The Council of the Eternal Hiatus’s Guide to RoyalRoad Blurbs for Beginners
First, what are blurbs?
Formally, blurbs are a short description of your book for promotional purposes that generally aligns in tone with the story and genre, maintains a consistent voice, and avoids clichés or other overused lines. Specifically on RoyalRoad (RR), the blurb appears on your story’s page along with your title, cover, and tags.
Rather than simply summarizing a story, a blurb is meant to be a short yet persuasive, descriptive account of why a reader should give your book a try. Only the first ~120 words of your blurb will appear on your story’s page while the rest is hidden by a ‘view more’ button that you can’t guarantee a reader will click. For this reason, blurbs on RR should be short, simple, and focus on your story’s hooks — or, in other words, selling points.
In our studies of blurbs on RR, we’ve noticed the importance of a strong setting hook, character hook, and plot hook in the blurbs of some of the most successful stories. Recently, loglines are also becoming increasingly important for setting your story apart from others. In this guide, we aim to discuss these four components in greater detail.
Please note that these three hooks can appear in any order in your blurb. However, aim to build on each paragraph; the information in the first paragraph should be necessary in order to understand the second paragraph, the second paragraph should be necessary in order to understand the third paragraph (if there is one), and the third paragraph should have more impact coming last because of this build up. If you’re not sure which one to start with, consider writing them separately or focusing on which hook you think is the most interesting.
It’s also important to acknowledge that blurbs are easiest to write when focusing on one character and their story. This is true even for stories with multiple point-of-view main characters or an ensemble cast. Focusing on the character who is the most prominent in the beginning of the story might be the best place to start or, for an ensemble cast, describing them as a party or group of people rather than individuals. We encourage you to see what you think works best for your story.
For the purposes of this guide, we’ll be using the blurb of Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao to discuss each type of hook.
Setting Hook
The setting hook offers an image of the world of your story that hints at the conflict at its core. Where’s your story set and what’s so important about this setting that your story is set there? You might also feel that you need to discuss multiple aspects of your story’s world to entice readers — you don’t.
What’s the most important about your setting hook is communicating stakes on a large scale using specific word choices that paint a specific image of the world as it relates to your story’s core conflict and basic premise. The length of your setting hook will largely be proportional to how different your world works and how much that difference animates the core premise and basic conflict of your story.
For example, here is the first paragraph of Iron Widow’s blurb:
The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn’t matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.
Here’s what we learn about the story from the setting hook alone:
- The world is called Huaxia
- There are giant transforming robots called Chrysalises
- Chrysalises are necessary to fight invading alien mechas
- Chrysalises can only be piloted by a boy and a girl pair
- In these pairings, the girls die more than the boys
Iron Widow’s setting hook gives us a broad stroke of what’s most important about the world in relation to the basic premise and conflict at its core. The basic premise of the story is that these giant robots are piloted by a pair, and the basic conflict is that one person in the pair often dies. This presents us with two important questions regarding the stakes of this story: why are the girls dying and why doesn’t it matter that they’re dying? Note that the blurb doesn’t give us these answers.
This hook is the shortest in the blurb, and that’s because Huaxia isn’t that different from our world. The most important part of its difference is culturally and technologically, which is what the setting hook focuses on. We get a clear image of this world because it’s a lot like ours with two key differences. Huaxia clearly has Chinese influence, and so we can expect the culture and society of this world to reflect Chinese culture and society to a certain extent. Telling us the name of the world does all of this work without using too many words. Further, we find out that Huaxia has giant transforming robots, which indicates the technology level of this world is rather high without telling us. At the same time, it communicates to us that the genre of the book is science fiction and that common tropes found in Chinese speculative fiction (such as xianxia) might appear in the book.
Every word in this setting hook is doing work to communicate what makes this story unique and what we can anticipate if we read it. What is it about your world that relates to the core conflict and basic premise of your story? What is it about your world that allows for your story to take place?
Character Hook
The character hook characterizes your protagonist(s) with specific details that will give your reader insight into their goals as they relate to the basic premise and core conflict of your story. Who is your main character and what is most important to them? You might be tempted here to rely on backstory, but only fall back on it as far as it relates to your character’s motivations. Instead, lean on what happens in the beginning of your story.
