Everyone who attempts to write something inevitably gets asked the dreaded question: What is your book about? As the writer you’re the least qualified to answer it until the book is practically finished and that could be years of hard work from now before you can answer that question legitimately. When you’re writing a story you’re basically trying to answer that question everytime you go to work.

The question assumes that you know what you’re doing. I don’t.

It’s even harder to answer if you’re doing a low-concept story. What do I mean by that? Well, Stephen King for example mostly does high-concept stories and from my understanding high-concept are a lot easier to summarize. Example: A dome descends over a town in Maine trapping it’s inhabitants UNDER THE DOME. Pretty easy to get a good idea about what that book might be about. But if you’re writing a low-concept story it becomes more difficult. Someone like Haruki Murakami jumps immediately to mind as a low-concept writer. I’ve tried to describe and recommend his novel The Wind-up Bird Chronicle to friends but there’s no easy summary. It’s almost impossible to define and when I try to describe what happens I end up babbling incoherently and end the discussion saying, “Just read it. It’s one of my favourite books.” So the question of What is it about? becomes increasingly difficult to answer if it’s a low-concept story.

Which, of course, is what my story is.

Initially when my story was shaping itself I had no idea what it was about. I was writing blind hoping and praying that it would be end up being about something. When people asked me what I was doing I mostly denied that I was doing anything like that scene in Star Wars when Obi-Wan Kenobi says, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” But as the book started to take shape I admitted the truth. I was writing a novel. And then came the awful question: So…what is is about?

Inexperienced in answering this question I started to ramble. Well it’s kind of about this, but kind of about that, and blah blah blah, until both of desperately wanted to end the conversation.

I think the question is so hard because it’s like that old saying when you can’t see the forest if you’ve buried in leaves. Most of time you’re concerned with thousands of details and it’s hard to pull back and see the big picture.

So I started to avoid the question completely. I came up with a stock answer to throw at people and peg their curiosity to floor. It needed to be quick like throwing a knife into someone’s palm as they reached for a gun.

Here’s a few that I tried:

• I don’t like to talk about it.
• Ask me again sometime when I’m closer to finishing it.
• That’s a very difficult question to answer.

This only avoided the problem. No one went away satisfied. No one was looking forward to reading the book or had any understanding why I’m spending all my time in the café. It’s important to take some time and focus on writing a two sentence summary. In my experience it’s saved me a lot of aggravation, and has satisfied the curiosity of people who are only doing the polite thing by asking. I think more importantly it can focus your writing and keep your mind on the big picture.

There’s a blog I read called Query Shark where Janet Reid, a literary agent, posts reader query letters and tears the bad ones to pieces. Any writer who wants to get published will have to write a query at some point that should answer the dreaded question: What is it all about? It should give the reader an idea about what to expect and make them want to read your manuscript. Here’s a quote from Janet Reid about what it should answer:

Who is the heroine? What choice does she face? What are the consequences of that choice? Write that in 250 or fewer words. You don’t need the entire plot. You need to compel me to read the first five pages. That’s ALL you have to do in the query. *

If you’re serious about publishing you’re going to have to answer that question at some point. So: What is it about? It’s better to answer it soon even if it’s mostly bullshit. There’s no rule out there that says you can’t change your mind or dress the answer in different clothes. It’s called a work in progress for a reason.

Talking about your work can be hard. I’ve found that the more I talk the worse my description gets because a lot of things happen in the book and I start talking about all the leaves in the forest. No one wants to know. No one cares. You have to look at the over-all big-picture story and really boil it down to one or two things.

Currently my best pitch goes something like this:

It’s about a man who loses his shadow and his girlfriend. It’s a detective novel that leads him into the city’s underworld to try and find them again.

Is it perfect? No. Does it say everything that needs to be said about my book? No. Does it still need work? Yes. But it’s a start. It’s enough to give people an idea about what I’m writing and 99% of the time that’s all you need.

Rather than avoid the question, why not embrace it? Try to distil it down to a sentence or two. Keep it simple.

I have a text file called WHAT IT’S ABOUT and whenever I’m writing and I lose my way or don’t feel like writing much that day, I’ll write a couple variations that I can test out in the real world. And very slowly, because writing a story and answering that question are the same thing, I start finding my way through the dark towards an answer.