Writing and Wattpadding (a guide)

Creating That Blurb

So I got a request to do a part on how to write that blurb for your book. 

The two most important things to getting readers is your cover and your blurb. If you don't have a good cover, no one is going to click on it or turn it over to read the blurb. But even if you have an amazing cover, if your blurb is lacking, no one is going to turn to that first page and start reading. 

I've done this a few different ways and really, on Wattpad you just have to know the audience you're going for. 

People will tell you never to put a passage of your story in that blurb. If you're publishing a book, that is absolutely true. You never see a passage from the inside on that back cover or right inside the front. If your goal is to publish, or if you want your story to look like a published book, then I would recommend leaving that off and just stick with what a blurb is actually supposed to do. 

Well what is that blurb supposed to do, you might ask. 

The blurb is the first thing that anyone will read of your book. It's meant to draw the reader in so it needs to stand out from the rest of the books they have to choose from. It's important to add in what makes your story stand out. 

You want to give your readers a sense of what they're going to see in your story. Here are some things to think about while writing your blurb. 

You really want to have a sense of your story when you write this. you want to know what your main conflict is going to be and you want to know what the outcome will be, or at least the options (either this or this could happen). It's not necessary to know every little detail about it, but you want to have a fairly good idea how the book will end. 

________ wants ______ but _________ stands in their way. This is essentially your plot here. This is what makes your book stand out. Your main character has an objective, they want something, but something is standing in their way. That something is your catalyst that will eventually set off the climax of your story. You want to have this in your blurb somewhere because that's what's going to draw in readers. They want to know what the goal is and they want to know the stakes the character has in it. 

You don't want to give away too much info here though. It's not the place to be listing every character that your MC meets. It's where you shine the light on your MC. There may be a couple other names mentioned in here, but you want to keep this cast list fairly short. I would challenge you to try to keep it between two or three names. 

Thank you again for asking questions that give me new material to write about. If you have questions about anything else, go ahead and ask them in the comments below and I'll answer them to the best of my ability. 

If you'd like to hear more discussions about writing and how to be successful online, I would recommend going over to TheCornerBooth. They have weekly episodes with a different theme each week. They've talked about cliffhangers, diversity, writer's block and so much more. If you'd like to see what they have to say, you can click on the highlighted name. From there you can see past episodes right here on Wattpad, or go to their YouTube link watch there. Don't forget to subscribe to their channel so you know when new episodes are posted. Thank you so much, everyone!