If you read my post from Monday, you would have seen that I’m having a tough time coming up with a succinct elevator speech that describes exactly what my book is about. They say you’re supposed to be able to tell your story in 30 seconds or less in such a way that the person walks away with a firm understanding of what you’re writing about.
I’ve been knocking myself out trying to figure out my one sentence because I wasn’t able to fulfill my original mission. I was supposed to write ABOUT Joy of Motion Dance Center, now located in Washington, D.C., but since I couldn’t do that, I turned to Plan B. Though I didn’t have a clear Plan B in mind, God put a new vision in me and helped me to expand upon a new idea that was going to take the place of Joy of Motion.
My new vision resulted in me doing a deep dive into my mother’s dance history. I made a conscious, voluntary decision to include it all – – to the tune of nearly 60,000 words dedicated just to my mother. I also took a beautiful drive down memory lane recalling my own history in dance and painted detailed descriptions of my daughters’ varied experiences with dance studios.
After I did all that, I returned to focus on Joy of Motion Dance Center and created a thin history of all I was able to glean, with the limited information I had. I then proceeded to delineate a step-by-step play of all the things that happened with the dance studio between March – September 2020.
After all of that, the question that begs itself: “what is your book about?” becomes almost a noose that starts to close in on you dangerously because all of a sudden, you’re stuck dealing with multiple story lines and trying to package everything neatly into a tiny envelope.
I will say this: my book “Conflicted with Joy” is about more than just dance. It is a historical compilation of several generations of dance and a perspective and love for dance that has a clear beginning problem, middle, and end.
Please see the attached photos and let me know what you think of my current “elevator speech” / book description.
