Thoughts on an idea.

[Dean Baxter]

Hi everybody. I hope you are all safe and well.

The colony is a great place to share work we have already written, which got me thinking: Should we be also using it as a sounding board for our ideas of stories we haven't started yet? Forgive me if this has been done before, as I'm still relatively new here, but getting feedback on an idea before toiling over it could save a writer a lot of pain. With that in mind, I would like to share the basic premise of a novel I'm thinking of starting. I like to think I'm a fairly decent writer, but realise that publishers want an original idea, that grabs their attention from the outset, otherwise they'll probably not bother to look at our MS, well written or not.
All I want to know is: Is the idea strong and original enough to get your attention, and would you be interested in reading it? @AgentPete, I know you're a busy man, but any feedback from you, as an agent, would be invaluable at this point. That said, of course, I value all of your opinions. Please feel free to be as savage as you like. I haven't put any work into this yet; it's just an idea, so I can just as easily 'shred it'. Here it is:

A teenage-girl approaches a hack-journalist and asks him to help uncover the truth of what happened to her family, something she knows very little about. As payment, she offers to give him exclusive rights to the story of the bizarre and unfathomable secrets of the boarding school she attended, at the hands of an unknown benefactor.

 

[Dean Baxter]

Just to add a little context and colour: Our protagonist won't give the full details of what took place at the school until she's satisfied with the results of his investigation. Offering him only 'Some tore-up-from-the-floor-up-sh*t.'

 

[AgentPete]

I’m always looking for “Big Ideas”, and in some ways, that’s what Pop-Up Submissions explores.

There are two existential questions you have to ask in this area. (1) Is the idea exciting enough? (“Big” enough). And (2) can the author deliver? It’s quite rare to get positives for both of these. But when you do, people get very, very interested, and serious deals are possible.

I’d love an area here to develop “Big Ideas”… HOWEVER! Major roadblocks ahead.

First, there’s little to no protection for an idea. Very easy to steal!

And then, you still have to produce a strong execution.

If you wanted to think through how the above could be surmounted, then I’d be well up for it.

 

[Dan Payne]

Hmm... ideas are easy. They're approximately two cents an idea, twenty cents for a dozen. What we're seeking is the elusive The One Idea to Rule Them All. And if you find The One Idea, I suspect you've got to write it whatever anyone says.

Fiction is largely about co-opting other people's stories and mashing them together. Your story idea above seems to mash detective fiction with skulduggery at a boarding-house, both well-worn tropes.

The devil is in the details. Maybe the skulduggery you have in mind is off-the-wall fantastical, or maybe we're talking Illuminati or incest. Your description above hasn't specified, and I think it would be vital to the strength of the story (and its tone, its content, its audience, its genre...) The other issue is that it sounds like two disconnected stories in search of a glue. I would expect that to make this story work the journalist will need, in the course of his investigation, to get caught up in whatever skulduggery is going on. It could all be very interesting, a strong story. Or it could be pants.

When you have a strong, interconnected story idea you need to provide the execution. But one person's Gormenghast is another's Harry Potter. Both good stories, very different audiences, and of course different agents/publishers. The story concept you've given above, I could turn into a decent novel, which would be different from yours in just about every respect. To get feedback on the idea you'll need to give a lot more specific detail about it.

Finally - writers gotta write. Sometimes you just have to get that idea out of your head and into ink because otherwise it will sabotage everything else in your head like a rotten apricot in the fridge (and nobody wants apricot-flavoured milk - trust me on this.)

I personally believe a lot of prep work has to go into a story before you can write it, or know what its final form will look like. I suspect the Writing Groups here are your best friend. My approach would be to go away and do my pre-writing development. Get the outline, sketch out a blurb or synopsis and the first 700 words, then whack it all up into the Writing Groups for comment.

But then, @AgentPete's point is very valid also. I've heard of cases where an "author" has turned someone else's decent idea into a published work on Amazon in less than a month. The more detail on your outline and prep work you provide, the easier it would be to hire a bunch of sweat-shop children to type out a first draft. Not saying anyone here on the Colony would be at all involved in that kind of behaviour, but you can't preclude the possibility.

A better solution might be one-on-one or small group feedback. Maybe a paid service here if AgentPete could find the time, or elsewhere if not. Or get yourself a critique group. I understand you can do invites and small groups in the Writing Groups here, so find a few people whose opinion you trust. If you do, count me in.

