Blurb

A Blurb a short description of a book, movie, or other product written for promotional purposes and appearing on the cover of a book or in an advertisement.
In my last post I promised that I would have the first draft of my blurb and an update on my novel Purple. As I seem to be falling into a two part blog, I will do as the last blog and break it into two.

Part one.

The blurb to my novel, I have found this hard to complete. The main reason for this is how do you pass the story on in about 200 words. Simply put you cannot, if you could then it should be a 200 word essay or flash fiction. I found that if i concentrated on the beginning say the first three or four chapters then it became less of an up hill climb. I made sure I included the main protagonist and the main antagonist. Also a sample of the conflict. Finishing with the ever so important goal. Its not finished but i do like it for a first draft.
Below is the first draft of my Blurb see what you think.

       John Vally had been at Work finishing his first successful contract in his new career as a self employed contractor.  His joy at finally being able to show his wife that he can be responsible is shattered by the invasion of a ruthless alian race, who leave there young to do all the killing. 

The event which causes the population of the united kingdom to drop by eighty percent within a few hours is the most devastating that has happened since records began.

Those who are lucky enough to be in a rural location at the time of the event are the last to be hunted.

       The Chule began attacking and killing anyone in their way.  Fortunately for John, he does live in such a rural area. In the panic to get out and find his way home and find out about his wife and son in London he is joined by mike, a man he meets in the local hardware store immediately following The attack and a young girl, Sarah, who he rescue's from being killed by one of the “Chule.”  The story follows their terrifying journey, avoiding capture and worse by the Chule, who are beginning to hunt John and his friends down, the Chule are led by one they call The Controlor and another who is yet to make himself known. As John attempts to reach His family and find a place which they hope will be their salvation.

Any comments on the Blurb would be much appreciated I promise you will not hurt my feelings.

Part two.

You will be please to know that I have finished my first draft of the book. My finishing word count is 105,117.00 words. 
I know you are supposed to leave it alone for two or three month before starting the second draft. Unfortunately I have found myself going to the beginning and working over the first chapter.
To take my mind of Purple I have started my next book called The Sole Man. I'm pleased to say i'm about three chapters in. The characters are starting to take over from John Valley and his friends from Purple. This has to be a good thing. All this in just over a week, it must be the blog motivating me to write, write and write some more. 
Next time I will write about the software I use to write and will have more on my books, The Sole Man and Purple. 
Please comment or keep sending your questions via e-mail. 

Novel Ideas

To write a novel or a story is enormous undertaking for the professional or amateur writer. I am an amateur writer and this blog is me putting some sort of record to the journey. Admittedly I am starting this part the way in, I have almost finished the first draft of my novel. My current word count is 97,365.43, with about 10 to 20 thousand to the finish line. You could ask 'how could this be a true account when I have missed the first leg of the race?

Well from what I have learnt over the past 18 months (and yes its been 18 months since i started this novel) there are few problems at this point apart from finding time to sit and write. I have never suffered from writers block if anything its more info overload. My head just overloads with story ideas, every one I meet has become a possible character in a story. I have many short and unfinished stories with no time to do anything with them until I have finished this one, I also have notes on my computer of possible story ideas, they are a plenty. So if you have trouble with these things then reading this would be of little help. But if you are all ready in the journey and fancy reading about someone in a similar position then here I am.

At this moment in time (meaning today) my main objectives are number one a blurb, because I have such difficulty telling someone about this story. When ever someone ask 'wow a novel, whats it about?' I start to fumble and flounder about the story as if I'm making it up on the spot, my face grows red and then I find myself trying my best to just get away from the subject as quickly as possible. Just to hand over my phone with say 200 words describing a brief synopsis could work and not make me feel like a hack.

Number two in the list of objectives is finishing the first draft. It seams I just cannot finish or find the time to finish. My weekly word count has dropped significantly since passing the 80,000 word mark. Not through lack of inspiration but through every conceivable problem with home or work, just slowing me down and the thought of going through this 100,000 word project to find all the spelling mistakes is mind bending to me.(any suggestions would be very much appreciated)

To finish this post I should tell you that my goal is to post on here as often as I can, I have been told that to tell others, motivates you into action. I would also like to say because I write does not mean I can spell. So spell checker is my best friend and I apologise for any misspellings that might happen. I will talk about my software that I write with (scrivener) and by the next post I should have a first draft of my blurb which I will post for comments. Help and advice is always welcomed.

Please comment or send me an email, just to say hi if you wish.