What an idea for a website…

Yikes! Do I really look like that? Do I really sound like that? And did the reporter really open the piece with my halting non-description of my novel-in-progress?

It’s always awkward to tell someone from the outside world that you’re working on a novel, because the next question is inevitably “What is it about?” My first instinct is to reach for a Clintonesqe response like “It depends on what you mean by ‘about.’” Fortunately I can almost always resist that response, but I don’t really have anything else in my arsenal.

Most writers don’t like to talk about what their writing is “about.” For some it’s a superstition, like counting your chickens before they hatch or something. For me, it’s because a novel is “about” a lot of things. Does the questioner want a plot summary? A list of the characters? Is it enough to give the setting and the time period? And what if I never finish it, or move on to some other topic? I’ll forever be explaining that I ditched the original idea and have started something completely different. Then there’s that other lingering issue: if I try to describe what I’m in the process of writing, it’s going to sound stupid. There, I’ve said it. I’ve spent years of my life working on something that sounds stupid when I try to summarize it.

If I ever finish my novel, I’ll have to come up with an “elevator pitch” about it (see Bella Stander’s seminar entitled “Polish Your Pitch“), but for now, just don’t ask me what it’s about.