What’s important about the character hook is giving your reader a strong image of your character’s basic personality at the beginning of the story and an expectation of how they’ll achieve their goals — whether they’ll fight with words or knives, for example — through their described actions. Leaning on ‘show, don’t tell’ can be wise here.
For example, here is the second paragraph of Iron Widow’s blurb, which builds from the first paragraph:
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it’s to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister’s death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected — she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.
Here’s what we learn about the story from the character hook:
- The main character is an 18-year-old girl named Zetian whose sister died as a result of the mental strain of being a Chrysalis pilot
- Her goal is to avenge her sister by killing the pilot responsible for her death
- To achieve her goal, she volunteers to be a pilot despite the risk
- She succeeds in getting revenge and also survives as a pilot
- As a result, she is powerful and feared for her abilities
Iron Widow’s blurb tells us the main character’s backstory and goals in the same sentence. This works because they’re related; if Zetian’s sister hadn’t been killed, then she wouldn’t have been seeking revenge, and there would be no story. We aren’t given any other details about her backstory, though, and we aren’t given a description of how close of a bond the sisters shared, what their family was like growing up, or if Zetian even had a different dream before her sister’s death. All that matters is that her goal is to get revenge, and that she is motivated by a specific event in her backstory.
Further, in the first sentence, the blurb uses the verb volunteers. Rather than more passive options like decides to volunteer, this is an active verb that tells us that Zetian isn’t waiting for opportunities, she’s taking them. In the rest of the character hook, she kills, sacrifices, and powers up. She’s also described using strong adjectives like unscathed and feared. This conjures a strong image of her character specifically through her actions in the story. She is an active protagonist who will go after what she wants, no matter the cost.
Finally, it’s important to note that part of the strength of this character hook is that it is also delivering part of the plot hook. The blurb isn’t coy about whether Zetian achieves her revenge. In fact, it tells us that she succeeds. This success marks the catalyst of the story’s plot, the moment when the main character’s life will never be the same again. It also demonstrates what we can expect from Zetian and the rest of the plot: she completed one goal, so doesn’t that mean she’ll complete her next one?
Again, every word here is putting in real work to hook readers by showing what makes the main character unique and what we can anticipate of her actions. What are some unique word choices you can use to paint a strong image of your character? What is your character’s goal and what steps will they take to achieve it in the beginning of the story? What is the point-of-no-return and what does that tell your readers about what makes your character unique?
Plot Hook
The plot hook describes the basic premise of your story with specific details that demonstrate to readers what to expect from your story. This is the time to increase the stakes and give your reader something to look forward to using active language. This is not, however, the time to talk vaguely about your premise — show us your premise in action as it happens in your story. You might feel that revealing your story’s basic premise is telling too much information or spoiling your story. It’s not.
More specifically, the plot hook describes the first third of your book, but this can get tricky with serialization. Stick with describing the first arc or first act, then use what happens in your second arc or act to increase the stakes. What you don’t want to give away is how your story ends, whether that’s in the first book or at the end of the entire serial.
For example, here is the third and final paragraph of Iron Widow’s blurb, which builds on the first two before it:
To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way — and stop more girls from being sacrificed.
Here’s what we learn about the story from the plot hook:
- Because she killed her co-pilot, she is seen as a person who needs to be controlled
- In order to control her, she gets a co-pilot equally as feared and powerful
- Rather than be fearful, she sees a chance to become even more powerful
- Because of her actions, she has made enemies who’re trying to kill her
- She needs to survive the assassination attempts in order to accomplish her new goal
- Her new goal is to change the entire system to prevent more girls from dying
Iron Widow’s plot hook shows the consequences of the catalyst that starts the main character’s story and builds off the setting hook and character hook. The terms in which it describes its plot hook is in relation to the basic premise and conflict at its core and — because it’s the final paragraph — as directly related to everything we’ve learned about the story so far.
The catalyst of the story is Zetian completing her goal of getting revenge on the pilot who killed her sister, and so everything that happens after that is a result of that catalyst. If she had never killed him, then the rest of the story wouldn’t have happened. Because she succeeded in her goal (or, in more general terms, because the catalyst happened), three things happen: first, she is assigned a powerful pilot to control her, she becomes the target of assassination attempts, and she sets a loftier goal related to her sister’s death. How she accomplishes that goal, this time, is left unanswered. That is the plot that is promised to us if we read the book.
