I’ve had four primary agents over the years and they all said essentially the same thing to me. It just took me a long time to understand what they meant. I used to send my agents a flurry of proposals with book ideas. Early in my career I was a plot-focused writer. So my ideas were always heavy on plot, not so much on character.
I managed to sell every book I wrote during those years, but none of the books really broke out. There were several reasons for that, but one was that I didn’t have strong enough characters populating my thrilling ideas.
A situation idea is outward oriented. It’s focused on plot and problem. It also tends to focus more on intellect rather than emotion.
If you state your one sentence original idea, which I discussed last week, and the subject of the sentence isn’t a character, then you probably have a situational idea.
Example: What if mankind didn’t originate the way people think it did? AREA 51
That’s a ‘high concept’ idea, but focused on the plot, not specific characters. Notice that the subject of the sentence is neither the protagonist or antagonist. In fact, neither of those two critical characters are in the idea at all. Going back to the previous post from last week, look at your one sentence original idea: what is the subject of your sentence?
Another situation idea from my books:
CUT OUT: What if people going into the Witness Protection Program really disappear?
A character idea is focused, well, on character. Usually your protagonist. Sometimes your antagonist. It is inward oriented and focused more on emotion rather than intellect. The reader should empathize with your protagonist and/or fear your antagonist.
Character idea from our books: A film producer must save her sister and niece, both emotionally and physically. DON’T LOOK DOWN.
Here’s an expanded character idea: AGNES AND THE HITMAN: Take one food writer named Cranky Agnes, mix together with a hitman named Shane, add a Southern mob wedding, a missing necklace, two annoyed flamingos, and a dog named Rhett.
The best thing to do is have both: a great situational idea with great characters.
You can take what appears to be a situational idea and pump it up with character. For CUT OUT which I used above: What if a rogue Green Beret must save the woman he loves from a corrupt government official in the Witness Protection Program.
Notice I have situation/plot: Saving someone. And character: The protagonist (rogue Green Beret), love interest, and antagonist, all in one sentence.
This might all seem like semantics, but it’s actually very important. Because it determines your focus as a writer. The original idea is the basis of your novel. Even in re-write, everything can change except the original idea.
For example, my first manuscript written in 1988 (yes, a long time ago when men were men and the sheep ran scared) had this original idea: What if Special Forces soldiers had to blow up an enemy pipeline?
I picked that idea because I had actually done a similar mission so the story was there in my frontal lobe and I could concentrate on writing the book. BTW, it’s a situational idea.
The story was set in Russia. I wrote the book, sent it to my agent in 1989 and waited. And he told me he couldn’t sell it. Why? What happened in 1989? The Wall came down. The Russians weren’t the bogeyman any more. So, keeping the same original idea, I changed the story elements of setting, plot and character. In five days I rewrote the book, moving it from Russia to China, back-dropping it against the Tiananmen Square Rallies, using a Fail Safe type scenario and making the protagonist a Green Beret married to a helicopter pilot stationed in South Korea. Retitled the book DRAGON SIM-13 (bad title BTW) and we sold it.
Idea can’t change. Story can.
The bottom line is that character is more important than plot, thus a character idea is usually better than a situational idea, if you have to choose. Think about your favorite book: do you remember it for the plot or for the characters?
People identify with people, not things.
Idea is not story. To me, there is a very big difference between the idea and the story. I’ve had great ideas that I couldn’t transform into a story. On the other hand, I’ve taken some not so great ideas and pumped them up with a very good story and intriguing characters.
The original idea is the foundation. It’s that one sentence beginning. Then you have to figure out how you are going to tell that idea. That’s the story. It’s the building that goes on top of the foundation.
An idea is usually an abstract. Many fledgling novelists start with the abstract, then got bogged down trying to take that into something concrete (black and white on paper). This is why I beat to death being able to state your idea in one sentence and then writing it down. It makes it real. It makes the distance from idea to story less of a chasm. Even just thinking your original idea is not good enough. You have to state it out loud and write it down on paper. Putting your thoughts down on paper forces you to focus and you might find that your great idea is actually difficult to state clearly.
It is a big jump from idea to story. Story includes characters, timing, point of view, pace, locale, etc., etc. All things we’re going to cover this year in the blog. Story has to answer all the questions that come to mind the second you tell someone your idea. Story answers: Who? What? Where? When? How? It also answers the Why of your intent.
The original idea is also critical when it comes to marketing your manuscript. Guess what the opening line of your query letter is going to be? Guess what is probably the only thing an agent or editor is going to read?
I know you may think this is terribly unfair. You may feel that taking four hundred pages of brilliant manuscript and trying to sell it on the basis of just a sentence or two is a travesty, but here is something to consider– how do you buy a book? Most people buy because they know the author and like reading him or her. But if you are a new writer, then you don’t have this option. So how do you buy a book from an author you never heard of? Do you stand in the bookstore, read the entire book, then go and pay for it?
Go to your local bookstore or even better, local supermarket. Stand near the paperback racks. Watch how long each person peruses the books on the shelves. How many seconds do they give to each book? Then, when they pick a book up, how long do they spend looking at it? Why should it be any different for agents and editors?
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