self publishing idea, planning, plot · golden age crime heist stories conmen/women 1890s paris...
TRANSCRIPT
SELF PUBLISHING
©2018 Jericho Writers
Idea, Planning, Plot Finding your raw material
Choosing your idea
Defining your USP
Planning your novel
©2018 Jericho Writers
The plan for today
Hello + why we’re here
Finding your idea
Refining your idea
Defining your USP
From idea to planning
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Hello & welcome
A little about me
A little about JW
… and why ideas matter so damn much
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From right back
in the beginning
I’m a Jericho
Writers
‘Graduate’
I’ve used multiple
JW services and
attended the FoW
many times
Why am I talking to you today?
I believe that with the right help, coupled with the right attitude, you can get better and get published!
©2018 Jericho Writers
Book Deals in UK, US
and elsewhere…
First novel soon to be a
major TV Series for ITV
I’m James Law, and I write under the name J.S Law
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All experience levels.
All kinds of routes
to success
All genres
All nationalities
All ages
We know we can
help writers like you
(We’ve done it before)
More to the point, Jericho Writers have helped 100s of writers get published
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So big question: why do ideas matter so damn much?
Because your book won’t sell without a cracking idea
It won’t hook an agent
It won’t find an editor
It won’t grab a reader in a store or online
Yes, the hard work is in execution. But without the great idea, no one will get to see how you execute it
James’s Law
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Example Do you want to read this book?
“Teenage girl falls in love with teenage boy”
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Answer No, not really
There are MILLIONS of boy meets girl stories.
And people can get a little bored of them…
Or…
It’s not that we don’t like the basic story, we’re just not super-engaged by the same-old formulation
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But you like this story, right?
Teenage girl falls in love with a teenage boy…
and they’re both dying of cancer
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And this one
Teenage girl falls in love with a teenage boy…
Who is really a vampire
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And this one could do nicely …
Teenage girl falls in love with a teenage boy…
While fighting for her life in a TV reality / survival show
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Some might say the actual execution of those blockbusters was fair to middling at best…
But they succeeded because:
1. Their premise stood out a mile
2. The USP was baked into every page of the book
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And it’s not just genre fiction
Almost all the books I can think of,
including the very best, follow
James’s Law of the Big Idea
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His Dark Materials
Coming of age story, where you can cut through into different worlds
Gone Girl
Missing woman story, flipped on its head by the mid-book discovery of who the missing
woman really is
Never Let Me Go
Love triangle … in world where some humans are bred for organ-harvesting
Harry Potter
Unwanted orphan story, set in a magical boarding school
For example :
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Finding your idea
Clue:
You already have plenty!
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Here’s one tool to get some initial ideas
List everything that sparks excitement in you You want a big, baggy, diverse list
Arctic exploration Golden Age crime Heist stories Conmen/women 1890s Paris Fashion industry Early aviation Treasure hunts
1920s America Ocean sailing Unreliable narrators King Arthur Ghost stories Time slip / time travel Anything Russian Etc, etc, etc
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Remember!!
Write what you know!
Nah…
Write what brings you joy ;-)
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Write what brings you joy
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Write what brings you joy
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Write something that makes you want to…
Write!
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Here’s one tool to get some initial ideas
List everything that sparks excitement in you You want a big, baggy, diverse list
Arctic exploration Golden Age crime Heist stories Conmen/women 1890s Paris Fashion industry Early aviation Treasure hunts
1920s America Ocean sailing Unreliable narrators King Arthur Ghost stories Time slip / time travel Anything Russian Etc, etc, etc
©2018 Jericho Writers
Settings
Arctic 1890s Paris
1920s Florida Post-Roman Britain
English country house
Heroes / heroines
Destroyer captain Modern Sherlock
1890s Parisian artist Ghost etc, etc
Theme / Challenge
Heist Survival
Elaborate murder mystery Haunting
etc, etc
Use that list to generate some unconnected ideas
At this stage, don’t try to join things up
You’re just looking for things that genuinely excite you
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Settings
Arctic
Heroes / heroines
Destroyer captain
Theme / Challenge
Survival
Once you have a long, rich list, experiment with making some connections
Start to create some very short story descriptions
A World War 1 destroyer is struck by an iceberg. Captain must guide his team 450 miles across the ice to safety.
Broad brush is good. We’re looking for ideas, not plots!
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What do you think so far?
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What do you think so far?
BORING!
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The issue is that the story is too expected
Possible solutions
1. Go deep Dramatise an actual historical expedition to keep story
as authentic as possible
2. Go wide Introduce a rogue – unexpected – element.
This is a very powerful technique and it nearly always works!
