It’s the first Wednesday of the month and that means IWSG Day.
November 3 question – What’s harder to do, coming up with your book title or writing the blurb?
The blurb. Definitely. I love writing catchy titles and reading catchy titles. I’m a particular fan of cozy mystery titles, occasionally picking up books I will never quite finish just because of the title. I will Never Regret, for example, checking out The Pawful Truth. I have no memory of reading the book, but – yep – that title STILL gives me a little shot of smile-inducing happiness.
Blurbs on the other hand, I tend to mentally blank out while reading let along writing them. There was a funny meme circulating in literary circles for a while about how uninformative blurbs tend to be. We want to convince you read the book with a clever tease that doesn’t give away the Whole Book, but every clever tease gets old after a while. So, they all start to look the same. I tend to use blurbs to see if it is The Kind of Book I feel like reading, if I’m in that kind of mood. (Female MC, check. Humor. Check. A story unlike any story I have read before – well, aren’t they all? This tells me nothing….)
Only cute cat pictures are immortal. Put a cute enough title and cat picture on the cover and yes – okay, I will buy a book for that reason. (Darn you, marketing execs and your wily ways.)
To cycle back around to my writing. I’m doing NaNo again. I do NaNo every year, because I love the energy in the literary room. I always use it to write stories that are just for me and my inner muse, because why not? Maybe one day I will be able to publish this one. Maybe not.
Thanks IWSG prompt for giving me a reason to share pithy phrases and cat pictures in lieu of trying sum up the story I’m working on now.
(The story I’m working on now is definitely called The Ferryman. It may or may not be about the guy who assists people into the Land of the Dead. I’m not entirely sure because my MC is not exactly talking. He’s just taking the coins from my eyes and leading me onto this crazy boat ride for a spin. I love it.)
Hope everyone has a great November! Don’t write too hard. Hard to believe 2022 is almost here.
Anne Higa 
Happy IWSG day! It’s interesting you should reference NaNO because I did too. And not with the fondness you have for it. Great idea to write just for yourself though.
I love/hate doing NaNo, but my paying job is interfering this year, so I’m not even making the attempt.
Not sure a cute cat photo would work on the back of my science fiction books…
One can never go wrong with pictures of cats and clever titles!
Good luck with NaNo. I’ve not the patience for it, but admire those who slog through it every year.
It’s usually the title then the book cover that catch my attention first. If I really like what I see, I wll read the blurb.
I usually use NaNo in attempt to get more words down or work multiple projects. Best of luck! 🙂