Writers write tight(ly).
Writers choose their words carefully. They write a draft, distill it down to its barest bones, and then flesh it out a bit here and there wherever the paring got too brutal.
This exercise helps with the succinct skills. Would you like to join us this week? Dive in. It's easy and fun. Here are the guidelines:
- Look at the photo below. That is the cover of your book.
- You choose the genre. A how-to book? A haiku collection? Chick lit? You decide.
- Write an enticing blurb--150 words or less. (The title doesn't count in the word count.) Lisa Ricard Claro was the creative brain behind this activity. She is too busy serving as vice president of Amazon's new "Fairness to Authors When It Comes to Book Reviews" department and cannot be bothered with silly blog stuff like this.
- Include your blurb in a blog post. Include a link to this post.
- Link your post to Mr. Linky. Mr. Linky is charming and easy. If you've never done it, you'll be impressed with how simple he is.
- Check out the other blurb(s). It's interesting to see the different directions writers take, given the same photo.
- And most importantly, have fun. This is supposed to be enjoyable.
Here is the photo for this week, and my finished blurb:
The Perfect Man
“When is your first day back at school?”
“How fast were you going when you got that ticket?”
“Did you eat the last ice cream bar?”
He asks the questions, gets answers, and then hours (or days) later,
asks the same questions.
It's not Alzheimer's. It's not deafness. It's just aggravation.
Tired of the endless string of repetitive questions, she turns to
pins and needles. Pins and needles and a voodoo doll, that is.
When she put the first needle in, it seemed too flimsy to do any
good, so she shoved seventeen more in—quickly.
And after she set the doll on her dresser, she went into the back
yard. And saw her husband, now reduced to a stone statue.
Things had gone quite awry. Will she try to undo her voodoo gone
wrong? Or will she plant some flowers around her new lawn feature?
(145 words)
And for my only regular player--Val/Kathy--here is the photo for next week, so while you're lolling around in your jammies all day and cruising around on the internet nonstop, you can also start thinking ahead.
