The Big Idea of Your Novel

by Allen Arnold 

 

There’s a classic story, probably mostly true, of how a monster movie screenplay was pitched to Hollywood studios.

In 1975, Jaws had become one of the first true pop-culture summer blockbusters movies. Imagine shortly after that you are trying to get the green light for your screenplay about a monster in space. No one in Hollywood is exactly standing in line for this story. It’s up to you to create interest in it. But you know you’ll only have a few minutes at most with the major studio heads. What can you possibly say that will cause them to pay attention?

The folks tasked with this came up with a brilliant pitch for the screenplay.

They positioned it as “Jaws in Space”.

That’s it. Three words.

And that’s all it took to hook a powerful studio. The line was so catchy and yet so simple. And the rest is history.

Alien became not just a blockbuster movie but a decades-spanning franchise. It even has an equally powerful positioning line for the movie poster: “In space, no one can hear you scream”.  

Both lines – one for internal Hollywood decision makers and one for the people buying movie tickets – are visceral and unforgettable. They draw you in. Leave you wanting more.

Can you describe your novel in a few powerful words? Not a few paragraphs –a few words. A sentence at most. You need to because that’s the attention span of most people. Anything beyond that and most people won’t remember. They have too many other things competing for space in their brain – including what they are going to eat for dinner, when to pick up the kids and whether they have clean clothes to wear tomorrow.

You need a phrase that causes your target audience to smile, gasp or lean in closer. The goal isn’t to tell them your whole story. It is to cause them to want more so they will buy and read your story. That’s it. Accomplish that and you are on the way to growing your tribe of readers.

When done right, the catch phrase or positioning line captures the concentrated power of the primary concept that makes your story unique. It is what will draw both agent and publisher to your proposal. It is what will turn the potential reader’s head and then keep the pages turning. It is what will fuel buzz in the marketplace.

To be sure, there’s an art to crafting the right succinct phrase. Some credit Blaise Pascal for saying, "I'm sorry I wrote you such a long letter; I didn't have time to write a short one." It’s true, saying more with fewer words is hard work. That’s okay. Do the hard work.

Start with the central premise that makes your story unique. If you find yourself hitting a brick wall when trying to come up with this positioning line, the problem may lie within the story itself. Perhaps the story doesn’t yet have a truly unique premise or twist. If that’s the case, spend more time on story development and then craft the positioning line.

The goal of a great line is to leave people wanting more. It must be intriguing, unexpected, compelling, playful, or disruptive.

The more generic the line is, the more forgettable it will be.

The more detailed and wordy, the more folks will glaze over. That’s why great positioning lines rarely include character names – because names aren’t the big idea or original concept.

The more obvious a line is – the less compelling. A great line for a romance novel is never “Will she find true love?” Because, um, the answer is apparent. Asking a self-answering question as the tagline only highlights how predictable the story is.

Now it’s your turn. What is the hook for your current book?

Allen Arnold loves the epic adventure God has set before him. From the mountains of Colorado, he leads Content & Resources for Ransomed Heart Ministries (led by John Eldredge). Before that, he spent 20 years in Christian Publishing - overseeing  the development of more than 500 novels as founder and Publisher of Thomas Nelson Fiction. He was awarded the ACFW Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. But that doesn't really describe the man. Allen savors time with his family, craves the beach, drinks salsa by the glass, is hooked on the TV series "Once Upon a Time" and is passionate about helping storytellers tell better stories from an awakened heart. 

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Does Getting Published Equal Nirvana?

By Michelle Griep

Attracting the attention of a publisher, receiving a fat advance in the mail, basking in the joy of seeing your novel on a bookstore shelf, these are indeed the sweet little bon bons that puff up a writer’s self-esteem and validates them as a “for real” author.

But should it?

Must one be published to call oneself a legit writer?

Nope.

I’m here to blow out of the water this sea monster of a myth. A writer writes. Period. Do you write? Then read these words, memorize them, tattoo them on your palm so you can smack yourself in the head every time you doubt . . .

