The blurb: questions to be answered

Published: January 24th, 2020

Okay – last week I settled my thoughts on ‘believability’ as the vital quality of writing that grabs readers of fiction and makes them turn every page. Making my young readers believe in the characters, settings and situations is now my key aspiration.

Faced with this realisation, I still felt out of my depth with trying to blend witchcraft with technology. So I wrote the blurb. Why? Because I wanted to stimulate my thinking and determine where I am going with the book. This is it – so far.

Blurb
Gran is back! Millie is horrified and embarrassed when she first sees her at the school gate. Gran is a witch with a difference: on a mission – a powerful force.

When Gran comes to her rescue – and Millie helps Gran to achieve her life long ambition – they form a formidable team. Things happen and life changes for them both. But not without lots of challenges along the way as the magical sparks ignite everyone around them. Can they solve the problems with their new neighbours? How does Millie settle into her new place and deal with the bullies who are making her life miserable?

Does Gran stay or go? And can Millie ever return to how she was? Or has that magic gene infected her too?

So many questions – as yet all without clear answers. Yet, I discovered that writing the blurb helped me enormously. Why, I asked myself? What did the blurb do for me as the writer? Writing questions for the reader also identified the answers that I have to focus on. I am now clearer as to what my character’s main conflicts are – bullies and new neighbours. What are these ‘magical sparks’ and how do they ‘ignite everyone around…’?
I am also set on making Millie and her Gran the ‘formidable team’ that the blurb describes them as.

If I do not do this – then I let my readers down – and that will never do because we writers must live up to our readers’ expectations. I now have to clarify the phrases that I have teased my readers with. Yes – teased. I have invited readers in – and now I have to deliver. So, I ask myself, in what way do Gran and Millie become the ‘formidable team’ that I have labelled them as? As a writer – I have a foggy answer that is not good enough.

As a ‘formidable team’ – my duo will work together, help each other to achieve their goals, use complementary skills and learn to think as one. Gosh- can I make them do that? What are the ‘magical sparks’ that ‘ignite’ ? These are the witchcraft spells that make the neighbours sit up and take notice – change their behaviour – and thus turn the whole neighbourhood around.

Okay – questions answered to some degree. I must now get on with the writing. Will my progress be along that yellow brick road – and does my own form of success lie at the end of it? I will never know unless I try. That’s the thing about writing. Like Dorothy, we have to travel and experience the road first. I will make my journey magical!

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