Why Your Book Reviews/Promos Suck

Sometimes you go around the internet and read a book review and say to yourself, 'there is no there there.' I know, I've written those kind of reviews myself. There is a similar problem with author-written book promos.

What is the problem? It's that the reviewers have lost sight of the important things. They write down something abstract about the theme: this is a book about man against nature. This is a book about the possibility of extraterrestrial life. This is a book about a dystopian future where only computers are allowed to vote.

These statements lead to book reviews that can't hook the reader, because they have forgotten the essential rule: fiction is about folks. Folks with problems, specifically.

Even if you are the second-worst book review writer ever (the first-worst is probably me), you can improve by a simple and amusing method. It is called a storyline--- a one sentence summary of a novel that focuses on a character and his problem or goal.

In 'Writing Fiction for Dummies' by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy, it gives instruction on how to create a storyline for use in planning and writing a novel. (It is the first step in the Snowflake Method.) But storylines, and also the one-paragraph summaries that are also taught, are great tools for writing a book review or a book promo.

Here is an example storyline: 'A physicist travels back in time to kill the Apostle Paul.' That's only 11 words, but it packs a lot of punch. Why? Because it mentions a character, and a major conflict or goal of that character. Compare that to a lame book review abstract statement: this book is about the issue of whether you can use time travel to change history.... Boring, by comparison, isn't it?

Whether you are a book blogger, enthusiastic reader, or book author, it's a very good idea to practice writing storylines. You can use them any time you want to tell your friends about a favorite book, or write a book review, or promote a book of your own.

Here are a couple other storylines:

The Lord of the Rings: A hobbit learns that destroying his magic ring is the key to saving Middle Earth from the Dark Lord.

The Lovely Bones: A young girl watches the turmoil in her family from heaven after being raped and murdered by a neighbor.

Pride and Prejudice: A young English woman from a peculiar family is pursued by an arrogant and wealthy young man.

And now, a smart aleck storyline of my own composition:

Harry Potter: A fallen Dark Lord seeks to regain his power, only to be thwarted by an annoying boy wizard.

This last is not QUITE as silly as it seems. In the Ingermanson/Economy book, in the chapters on character development, it suggests writing storylines from the point of view of various characters in the story. After all, every character in a story believes he is the hero of the tale.

Challenge: Think of a book, perhaps a popular one such as 'The Hunger Games', and write your own storyline for it and post it as a comment. There is no 'one right answer' for this. Just do the best that you can.  Continue to practice the technique and put it to use whenever you write a book review. If you participate in blog tours such as the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour, you might challenge the readers of your blog tour posts to come up with their own storylines for the book in question, perhaps from the point of view of their favorite character. 

Create a One-sentence Summary of your Novel

In the Snowflake method, your first task is to write a storyline--- a one-sentence summary of your novel. Other writing teachers call the storyline something else. I forget what the something else was. No matter.

This storyline--- which you may revise from time to time--- is useful to focus your story when you are writing, and when you are done, it's useful in marketing. Here is an example storyline of a novel by Randy Ingermanson, creator of the Snowflake method: "A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul."

Isn't that great? It sums the story up and makes me, at least, want to read the book. In Writing Fiction for Dummies by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy, there are a number of example storylines.

Pride and Prejudice: "A young English woman from a peculiar family is pursued by an arrogant and wealthy young man."

The Lovely Bones: "A young girl watches the turmoil in her family from heaven after being raped and murdered by a neighbor."

Contact, by Carl Sagan: "A young female astronomer discovers radio signals from alien beings in a nearby star system."

Perhaps because I have Asperger Syndrome and have a hard time seeing the forest for the trees, I have a hard time writing storylines. And when snowflaking you not only have to write one for your novel, but one for each major character. Like this:

Harry Potter/Lord Voldemort: "A fallen Dark Lord's efforts to regain power are thwarted again and again by a boy wizard and his friends."

For one of my WIPs, which has the exciting title Kirinia Book One at present, I actually came up with three storylines, from the point of view of various characters:

1. A Waypeople cultist girl must choose between her faith and saving her family's life.
2. A noble Kirinian girl loves blood-sports until she falls for a girl condemned to the arena.
3. A Kirinian emperor discovers the demographic threat to his nation posed by the rapidly-growing Waypeople cult.

I picked 1. when I decided who the main protagonist of the story was. Although if I were to pitch the story to a secular publisher, I might go with one of the others.

I'm also working on a second WIP at the moment--- both are in the snowflaking stage. This one actually has a title: Esperanza: Zombie Dawn (or Zek Dawn, I'm not wholly sure I won't switch.) The storyline for this was easier to come up with even though I didn't have that much of a plot planned out, I just knew it was about a militia group fighting Mexican zombies at the border.

Here is the storyline: "A priest and a band of militia men fight against a zombie virus capable of infecting humans and certain drug plants."

If you are a writer or would-be writer, have you ever reduced your novel or short story idea to a storyline? If you haven't, try creating a storyline now. Post it in a comment here, if you like.

If you aren't a writer, one thing that the storyline concept is good for is when you are writing a book review, or perhaps just recommending a book to a friend. Think of the last good book you read. Can you write a storyline for it? Share in a comment, please.