What is your book about?

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse

To avoid this queston I am now very careful to avoid letting on that I am trying to write a book. When I lost my wife the first question was always "Are you keeping busy" quite what they thought I would do was never clear. At first I would tell all to stop friends thinking up ways to keep me busy. As soon as I admitted to writting ambitions out it would come "What's it about", There doesn't seem to be a short answer to this as most books have quite complex story lines . How do you respond?

neil

Easy in my case: I'm not writing one. But for those who are, the best way to avoid such questions is to keep quiet about it in the first place

Jenny

Tell everyone something different - imagine the confusion if they compare notes!

Jay Mandal

Perhaps you could say that it's a thriller/comedy or whatever. That might satisfy their curiosity.

Evaine

When I started writing again, I told friends that my main character was a bookseller in Hay-on-Wye, but he was really a fugitive from a fantasy world.
Most of my friends said "But that describes most of the booksellers in Hay!"

Random

The book I wrote for the recent WriNoInMo is an SF - near future - book whose main character is able to sense emotions.

The book in a month concept didn't leave much room for finanse, in fact it felt like I wrote a 50,000 word outline for the book, but at least it means I have now the framework with which to do something.

Something to get my teeth into.

Book before that was set in Modern Day and in a small New Town. It concerned a journalist who is reporting on a murder and discovers who the murderer is, but doesnt go to the police so that he can get the scoop on the next victim...

Before that I had a fantasy book, to complex to explain here, and another 2 SF books before that.

Yeah, genre wise I like to dash about.

To me, writing is about the idea, rather than the genre... But then again, that's probably the reason none of my books have been published.

Gabrielle

confused.
isn't everyone writing something?
If not, why are we here?
My book is a romance....what else is there to write about? boy meets girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy again....

Carol

I've been away from fiction for a while, but I'm ready to start my Dorset historical romance in the new year. Revenge, romance, and resolution.

Jacey

I'd quite like family/friends to ask what I'm writing about.  Apart from my husband, nobody's remotely interested!  I hear all about occurances at their workplaces, but since I work at home, nobody ever asks, "What have you been working on today?" or even, "How's work?"

ana

Theme or genre is enough information I think.
Otherwise it's like telling someone about your dream, or what happened in a film - guaranteed to make anyone glaze over. Although, if you could catch someone's interest in a few sentences it would be good practise for pitching/blurbs/synopses.

Crazy Horse

Trouble is, my book is about one mans crusade against the decline of England and the church. There is humour, romance and adventure along the way. but my condemnation of the clergy and the body politic is fairly vitriolic Not something suited to the quick casual answer

Flick

I have huge problems telling people what my books are about. I just can't summarise them. They aren't complicated - its just that I can't give one sentence answers. EXCEPT - I just finished a novella for an American publisher asking for submissions and its erotic. So if anyone asks - I just say its a MMF erotic novel and they don't want to know anymore than that.

Daz

i vary  my answer from person to person, but its the truth. i am 'utilising' my office to print what i do, so i dont broadcast what i'm doing, but one or two people know. i get a lot of interest from non-creative people, similar to if i were telling them i was an actor and audtioning for Eastenders or something.

Random

People, mainly because of the media industry, are comfortable when they can pigeon hole someone.

"You're a writer? What do you write?"

Is that awful question that I often get.

Answer - ? Well I write plays, although I do short stories, and books, fiction and non-fiction, I write articles and poems, sometimes I do the odd short film script...

I used to say, "I write what occurs to me to write, following the flow of my insperation..." but a friend of mine heard this so many times he asked me to change it and now I say "stuff"...

The yard stick by which you are a writer should be this - you write, you complete projects, you start new ones.

The yard stick by which non-writers judge you to be a writer is - you write, you are published, you make as much money as J K Rowling...

If you are a fan of yard sticks, this will bother you. If you are still buying your trainers from C&A and nothing giving a flying f*** what people think, it won't.

I subscribe to the latter. It works for me.

Curly

I have found that talking to my partner about my book for teenagers has been very beneficial.  He buys me relevant books, spots internet sites for research and lets me know about them. He has far more time than me, which helps a lot.  It's mostly great, because we can run through plot, action scenes etc.  One slight problem, is that he doesn't like it when I say "I don't want that in my story".  He feels rejected...but he is very useful for bouncing ideas off because he's almost as familiar with the story as I am.

Hippo

Flick, I have the same problem as you.

Re responses to the fact that I'm writing a novel, I was talking to my newish hairdresser about it and another client was listening in.  The other client said 'Do I gather you're writing a novel?  How long have you been doing that?'  To which my hairdresser (an avid reader and member of a book club) replied, 'Well, you've been doing it since you've been coming here, haven't you.' in a faintly contemptuous tone, as if I should have finished it.  At that stage I'd only been working on it for about 8-9 months! (around almost full-time - 32.5 hr pw - work)  I felt like saying, 'Well, why don't you have a go and see how long it takes you!'

Yes, you can get some very odd responses indeed...

Nefertari

Jacey, I have the same reaction as you.
People,( friends, family) think that as I work at home I am one long holiday when in reality I am working much harder now then I was teaching.Only my husband understands because he sees what I do.

Carol

If people realised that many writers actually work full-time as well as writing; and how much work goes into producing a book, they wouldn't sneer as often.
I think a lot of these individuals think you write the book (revision, what revision?)It goes to the publisher who immediately sends it to the printer, the books turn up in the shop. All done in a few months.
I would like to see a tv documentary following a new author from the writing to the book being in the shops.So people would see how hard it is, and how long, plus the difficulties that occur.