Why I Bristle When People Ask Me What My Novel Is About
The novel hits the stores tomorrow and I still don't have my talking point down: that very simple two-line answer that every writer who has ever written a book is supposed to have when asked what their book is about.
The reason for that is this: for seven years I have been trying to figure out how to reword my response so that people's brains don't instantly shut off.
My Answer: World Leader Pretend follows the lives of an international cast of characters involved in playing an online fantasy game.
Your Brain: Fantasy game. Ick. I hate those things. I don't want to read that. Boring. Ick.
Very rarely do people listen beyond my first sentence because they assume that a book about online gaming can't also be about the things that they read books for. So I wish people would ask me better questions, because then I would have better answers.
Is there sex in it? Yes, lots of sex.
Do you discuss politics? Yes.
Will the book make me see the world in a different light? Absolutely.
Is it a thoughtful book or a mass-market page-turner? It's thoughtful. And it's a page-turner.
Forget the plot, what's it really about? It's about how the Internet has changed our lives.
Is the book different from every other book out there? Totally.
The reason for that is this: for seven years I have been trying to figure out how to reword my response so that people's brains don't instantly shut off.
My Answer: World Leader Pretend follows the lives of an international cast of characters involved in playing an online fantasy game.
Your Brain: Fantasy game. Ick. I hate those things. I don't want to read that. Boring. Ick.
Very rarely do people listen beyond my first sentence because they assume that a book about online gaming can't also be about the things that they read books for. So I wish people would ask me better questions, because then I would have better answers.
Is there sex in it? Yes, lots of sex.
Do you discuss politics? Yes.
Will the book make me see the world in a different light? Absolutely.
Is it a thoughtful book or a mass-market page-turner? It's thoughtful. And it's a page-turner.
Forget the plot, what's it really about? It's about how the Internet has changed our lives.
Is the book different from every other book out there? Totally.
Labels: World Leader Pretend
posted by bigdumbjim at 08:12
8 Comments:
I would go with: It's a book about how the internet has changed our lives. I think that is a brilliant way to succinctly tell people what the book is about. Plus, it's open-ended and deep sounding. People are usually moved to read books about the modern human condition. Don't you think?
I'm with Irina on this one, whomever she may be. Because really, the book isn't about fantasy gaming -- that happens to be the device you used to tell a story about connection and disconnection, fragmentation and community, creativity and marginalization. Saying that your book is about a fantasy game is like saying that "Huckleberry Finn" is about a rafting trip.
I think you're both right. And I wish I'd heard it put David's way earlier.
>Saying that your book is about a fantasy game is like saying that "Huckleberry Finn" is about a rafting trip.
Wow. Nicely said. I don't know why, but I feel compelled to talk about the plot with my book, but really, I shouldn't. It's the macro issues that make the book unique. I only wish I'd thought about this some time ago when we were working on all the marketing materials.
*sighs*
Well, each book is different . . . some books really ought to focus on the micro vs. the macro. For example, I bet I would have had a better chance at selling my book had my agent and I not pitched it as a philosophical study about extremism, identity, and self-invention. We should have said "It's about heroin-shooting lesbian whores in corsets."
So, you know. It all depends.
ROFL.
David, you crack me up.
I wish I'd thought of it David's way too. I think it's really difficult when you're close to the novel and one of its cheerleaders to think about it in the terms that David mentions: fragmentation and community, creativity and marginalization...yes, that's it exactly isn't it? Every tiny bit of this manuscript, as I originally saw it, feels essential and the urge is to say to a prospective reader: this is one of the most tightly constructed tales about the complexity of being people that's been written in the last decade. It's hard to talk about WLP without wanting to get into the fabulous minutia. I know because I keep trying to explain it to friends and run into that same wall again and again.
Well, I'm happy to know that it isn't just me. It's kind of the anti-Seinfeld novel. Instead of a novel about nothing it's a novel about everything...
Ha! Maybe that's the best answer: what's your novel about? It's about everything.
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