. Women’s fiction, Chick Lit, and Lad Lit were all the rage. Three days later, the pendulum swung and historical fiction was on rise again and Chick Lit had sprouted wings and flown away. In the last 19 years, the pendulum has swung back and forth hitting all the genres, mixing them up, combining, and spitting them out again. Time slip is popular now. This is not time travel. It’s two (or more) storylines from different timelines within the same novel with some thread that ties the stories together.

One thing is for sure, change will swing again. Just as tomatoes were frowned upon in 16th century Europe, words, topics, styles, and genres will change, morph and grow.

by Pam Hillman

We’ve all read the story of Jonah, right? God wanted Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach to the Ninevites. Jonah refused to go and boarded a boat with the intention of getting as far away as he could.

Well, that didn’t work out so well when God caused a great storm and the sailors on the boat cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. Knowing he was caught, Jonah told them to throw him overboard, and you know the rest.

God had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah and spit him out on land close to… you guessed it, Nineveh.

So, how does this relate to writing?

I’m not sure about the rest of you, but many of my characters and even portions of my plots run parallel to some Biblical story. I don’t start out to write mirror images of Biblical characters, and I don’t plot from that perspective, but eventually, when all the wrinkles are ironed out, I tend to have a lot of parallels. Some are more obvious than others.

When I first started working on my Natchez Trace Novel series, I had no clue that the three brothers would end up symbolizing the three men in The Prodigal Son. When my editor needed to know the spiritual thread that connected the series, I started looking at my notes and discovered this aspect staring me in the face. It was there all the time… I just hadn’t seen it.

In The Road to Magnolia Glen, Quinn sacrifices his own desires for freedom from familial responsibility when he takes on the responsibility of three additional people. This type sacrifice is rampant in fiction and readers are drawn to characters who sacrifice their own goals for others, especially when the hero sacrifices his own goals for the heroine.

The examples above relate to characters, but there’s also a parallel to my actual plots in many cases. Once I realized that Connor, Quinn, and Caleb symbolized the father, the elder brother, and the prodigal son, I was able to dig deeper into how each would act and react to situations regarding each other. I wouldn’t say that this aspect of the stories bled over into the romances or even the current situation each man found himself in, but they brought their past with them, and knowing the family dynamics helped me flesh them out and stay in character.

The hardest character for me to nail down in The Crossing at Cypress Creek was Alanah’s uncle. I was well into the first draft before I figured out what kind of man Uncle Jude was. And when I did, he ended up mirroring a Biblical character. Some readers have picked up on Jude’s alter-ego, while others haven’t. So, I guess it was a little more subtle than I thought. But knowing who he was based on made writing him much easier, but in some ways, much harder. Because the Biblical Jonah has always been a conundrum to me. I never could understand why he did what he did. Maybe I still don’t really understand, but fleshing out Uncle Jude in my own way in the 18th century gave me a bit more insight into the Biblical Jonah.

By Pieter Lastman - IAFT8IfCTfplRQ at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24208288

And then there’s the external plot points that need to be implemented when trying to “rewrite” something from the Biblical stories.

In Stealing Jake, Jake has to face his greatest fear when he’s trapped in a mine after an explosion…for the second time in his life. He rises to the occasion and turns into the darkness of the mine to rescue others. The phrase “for such a time as this” rings over and over in his head. I don’t rehash the story of Esther, or even mention her name, but just using the phrase clued many readers in to the similarities of the situation.

And then there was my latest conundrum. What do you do when you need a whale, but your story is landlocked? I struggled with this aspect of The Crossing at Cypress Creek for weeks. Once I knew who Uncle Jude was modeled after, I really, really wanted him to have a “whale” moment. But the how kept eluding me. I brainstormed with writer friends, landing on one idea after another before discarding them all as not feasible. Then, I finally found a solution that worked. It wasn’t a whale, but close enough. I put Uncle Jude in a dark, dank root cellar. Injured, trapped, and going in and out of consciousness, I had him in his “whale” and he came to an understanding with God.

Sometimes the whale eludes us until right at the time we need it most. But if we keep searching, keep writing, and keep plotting, we’ll finally find that whale.

As a writer, where’s your whale? What parallels can you think of in your characters or plots with Biblical stories? As a reader, have you read books where characters or plots made you think of a story from the Bible or even Greek mythology?

www.pamhillman.com

I will pretty much gravitate toward any book that claims to be a retelling (for all the reasons I've already mentioned) but allow me to take a moment to share some of my favorites. This can definitely act as a syllabus of sorts for anyone wanting to do more research!


She knows women are expected to marry, cook, and have children, not go to war. Can she manage to stay alive, save her mother, and keep the handsome son of a duke from discovering her secret?


When Mulan takes her father’s place in battle against the besieging Teutonic Knights, she realizes she has been preparing for this journey her whole life—and that her life, and her mother’s, depends on her success. As the adopted daughter of poor parents, Mulan has little power in the world. If she can’t prove herself on the battlefield, she could face death—or, perhaps worse, marriage to the village butcher.

Disguised as a young man, Mulan meets the German duke’s son, Wolfgang, who is determined to save his people even if it means fighting against his own brother. Wolfgang is exasperated by the new soldier who seems to be one step away from disaster at all times—or showing him up in embarrassing ways.

From rivals to reluctant friends, Mulan and Wolfgang begin to share secrets. But war is an uncertain time and dreams can die as quickly as they are born. When Mulan receives word of danger back home, she must make the ultimate choice. Can she be the son her bitter father never had? Or will she become the strong young woman she was created to be?

This fresh reimagining of the classic tale takes us to fifteenth-century Lithuania where both love and war challenge the strongest of hearts. 

• Do you have one or more secondary characters who are strong enough to carry their own book? 
• Do you have a theme or trope you want to explore in several ways with different characters?
• Do you have one character whose story and/or growth arc you want to tell over multiple books?

• Can you make the books in your series different and intriguing enough to hold your readers’ interest, but alike enough to make each feel like part of a cohesive series?
• Do you have the discipline as a writer to stick with the series to the end?
• Are you organized enough to keep up with all your character and story world details from book to book?
• If this is a multi-author series, do you play well with others or are you more of a lone wolf when it comes to writing projects?