Finding an idea is both the easiest and hardest part of writing. You want to find something that you’ll love enough to write on the bad days. There’s not BUT there. No AND. When you’re coming up with an idea you don’t need to worry about marketability and trends.
“But, Liana! I want a marketable book!”
I know you do. We all do. But the truth is you can’t predict or control the market. By the time you notice a trend you are four years too late to catch it. By the time you’ve analyzed the market something has changed.
Write what you love and find a way to market it later.
That doesn’t mean ignore the other books out there. You need to manage reader expectations, and to do that you need to read widely. But if you are reading widely and marketing correctly you can do just about anything with your novel.
Besides, the point of this book is to get you from Page 1 to The End with a minimal amount of fuss, anxiety, and tears. For right now you can focus on what you love and nothing else.
In fact, that’s exactly what I want you to think about.
The High Concept Pitch – A Black Market For Good Ideas
Grab some paper (or print the worksheet that goes along with this book) and make some lists.
What are your favorites kinds of stories?
– action
– adventure
– quests
– mysteries
– romances
What are your favorite books?
What are your favorite movies?
What are your favorite kinds of characters?
What kind of world do you want to write about?
Try to list 10+ things in each category and then mix and match.
[Favorite Story] + [Popular Movie] + [Character Type] in [Really Fun Setting] = A New Idea
EXAMPLE: James Bond meets Good Omens when a spy gets caught up in a poker game with eternal consequences while vacationing in Brisbane.
Look! It’s a one sentence pitch!
James Bond meets GOOD OMENS <- High Concept Pitch
A spy gets caught up in a poker game with eternal consequences while vacationing in Brisbane. <— Elevator Pitch
Write out a couple dozen ideas like this and call it a day.
No, really, you’re done with writing for the day. You need to step away from the words and let your brain think about this.
After you develop the High Concept and Elevator Pitches your next step is the Short Summary.
Look at the sentences you wrote earlier. Do any of them pop out at you? Great!
Write down a summary of what you think might happen.
Remember, there is no wrong answer here. Nothing is written in stone. You can change this at any time. What you’re doing isn’t making the story yet, it’s listening to yourself talk about the story.
If my High Concept Pitch is: X-MEN meets Hollywood.
Then my elevator pitch is… “The daughter of a supervillain takes a job as a stunt double in a movie but winds up crossing paths with a superhero that puts her in the Hollywood spotlight.”
The my blurb might be….
When your mother is America’s Superhero Sweetheart and your daddy’s the Number One Super Villain, you grow up feeling a little conflicted.
Angela Smith has superpowers—nothing that will ever make her comic-book famous—but her ability to psychically sense and manipulate the emotions of people around her has drawn unwanted government attention. Forced to choose between her quiet life as a teacher under constant surveillance or the life of a rogue, she chooses the latter. She plans to hide out in sunny Los Angeles where being a blue-eyed blonde won’t make anyone bat a false eyelash.
Silver screen star by day, superhero by night, Arktos is a triple-threat. He can fly, freeze anything, and see glimpses of the future, all of which he needs to keep the city of Los Angeles safe, but which does nothing for his social life. When a frightening vision of an explosion leads him to rescue a damsel in distress, he finds himself trading Shakespearean insults with a rogue.
Angela knows just how dangerous well-intentioned superheroes can be: one tried to kill her family when she was young. Arktos knows he should hand the rogue over to Company justice; it’s not safe for someone like her to be in the middle of a fight.
But they can’t seem to stay apart. And together, they just might be able to melt all the obstacles standing between true love for a hero and a villain.
The blurb gives me the opening (daughter of a supervillain forced out of her teaching job), and what will happen in the opening chapters (she moves to L.A.), and what could go wrong (there’s a superhero in Hollywood and he’s hunting for a villain just like her).
Ready to write?
Go make a list of 25 of your favorite things – TV shows, movies, songs, books, whatever – and mix and match until you have 6 new high concept pitches.
Happy writing!
Liana