Further, this plot hook builds on the character hook and the setting hook. In the character hook, for example, we learn everything we need to know about why the plot hook matters. Without knowing Zetian’s goal or that she succeeds in it, the plot hook wouldn’t make a lot of sense, we’d feel no sense of progression in her power, and her goal wouldn’t seem attainable or relevant. Building on the setting hook, her new goal gains a lot of depth; if we didn’t know that girls disproportionately dying in these pairs, we would see no real reason to change the system. It’s only because the world is what it is and because Zetian is who she is that this story is possible.
It’s also important to note that the plot hook uses active language as well. Just like in the setting hook and the character hook, the plot hook uses strong adjectives and active verbs. She’s described as unnerving and invaluable. She has to be tamed and paired by her new co-pilot, who is described as strongest and controversial. We already knew Zetian was strong, but this further characterizes him similarly. The second half of the paragraph describes what she will do, describing what we can expect from her if we read the book.
You’ll note the use of passive voice prevents us from knowing who or what is trying to tame her because it’s irrelevant. You’ll also note that the plot hook doesn’t tell us whether she figures out why the system works the way it does. All we know is that she’s going to try to stop it.
The plot hook focuses on what happens to your main character in the first arc or act in your story as a consequence of the catalyst and hints at what your character will do after that as related to the basic premise and core conflict of the story. To do this, it uses specific words to show your main character being active in the plot and further characterize them. What is your basic premise and core conflict and how do they show or present themselves in the beginning of your story? What happens in the beginning of your story and what active verbs can you use to animate those plot points?
Loglines
The longline is a one-sentence summary of your story’s premise that encapsulates its central conflict.
For example, here is the logline for Iron Widow:
Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers.
It’s important to note that Iron Widow is a traditionally published book, and part of the expectations of that industry is to have comparable titles — otherwise known as comp titles. This serves as a shorthand logline using other media to communicate the basic premise and central conflict of the story. Pacific Rim gives us the image of an alien invasion that is being fought off by giant robots piloted by pairs, where the strength of the robot is integral to the strength of the bond between the pairs. The Handmaid’s Tale, on the other hand, hints at the stakes for the main character, where she is either controlled or if she can fight the system that allows for her to be controllable. It further sets itself apart from both Pacific Rim and The Handmaid’s Tale as a blend of Chinese history for young adult readers, two pieces of information that wouldn’t otherwise come across with the comp titles.
(Un)fortunately, on RR, these types of loglines don’t work well. First, it’s not standard enough to mean anything to readers to pick up on what you’re specifically trying to communicate by using comp titles. Second, your readers may not be as well-versed in popular media; keep in mind that you have a global audience on RR, and what is popular media differs across countries and cultures.
What does work on RR is a simple summation of what sets your story apart from others in its genre or what readers will anticipate the most about your basic premise or core conflict.
Here are some examples of loglines used on the blurbs of some highly successful stories on RR:
- Every time he dies, Ethan Hill gains a little more power. (DIE. RESPAWN. REPEAT., SilverLinings)
- The bastard daughter of a noble must use her Seamstress class to slaughter monsters and save her town. (Dressed to Kill, Crownfall)
- Devour. Level up. Repeat. (Demonic Devourer, Slifer274)
- Guillotines? Revolution? I just wanted to clean! (Maid to Kill, zechamp)
- Ashlock awoke in the courtyard of a demonic sect… as a tree. (Reborn as a Demonic Tree, XKARNATION)
You’ll notice that they’re all different. Some use the main character’s name while others don’t. Some hint at a larger plot while others highlight the progression aspect of their story. Many of them distill their character hook and plot hook, while others only focus on one or the other. What sets your story apart from others? What do you think your readers will be the most excited about in your story?
Please keep in mind that every blurb is different and every story needs a different type of blurb. What works for one blurb may not work for another; what works for one story may not work for another.
While we focused on one specific blurb to discuss each type of hook in this guide, we strongly recommend taking a look at our studies of blurbs on RR for more examples. You’ll notice that not all of the blurbs in the study do the same things that the blurb of Iron Widow does, but that they all contain their own specific versions of a setting hook, character hook, and plot hook.
Finally, and maybe most importantly, feel free to play around and break the rules a little bit. Sometimes the best blurbs make up their own rules.
