Earlier this month, Brianna Renshaw of Pocketful of Playdough hosted a guest writercize where she presented three different book blurbs and invited writers to create a first sentence for each book.
Talk about a monumental challenge! It took me a few days to garner up the courage to try the challenge (kudos to my regular writercizers - attempting a challenge and leaving a comment is hard work!), but I have to say I really enjoyed playing around with it.
I did look to a few books on my own shelf for the challenge, but couldn't write about a book that I had read since it limited my ability to think outside the box, so I highly recommend using the book blurbs she shared (provided you haven't read them yet!) to try the challenge. Now that I got the hang of it, it's a writercize I plan to use while browsing through bookstores whenever (make that if ever!) I have some time to kill.
Brianna's writercize got me thinking about book blurbs and how fun and theatrical they really are. A book blurb is like the musical theater version of a story - it's the dramatic and intriguing and bold twin to the novel or short story's subtler, deeper tale. It's the one place to go over the top with adjectives and mystery.
Since I want to give you a challenge that everyone can relate to, I want you to start with a familiar story and build the blurb.
writercize: Create a book blurb to complement the fairy tale of your choice.
The blurb should be 3-5 sentences long and summarize the story without giving too much away. Turn on both the marketing mind and the editor to make it work!
Please leave the result of all your hard writercize work as a comment, or leave a link to your page if you use it on your blog. I love to see all the different ways people can imagine the same challenge! (And by hard writercize work, I mean a few minutes to a half an hour. Don't worry about perfection. This site is about practicing your writing often, not perfecting it!)
Click "read more" for writercizer sample response about Cinderella.
writercizer sample response:Cinderella, the gentle and kind daughter of a fallen nobleman and stepdaughter of an ugly, self-righteous gold digger, lives a life of solitude, servitude and daydreams.
One night, opportunity strikes as the crowned prince throws a royal ball to choose his bride and invites all unmarried women in the kingdom. Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters will do anything to keep her from going to that ball.
I haven't done any of your writercize's yet--but I do enjoy reading them!! I think I may just try this one. I will let you know!! Cheers, Jenn.
ReplyDeletePlease do let me know if you try it! I love to see the samples. Thanks so much for being a reader! :)
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