Foreshortening

When something is nearer in the picture, it appears bigger than those things that appear farther away.  This is called foreshortening.  It is artists’ jargon for the kind of superhero pictures that Jack “King” Kirby always used to do on the covers of Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Captain America comic books in the 60’s and 70’s.  The hands that reach out to grab you.  The fists or the gun-barrels that rush toward you.  These are the things I must draw bigger than the anatomy or the scenery that comes behind.  So let me try that with novel ideas.

Snow Babies is being published as you read this.  Here is a one-sentence foreshortening of that novel; A blizzard so terrible that omens of death by freezing begin appearing, descends on a small Iowa farm town, and four young runaways on the Trailways bus must find shelter of more than one kind.

I have gotten Superchicken ready to be submitted to a publisher.  Here is a one-sentence foreshortening of that;  A boy moves to a small Iowa farm town where he doesn’t fit in and is treated as an outsider, but before he can feel like he truly belongs, he must learn about himself and the super powers he has always had inside him.

The first draft that I have just finished is called The Bicycle-Wheel Genius.  This is the foreshortening for that;  A genius inventor has lost his wife and son to a lab accident, so he must come to terms with the dangers inherent in science as he tries to heal himself by making friends with the gifted boy who lives next door.

If you are a writer and have written a book or two, can you do a foreshortening on that story?  I would be fascinated to hear about it, even if it takes more than one sentence.