YOU ARE A WRITER.

It doesn’t matter what you write. It doesn’t matter if you’re published or not. It doesn’t even matter if the best you can do is scribble cat, rat, and mat in chalk on the sidewalk. If you scrawl down words in any way, shape, or form, then you, little cowboy, are a writer.

Does signing a contract with a traditional publisher mean you can slap on some lipstick and kiss all your anxieties good-bye?

Double nope.

Once you sign on the dotted line with a traditional publisher and think you’ve arrived, it’s welcome to Worry-About-Marketing Land with a day trip to I-Wish-My-Sales-Were-Bigger City. Honestly, the grass isn’t greener on the publishing side. There is always something more to stress over. Contentment isn’t an external event. It’s an internal choice. Choose to live in and enjoy every moment, whether that’s your first years of bumbling pitches and rejected queries, or one-star reviews and dismal sales.

Are traditionally published writers higher up the authorly food chain because they’re better than the lowly self-published mealworms?

A big, fat nopey-nope with a side of no no sauce.

Don’t worry. I’m not going to go into a self-publishing vs. traditional publishing rant here. The only point I want to make is that both types of authors are valid. Yes, there’s a lot of crap (and yes, I said crap) on the self-publishing shelves because some people pump out a book simply for fame and fortune, bypassing the hard work of writing and the expense of hiring an editor. But I’ve also stepped in steaming piles of literary manure excreted by traditional publishers.

Before you go casting stones, realize that authors in both camps have glass houses worth shattering—but they also each have stunning and exquisite works of art. Box up your judgmental attitude and coexist already.

The bottom line is this: getting published by a traditional publisher is a noble goal, one that most writers hope to attain. It’s a worthy ambition, something to strive for, but never, ever—ever—tie-in that goal with self-worth.

Michelle Griep’s been writing since she first discovered blank wall space and Crayolas…professionally, however, for the past 10 years. She resides in the frozen tundra of Minnesota, where she teaches history and writing classes for a local high school co-op. Her latest release, A HEART DECEIVED, is available by David C. Cook. You can find her at: www.writerofftheleash.blogspot.com, www.michellegriep.com or on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest.

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3 Secrets to Getting Published

You’ve heard it before, there are no overnight successes. Well, there are a couple I know of, but thankfully we’ve remained friends to this day. For the rest of us publication takes three things. Sweat, tears, and perseverance.

Sweat. It’s what got me from being an unpublished novice writer to a published author. We all start out green, thinking our prose are brilliant until our first critique. Then the scales fall from our eyes, and we see that we have a lot of learning to do. That’s when we roll up our sleeves and learn new terms like head hopping, info dumps, and backstory. All the things our WIP is filled with that we’re not supposed to do. But we’re excited, ready to learn, not afraid of the work before us. We buy a couple of craft books and start to learn the rules.

Rules? Yes, writers need to follow them if they want to be published. It’s the published writers, and those darn overnight successes, that get to break them! ;) Once we start to learn the rules it’s then the real writers are separated from the fantasy writers (and I’m not talking genre.) It’s then we start to sweat. It’s then a writer needs to ask the question, “Am I willing to put in the hard work it’s going to take to become a published author?” It’s a question I had to ask myself for the last seven years after every disappointment and rejection.

Tears. If you want to be a published writer, there will be many. Writers have heard over and over again that writing is not for the faint of heart, that you have to have thick skin, and when you’re knocked down over and over again (and you will be,) you have to get up again and again. And it’s true. I’ve been knocked down so many times I swore I’d never get up. But I always did because I’m that stubborn and determined to keep at it until I succeed. I’ve learned a couple of tricks to deal with the tears and disappointments. You might want to figure out what works for you and keep them handy for when the time comes!

