Paragraph Summation

The next step in the Snowflake Method (mentioned in previous post; method developed by Randy Ingermanson) is to take another hour (or more) to develop a paragraph summation that describes the book's setup, major disasters and ending of the novel. Ideally the paragraph should have about five sentences. One sentence gives the backdrop/setup, a sentence for each disaster, and one sentence to tell the ending of the novel. Randy wrote that if this sounds suspiciously like "back-cover copy," that's because it is.

So, I'll get to work.

After being raped two years ago stripped social worker Kathy Burgess of her self-confidence, trust in men and faith in a kind God, she moves across country to start her life over, returning to the career field she had unwillingly left due to her post-traumatic stress disorder. Kathy overestimates how far along in her recovery she is when she suffers a crippling rape flashback that raises doubts of her capabilities from handsome attorney Joshua Brandon, who has a client on Kathy's caseload. As Kathy seeks to prove herself to Joshua and her supervisor, her jilting fiancé unexpectedly returns to the scene, throwing Kathy's emotions into a tailspin. Just as she thinks she's got a handle on the matters of the heart, her mind's biggest fear of being attacked again almost becomes a reality. Will Kathy sink further into her mental disorder or rise above it with a Strength other than her own?

One-Sentence Summation

Randy Ingermanson is called "the Snowflake Guy" for a reason. He wrote an article called "The Snowflake Method" that you can view here. The very first step in his method is to take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of my novel. When I started working on this post (several hours ago), I wrote that this probably wouldn't take an hour...but boy was I wrong! This is actually very difficult!

Randy says this sentence will serve me forever as my 10-second selling tool. He says to go for short (15 words or less) and to include no character names. He also says to go to the NYT Bestseller lists to see their examples (although many of the one-liners I read there made me not want to read the book, and they were way over 15 words!).

So, I've done all of the above and these are what I have to show for it:

--An emotionally-wounded social worker battles her mental disorder while learning to trust again. (14 words)

--A social worker battles her mental disorder and past emotional wounds while learning to trust again. (16 words)

An emotionally-scarred social worker battles her mental disorder, reopened wounds from her past and uncertain growing feelings for an attorney who holds her future in his hand. (28 words)

--A social worker fights past wounds, including a mental disorder and fickle fiancé, while her unexpected attraction for an attorney may give her reason to trust again. (27 words)

A social worker battles her mental disorder and wounds from a fickle fiancé while facing her biggest fear of trusting again.

--A victim of rape, a social worker battles her mental disorder while her unexpected attraction toward an attorney may give her reason to trust again. (25
words)

A rape survivor battles her mental disorder while her unexpected attraction toward an attorney may give her reason to trust again, her biggest fear. (24 words)

A rape survivor battles her subsequent mental disorder as well as her unexpected attraction toward an attorney who represents a spiritual and emotional threat to her carefully ordered life.

OKAY! WOW. I could go on forever and ever rearranging a few words to look different, but I'll stop now because I need to go to bed. Might revisit this tomorrow after sleeping on it. Whew!