Your Writing Development Strategy

Like a child in a candy store with a $10 bill burning a hole in your pocket, you probably feel you’ve just got to write a book about that idea bouncing around in your head.

However, before you write, consider this:

• Story ideas are a dime-a-dozen, but
• A validated premise is priceless.

And here’s why:

• A validated premise serves as your writing development strategy.
• That guide helps you stay on the path that leads to:
  • Fulfilling your readers’ expectations, and
  • Making sure there’s room in the marketplace for your book to compete.

So let’s dig deeper into the real problem.

Should You Turn Your Idea into a Novel?

You may have a wonderful concept, but to make sure, avoid problems by answering these critical questions:

• Do you know if there’s an audience eager to read your story?
• Are you aware of how many people buy such stories?
• Will the competition allow your book to see the light of day?

Validating your book’s premise will not only help you answer these questions, but also avoid hearing chirping crickets instead of ringing cash registers!

A Guide to Write and Validate a Novel’s Premise

Top writers understand the itch to write before validating the novel’s premise. However, that can cause half-written manuscripts, because the initial idea proved insufficient to support a full-length novel.

James Scott Bell, in his book Plot & Structure, offered this sobering question:

“Why spend six months, a year — ten years! — hammering out something that editors and agents, not to mention readers, will not care about? You need to come up with hundreds of ideas, toss out the ones that don’t grab you, and then nurture and develop what’s left.”

The Trellis Method serves as your guide, and a validated premise helps you decide whether to:

• Write a book based on your premise, or
• Find a new book idea with more audience appeal.

Your Step-by-Step Approach to Write a Premise

To validate your premise, you’ll follow a multi-step process.

• First, you’ll focus on coming up with many book ideas.
• Then you will take your best idea and write a premise that includes characters, actions, effect, and outcome.
• Finally, you’ll validate your premise to:
  • Make sure enough readers will care about your novel,
  • Discover how many people purchase such stories, and
  • Find out if the marketplace will allow your book to compete.

Discover What Bestselling Authors Know

A big mistake writers often make is thinking their idea will automatically have sufficient audience appeal.

In contrast, top writers often:

• Use book reviewer’s comments to understand what readers like and dislike.
• They tweak stories in fresh ways that exceed readers’ expectations, and
• Make sure they’re excited by their book’s premise.
• Top writers also:
  • Measure their level of excitement about the idea,
  • Have in mind an interesting and relatable main character, and
  • Believe they’ll remain excited from the novel’s start to finish.

You can use these techniques to enhance your book, too!

Avoid Writing a Book No One Wants to Read

A validated premise is your development strategy to write a book readers will love.

When you validate your premise, it lights the strategic path that leads to writing a story with proven audience appeal.

However, a premise alone does not replace all the other steps you need to write a great story.

Instead, the premise keeps you focused on what matters most to readers, and that focus helps you avoid writing a book no one wants to read.

Way Forward

Writers validate their premise before they write. Why?

To:

• Avoid wasting time writing a book no one wants to read.
• Evaluate the amount and quality of the competition.
• Check if there’s room for their book to get noticed.

Turning an idea into a premise helps you in several ways:

• Discover the core reasons you want to write this book.
• Develop a vision of how the story could work.
• Increase your confidence that the book can compete successfully in today’s marketplace.
• Avoid wasting time writing 50,000 to 100,000 words that go nowhere.

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