Perseverance. This is what separates the writers from the wannabes. You’ve also heard that if it was easy everyone would be doing it. There are many who start on this writing journey only to fizzle out and quit too soon. What keeps me going is not knowing what God has planned and the fear of missing out because I gave up too soon. It’s not easy to persevere through sweat and tears, but when I keep my mind on the goal and my heart attuned to my calling, then quitting isn’t an option.

Writing isn’t easy, but it is attainable if you remember the three keys to getting published. You need to work hard, handle disappoints, and pick yourself up and start typing again. If there’s any other way to succeed in this crazy business, I’d sure like to know!

Gina Conroy, a.k.a. "the other Gina," is a new monthly contributor to Novel Rocket. She's the founder of Writer...Interrupted and is still learning how to balance a career with raising a family. She is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary, and her first novella, Buried Deception, in the Cherry Blossom Capers Collection, releases from Barbour Publishing in January 2012. So she knows a thing or two about getting published. Now she's searching for the secret to landing a three book contract!

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Hold the Scalpel!

You think you're ready to submit your work to editors and agents?

Maybe you are.

I thought I was ready in the spring of '06. (I wasn't.)

I'd finished the manuscript for my first novel, ROOMS and through connections I made at the Mt Hermon Writers Conference I got the story in front of three agents. All three were interested in representing me. But none signed me.

Why? My story needed more work. My novel was 90% of the way there. But as agent Steve Laube says, a novel from a first time author needs to be 95% - 98% of the way there.

When I mentor aspiring novelists at writing conferences I often see good writing. But not great writing. To be signed by an agent and get a publishing contract, your writing has to be great. And most authors are too close to the trees to evaluate whether their manuscript is ready to be part of the forest.

I'm fond of this classic writing anecdote which illustrates my view:

An author and a brain surgeon went golfing one spring day and the brain surgeon said, "I'm taking a six weeks off this summer to write a book!"

The author stared at his friend and said, "That's a stunning coincidence. I'm taking six weeks off this summer to become a brain surgeon."

What I find with most pre-published writers is a person who has read a few medical journals and think they're ready to perform surgery. It doesn't work that way. To be published takes years of intense study of craft and mucho hours.

As Malcom Gladwell says in his book OUTLIERS, most people don't master an area of pursuit without putting in at least 10,000 hours. In other words, years and years.

Each September the American Christian Fiction Writers put on a Gala honoring published and pre-published writers. The contest for pre-published writers is called Genesis. Winning a Genesis award is a strong indication of a writer who is close to being publishable. Close, but not necessarily fully ready.

I've talked to a number of Genesis winners who expect contracts to fly their way after winning. They've been chosen out of all the other entries! They don’t understand why editors and agents don't do a Snoopy dance after viewing their material.

The reality is the winner's competition isn't the other Genesis competitors. Their competition is already published authors. Their competition is the Carol award (ACFW's Book of the Year) finalists.

Back when Simon Cowell was on America Idol reigning as the king of snarkdom he would sometimes lambast a contestant who was clearly the star of the night. Randy and Paula would be shocked. His defense was he wasn't comparing the contestant to the other singers on stage; he was comparing them to the hit makers in the marketplace. I think he was right.

Is this discouraging to you? It shouldn't be.

The truth is most writers aren't willing to put in their 10,000 hours. They want to be published now, so they self-publish or throw up an e-book on Amazon and essentially take a short cut to publication.

Sorry, there are no short cuts.

That's the good news. The intense competition weeds out most pre-published writers.

Which means if you're willing to do the brutal work to bring your work into the 95% ready zone, your odds of getting published increase dramatically.

You wouldn't expect to do surgery on a patient by reading a few medical journals and studying medicine for three or four years. Same thing with publishing. Writing is a highly specialized skill that takes years. Yes, I know I've said that already, but it bears repeating.

Don't be discouraged. Every published author I know has gone through an intense residency program.

Keep going. Make a detailed and rigorous study plan so when you are ready you'll pass your medical boards with high marks.

To your scalpel and mine.James L. Rubart is the bestselling author of ROOMS and BOOK of DAYS. His latest novel, THE CHAIR just released.

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