Mary Rosenblum, Long Ridge instructor and Web Editor, has published seven novels and more than 50 short stories in multiple genres.  Her new novel The Tomrrow Horizon will be available from Tor Books in 2006.  You can find out more about her at www.maryrosenblum.com

 

Blurbing for Structure

By Mary Rosenblum

 

 

            Plot structure can be a challenge for the novice writer.  You know a good plot when you read it.  It carries you effortlessly to the climax, you keep track of all the subplots without thinking, if it’s a novel, and the ending satisfies.  But all too often novices complain that their stories keep growing and growing out of control, or the ending just doesn’t work.  It’s easy to fall in love with all the cool scenes that your characters encounter.  How do you decide what you can safely cut?  How do you know where the problems lie with your structure?  Why is that end weak?  How do you keep that story or novel from ballooning into something you simply cannot sell?

            An excellent way to discover the structure of your story is to write a blurb for it.  It’s a valuable exercise even if you don’t think you have a structure problem.  A blurb – that one or two paragraph description of the story that appears on the back of a paperback book – reveals the main plot of the book in a very few words, relatively speaking.  It does not include subplots and secondary plots and focuses on the central character in a book.  Of course, on that book in the store, it does not reveal the ending, but when you write a blurb for yourself, you can include that ending to make sure it really works.  A blurb is a great way for you, the author, to figure out just what is the most important part of your story, whether it’s convoluted or simple. 

            Often it is very difficult to decide just what belongs in that blurb…that is a common indication that you are not really sure what is important to your central plot and what is not.  The more you work on that blurb, the more you will be able to clarify the main story arc for yourself.  It is easier then to eliminate unnecessary subplots that are over-complicating your story.  You may not want to see them go, but you know you’re not damaging your story if you have to cut them out in order to keep your story or novel at a reasonable length.

            Let’s look at the classic ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ as an example.  Here’s a blurb that might appear on the book cover:  In a sleepy southern town, the murder of a white woman and the subsequent arrest of a young black man might have resulted in an easy conviction.  But when Atticus Finch, a brilliant white lawyer, chooses to defend the accused, racial strife threatens to tear the town apart.  His son, Jeremy and daughter, Scout find themselves in the middle of a storm that is not of their making, but which ultimately threatens their lives and shows them a side of their neighbors and friends they have  never seen before.

            Try this with your own story.  What is the climax?  What is the ultimate point where the main character will succeed or fail, live or die?  Start there.  What are the main plot events that lead up to that climax.  List them.  Don’t worry if there are a lot.  Now go through that list and ask yourself, if I left this out, would my potential reader still see how I got to that climax?  Think of those plot points as a brick path to your climax. Take out one brick at a time until you have stepping stones that allow your reader to reach that climax without falling off the story path.  Those are your critical plot points.  Those plot points you took away may belong to subplots if this is a novel, or may simply be less important elements of the story that concern individual characters more than your main plot. 

            If your story or novel is too long or too complicated, these discarded plot points are the parts of your story that you can safely leave out or skip through quickly if you need to.  Now write the single plot point that resolves the conflict of your climax.  Yes…the single point.   Your climax is the peak of the conflict driving your main plot and the ending should resolve that conflict for sure.   If your ending doesn’t seem to relate to the conflict that created your climax, you either need a new ending, or the climax is not the peak of the main conflict.  Time to rethink that story structure! 

            Writing a blurb is an excellent ‘structural check’ for any story you write.  If you have written a short story, limit yourself to one paragraph.  If you have written a novel, limit yourself to two paragraphs.  The best time to write this blurb is after you have finished the first draft and before you begin to revise.  This will allow you to see any structural weaknesses that might require major changes, before you begin to revise the novel scene by scene. 

            One added benefit; When someone asks you What is your story about?

                                                                                                            You can tell them!