Since my previous blog post about story summaries and blurbs, and after all the helpful advice, my "process" has had a new addition. All my Toni With An i stories now have a blurb on them, so does Marking Your Card, and Allison Zero has been getting a blurb right from the start.

I don't know how it's working out, but I feel it's beneficial, and it's something I want to continue. I don't think comparing kudos/readers/comments across stories is very helpful as blurbs only play a small part, but I would hope readers are finding them helpful. I certainly feel justified in doing them (based on nothing but gut feeling and what people previously asked for in the older blog.)

My process with the blurbs is two basic things, at least after the first part of the story (the first blurb is just setting a general wide view of the story.) I summarise what's happened previously in the story, at least the main points. The idea is to remind readers of what they've read before, and maybe even if someone feels like they want to jump in mid-way they have enough information to have a general idea of what's happening.

The second part is I "tease" what's about to happen. I don't quite end the previous part of the story on a cliffhanger. I do end them at a logical point, and there's often an indication of what may be coming. It's definitely not meant to be "forcing" a reader to read on to find out what happens: that's not my style. With one part of Allison it was the doctor who gave Allison futuristic HRT telling her she and Angie should have lunch in the fancy restaurant (a treat doctors/voters can give to citizens.) The latest part ended with One, the man who started Allison along her path, calling her, and she pretty much has to answer the call. So the second part of the blurb then teases what may come and the significance of what this turning point could be. It's not always "correct" in its "guess." And I don't think anything is "spoiled" in any part of the blurb, there's far more to a story than just the points I mention in the blurb, otherwise I could just write a summary of the entire story. It is about posing the questions I feel the previous part of the story set up, after hitting the key points.

I think this is a nice way to do a blurb, summary to catch people up followed by a teaser. I feel like it's working for me, although I know it doesn't for everyone, fellow author or reader.

The other addition, and one I've just done today, is adding an image to the teaser of Allison Zero. I'll have to go back to the earlier parts of Allison to add it to those. And Discord was extremely helpful (and we had a great discussion around it) in helping me figure out how to do the image. I like it, and it's already given me an idea for how to flesh out part of a scene I had already planned on including.

I don't think I'll add an image to Toni With An i soon. I'd prefer to have an image of Light Avenue, the front part of the bar, without people in it. And I have a very clear idea of what it looks like (it's an amalgamation of many bars I've been in with some of my own ideas included as well) so I don't think stock images or AI images could do it justice, especially given my lack of graphical design ability.

The next step will be digging into the Author Page, when I get a daft notion some afternoon, or some 4am.

I just wanted to give an update on how my blurb process was going, and to give thanks to the people for the extremely helpful advice in a previous blog post about figuring out how to do exactly what I'm doing now. Thank you!

Link to the old blog post. If you're thinking about teasers or blurbs for BCTS it could be helpful. The advice and points, and the explanations of the way people interact with BCTS certainly was for me.