Write Your Novel Like You’re Making a Movie Part 2

More Development

We now have two high concepts (The Carnival Barker and Aquaphobia) and two viable loglines. Now what? In the film development stage an outline is produced, a synopsis or treatment is created and a screenplay is written and re-written. For novel writers, the outline phase is moved to pre-production. What’s left for you to do in the development phase is to determine your target audience and asses your book’s chances of success in the appropriate market.

What genre does your new book idea fall into? Thriller? Romance? YA? Figure that out in a hurry and be hesitant to write in a genre you don’t really like. You’ll come off as a phony and readers will see through you immediately.

Run your high concepts and loglines by some of your honest, trusted friends and readers. This is the acid test. Look at their faces, especially their eyes. If more than one person’s eyes glaze over when you pitch a concept and logline, you’ve got a dud on your hands. Dump it, try another one or start over. If their faces brighten and they say that are looking forward to reading it, then you may have a winner.

This is similar but in much less detail the kind of work a film studio performs before they pull the  pre-production trigger. The studio’s goal is to maximize the number of butts in theatre seats, eyes glued to the silver screen. As an author, your goal is to maximize the number of eyeballs on a eReader or printed page. Once you’ve done the development work, now is the time to approach your agent, if you work with one. If you’re an independent, then you’re ready to move on to the pre-production phase.

More on this to come…