 

[CageSage]

This might be the time to consider what makes these individuals worthy of being main characters. What about them is unique, but relatable to the reader? And for the opposition -- just as important. Is the school baddie an important person? Would the secrets create problems with a bigger issue (political, corporate, etc.)?
The main question for me, at the start, is:
What makes this character important, interesting, and compelling enough for me (reader/writer) to follow her story as passionately as she would?
A teenage girl isn't enough yet. What makes her the only person who can 'be' this story?
The hack-journo -- why is he a hack? is he broken, abused, down-and-out for a previous indiscretion? If the latter, it better be something associated with the reason she wants him to do it and no one else. What does he know, what can he do, that she needs and can't be supplied by any other person/character?

Ideas are free, millions of them, and no two writers are going to execute the idea into a story the same way. To make your story compelling, work on the character first, then find what would make them bend or break or bulldoze through their interactions with the conflicts.
However, this is how I work. I find a character and then the character makes the plot through their needs and purpose in life. I don't know how people who start with plot work ... (and I'm still learning, always learning).

As a reader, what I want is a good story, well told (that comes from Story, Robert McKee - probably the best part of the book).

At the early stages of a story, some people write a log-line or blurb. A single sentence (or two) that show the NEED for the character to undertake this story. How could the initial idea become a log-line?
A wild teenager about to be expelled from the most prestigious school in [place] finds out she's adopted [or her family is ?].
An investigative journalist who's lost his job, his [other stuff, PIES (physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual) parts of himself] and is about to be evicted, sees one last chance to make a comeback.
How do they come together?
When [journo] is approached by rich-bitch kid, it's his ticket to [?], but when he finds out who she wants to [punish/reveal], [is it the person who got him chopped from his previous profession?] ...
etc.
Anyway, just thoughts. And I like to throw ideas out to see if other people find them interesting, too. Nothing worse than getting to the halfway point and realising ...

 

[Andy D]

As a hack-journalist myself Dean, I’d have to say we make GREAT characters Maybe for this you’d be best getting him investigating the boarding school first, realising he needs her for information / as a case study, before she throws him the curve ball of her past? But you’ve probably thought of that already!

 

[Steve C]

To some extent, you have your answer right here. You gave out an idea and are getting responses to it. There probably isn't a need for a special section when writing groups already offer privacy and feedback. Just title your thread 'An Idea' and stick it in there.
Having said that I am struggling for a great idea for my next book so if you have any please PM me

 

[RK Wallis]

writers gotta write

This is so true, and sometimes we have to toil for years on different books in order to find our voice.

My initial reaction is finding her family isn't unique, for example, that's what I'm writing. I can think of two books in my genre that do that too (last 3 years). Now that's not a problem, we'll all have different stories, so don't let that deter you. As Agent Pete said:

you still have to produce a strong execution.

What's your hook? What makes your story different from every other?

bizarre and unfathomable secrets of the boarding school she attended,

This bit interested me.

But seriously great advice above
.

 

[Rich.]

I suspect the Writing Groups here are your best friend.

There probably isn't a need for a special section when writing groups already offer privacy and feedback. Just title your thread 'An Idea' and stick it in there.

I agree. The Writing Groups allow you to manage your own critique group -- make open or private threads, manage participants, delete old threads, etc. As things stand, it's the most appropriate forum in which to discuss any aspect of your work.

--

A teenage-girl approaches a hack-journalist and asks him to help uncover the truth of what happened to her family, something she knows very little about. As payment, she offers to give him exclusive rights to the story of the bizarre and unfathomable secrets of the boarding school she attended, at the hands of an unknown benefactor.

Blake Snyder, in his equally loved and maligned screenwriting book Save the Cat!, talked about "The smell of rain on the road at dawn". By which he meant the thrill of inspiration.

What I think you have above is an inspiration, the germ of an idea, something that needs fleshing out in line with earlier comments in this thread.

I look forward to seeing it grow!

 

[Dean Baxter]

Thank you all very much for your replies. Sound, considered, and very helpful advice from all of you, as ever!

 

[MartinR]

Hi Dean, your story idea is strong, maybe just needs an extra complication or twist to make it really leap off the page, but feels to me like it's nearly there. I'm glad you raised the general point about testing out ideas/premises/concepts before committing to writing too many words. It's something I've often thought about. It's like an architect getting planning permission before he lays a single brick. Saves a lot of heartache. I've often wished their was a service where you could send your concept to have it stress-tested by a publishing pro. Then again, perhaps, the best concepts are driven by that magical feeling you get in your gut when you know you're on to something and then watching/listening/reading others' reactions (or Heaven forbid lack of reaction!) when you explain it!

 

[Rich.]

I've often wished their was a service where you could send your concept to have it stress-tested by a publishing pro.

Our very own Writing Groups come very close.