43 Story Idea Worksheet -- Nail and Sell Your Concept with These Nine Ways to Test Your Core Idea

I'm going to be mentoring a new YA writer through several rounds of her WIP. There's nothing that I love better than saving someone some of the long, flailing hours that I spent writing stories that had no point or purpose, so I'm very excited. We started last night by talking about the importance of boiling down the idea behind the book.

Image via Adi Respati on Flickr

Starting with concept was probably the single biggest factor in getting me from aspiring author to published author. Understanding concept was equally as important. My first book was written in a frenzy of flowing words. So much fun. And so completely useless, because when I was done, I had a big fat mess that didn't go anywhere at all.

The idea behind the story, the concept, is critically important. It becomes:

• the blueprint you use to write the book.
• the pitch you use when you're trying to find an agent.
• the way your agent sells your book to your publisher.
• the description your publisher ultimately uses to get booksellers to carry your book. 
• the way readers share the book with their friends. 

So how do you boil down that idea? I have a little worksheet for that. I keep restating the idea in different ways, tweaking it until I have something that reaches the core. Here's the worksheet, and I've thrown in some examples from COMPULSION to help you see how they work.

Story Idea Worksheet

Tagline: 

Three plantations. Two wishes. One ancient curse.

[This was the first note I wrote to myself about the story idea. I've tweaked it a little bit, but ultimately, it made its way to the front of the book jacket.]

Meets: 

• BEAUTIFUL CREATURES meets THE BODY FINDER [from my publisher]
• BEAUTIFUL CREATURES meets GONE WITH THE WIND [from USA Today]
• A little bit GONE WITH THE WIND and a little bit ROMEO AND JULIET [from School Library Journal]
• BEAUTIFUL CREATURES meets Lauren Oliver's ROOMS [a reader]
• MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL meets ROMEO AND JULIET meets THE SIXTH SENSE [agent]

Two sentence idea:

After losing her mother and godfather, seventeen-year-old Barrie Watson is sent to live with her mother's twin on the family's 300-year-old low country plantation in South Caroline where her inheritance of the family gift for finding lost things and the dreamy boy across the river help her uncover a long-buried murder and a family feud that stems from two wishes and an ancient curse granted to the three founding families of the island by the mysterious spirit who, for a thousand years, has set the river on fire every night. But can Barrie find a way to break the compulsion that accompanies the magical bonds that hold her to the island, or will stirring up dark secrets trigger the curse and prove to be her downfall?


One sentence idea:

A seventeen-year-old girl discovers that her gift for finding lost things is equally a curse when she loses everything she's ever known and is plunged into first love and the dangerous secrets and dark history of the magical island settled three-hundred years ago by her ancestors.


Character idea:

What if a teen with an inherited gift for finding lost things is compelled to discover dangerous secrets her family has been hiding?


Story action launch:

Compulsion starts when Barrie Watson arrives at her family's 300-year-old plantation and discovers that she is magically linked to the island so that she can't leave until she uncovers the secrets her family has been trying to hide.

Central external idea:

Will Barrie's gift for finding lost things help her unravel the tangled secrets buried at Watson Island before the ancient curse comes into play and puts her life in danger?

Central internal idea:

Will Barrie find love and a new family when she has lost everything, including her sense of self?

Goal and Conflict:

Note: Ideally, the protagonist's internal and external goals should conflict, and the protagonist's goals should conflict with the antagonist's goals.

	Goal	Conflict
Protagonist	External: Barrie is compelled to find the things that have been lost or hidden at Watson's Landing and can't leave the plantation. Internal: She has lost everything and everyone she knows and needs to find a place she belongs and people who will love her.	Her compulsion to find the things she has lost lead her to uncover secrets that put her life in danger, and also [spoilers omitted about how her internal goal/need conflicts with her external goal.]
Antagonist	[spoiler]	[spoiler]

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