Judith Ryan Hendricks: So...What's Your Novel About?

Today, Judith Ryan Hendricks offers her take on how reading groups are beneficial to writers --- and why she's looking to book clubs to help her answer the question, "What is your novel about?" Judith's most recent novel is The Laws of Harmony, and she is also the author of The Baker's Apprentice, Bread Alone and Isabel's Daughter.


The nice guy I've been chatting with for the last ten minutes smiles disarmingly and turns on the recording equipment. He says he's just read a review of The Laws of Harmony titled "Murder on the Mesa."

"Is that what it's about?" he asks.

Sure. Just like MacBeth is about a woman in search of a good spot remover. Which is to say, not exactly untrue, but totally missing the point.

My mouth goes suddenly dry. What is my book about? In thirty seconds or less.

All the hours I've sat in my desk chair till my butt was numb, the nights I tossed in my bed trying to unravel some thorny plot problem, all the pages I wrote and loved but which ended up in the round file basket, the dialog I polished, the transitions I labored over, the scenes I midwifed --- all that flashes before my eyes like a drowning swimmer's vision. In the silence, I hear only the soft, sucking sound of my intelligence circling the drain.

I know, I know. You're supposed to have prepared your elevator pitch, a soundbyte for these occasions. But it doesn't seem to matter how I prepare, that question is so terrifyingly open-ended...I feel as if I've just stumbled, unsuspecting, onto the rim of the Grand Canyon. Too often I hear myself stammer, "Well...there's this woman..."

Which is one of the big reasons why I love book clubs: they know what the book is about.

When you visit a book group, you get to be with readers who have already bought and (in most cases) read the book. The focus then is on the kind of really interesting discussions that you can only have with people who are --- so to speak --- on the same page.

Also, there's the cozy factor. Most reading groups meet at someone's home, usually with a dozen people or fewer. The atmosphere is comfortable, relaxed, intimate. There's often food involved. (One major perk of attending in person.) But even if it's a phone-in, you're among friends, who are eating good food and talking about your book. What could be better?

And if there's any doubt as to theme, characters' motivations, the nuances of relationships, intricacies of plot, what should happen in the sequel or who should play the protagonist in the movie version --- in short, what a book is really about --- then participating in a reading group can clarify all that in short order.

So instead of stumbling around trying to explain my story to the nice interviewer, maybe I should have just said,

"I don't know what it's about. I haven't taken it to book club yet."

---Judith Ryan Hendricks