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Refining your idea
Aka:
How to kill the boring
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Settings
Arctic
Heroes / heroines
Destroyer captain
Theme / Challenge
Survival
We said this story was too expected
The issue is the lack of any rogue ingredient
That’s why teen romance on its own is dull. Teen romance + vampires / cancer / TV reality warfare = NOT dull
So we need to re-do this exercise but looking for a rogue ingredient
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Settings
Arctic
Heroes / heroines
Destroyer captain
Theme / Challenge
Survival + murder mystery
Here’s it is again – with a rogue ingredient
Our story in very brief summary
Arctic shipwreck. Mysterious deaths (murders?). Captain must rescue his men … and find the killer
Boom! I want to read that book
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Settings
English country house
Heroes / heroines
Ghost
Theme / Challenge
Ghost follows the hunt for her killer
Here’s a golden age crime story with a rogue ingredient
Our story in very brief summary
Classic Golden Age murder setup. But it’s the ghost of the victim who narrates the action. Oh yes, and ghost is a very unreliable narrator – and possibly the killer!
Bam! I want to read that book. (In fact, I might want to write it)
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Settings
NY fashion house + 1890s Paris
Heroes / heroines
Young NY fashion intern
Theme / Challenge
NY intern timeslips into the past
Here’s a Devil Wears Prada story with a rogue ingredient
Our story in very brief summary
Young fashion intern. Career issues, romantic issues. Gets pulled into 1890s Paris. Then …????
Premise sounds strong. But these all need development
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Ideally, you’re looking for a rich reverberation between your elements
Teen romance, plus …
Vampires speaks to teen love of darkness
Cancer romance becomes harder, sadder & brighter
TV reality warfare Stakes massively higher
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Provoke a reaction
All these ideas can provoke a reaction.
Even if it’s not your genre, they sound different and interesting – and that’s YOUR idea!
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Developing your idea
From idea and concept, to a plan we can get behind
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What do people really mean by this?
Where do you get your ideas?
1. How do you make your idea different?
2. How do you take it from an idea to a plot?
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Active Thinking
I ‘mull’ a lot (inactive)
But when I want to build an idea, I have a few ‘active’ techniques I use (and that I’ll share with you)
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Good old
fashioned
‘Brainstorm’
Timeline the
World ‘Why’ Diagrams
Active Techniques
The order I use them in changes – but let’s look
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Timelines
Timeline your world – real or imagined – and start putting down events that might matter
I use Aeon Timeline – but you don’t need it
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Timelines
Don’t rush it – this stage takes time and it’s well worth taking the time you need.
Think around the subject – your plot can be enriched by having a deep and interesting backstory (that we
defo won’t bore our readers with)
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Timelines
Start to frame my story
Start to add characters and backdrop
Start to add MOTIVATION
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Next up - Brainstorms
I do this for HOURS!
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Active Brainstorming
All of my books Start here.
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Characters
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Interlinking Timelines
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Relationship Diagrams
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General Notes and Thoughts
That sometimes don’t fit anywhere… Yet
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Story Flow
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Character/Story Progression
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Character Backgrounds
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Background Timelines
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Problems!! Lots of them!
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I take this seriously
That’s not even all of them! Not even close!
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Idea to coherent plan takes work
Hard, fun, absorbing, ACTIVE work
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Finally (kinda) – Why Diagrams
No, I couldn’t think of a better name – sorry
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WTF is a ‘Why Diagram’
Things that annoy me about novels
1. When I just don’t give a &%$£
2. When I have no idea why they’re doing what they’re doing
3. When they do something completely unexpected (usually to bail the author out of a plot hole)
When the story just hasn’t been thought out
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Plotters v Pantsers
If I haven’t already mentioned this 50 times, let’s do it now
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Why Diagrams
This is about me challenging my own ideas – encouraging myself to think about what happens,
then challenging it
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Why Diagrams
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Why Diagrams
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Why Diagrams
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Why Diagrams
To help refine the plot, but also to check it works
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Why Diagrams - Questions
1. Who cares?/So what?
2. WHY?
3. Then what?
4. Really??
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James thinks…
If you can get a single scene
If you can put that scene in a context (time/location/other events)
If you can build characters and a world around that scene
If you can challenge yourself (and your character) to take an exciting, believable, relatable journey
Then all that’s left to do is write it down ;-)
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And a final word
Question and answer
session follows
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Writing books is hard
The grim truth
Most writers don’t complete their manuscripts
Agents take on 1 in 1000 manuscripts
They sell about 2/3 of what they take on
So what do you do? Give up? Or get smarter?
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Jericho Writers has a solution…
Improve your writing skills
+
Learn how to get published / self-publish
=
The results you want
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Because JW love writers!
On 29th November-2nd December we’re going to give
annual memberships away at 33% off.
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33%-off membership gives you EVERYTHING
Live pitch sessions with literary agents How to
Write course Getting Published course Self-
publishing course Masterclasses Full-length
interviews with agents etc AgentMatch
And much more
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You get some life-altering resources for
relative pennies
We get new friends
If we go on delivering awesome
value, we get to stay friends
forever
We think this members club idea is the best thing we’ve ever done
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What you need to do now?
Nothing at all
(We’ll email you)
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Got ANY questions?
Ask away
Ask anything you like about ideas, elevator
pitches, planning etc
JW membership offer
29 Nov – 2 Dec
33% off annual membership
That’s it from me. Over to you
VIDEO TUTORIALS
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