When A Good Story Idea Isn't Enough

One of the most common reasons for my rejections of manuscripts all come down to a story that goes no where. When I read the query letter, the premise of the story sounds amazing. Maybe it is because the author does a fantastic job crafting a great query. Maybe they see a story that they really didn't write. In the end, then I read the partial and the full synopsis, that premise simply didn't stand up!

So what happened?

This is something that actually happens to more authors than you think. You are driving your kids to work, sitting in the middle of a board meeting, doing laundry, out for a jog or at the gym, and then, in the middle of whatever else you were doing, you come up with "the most amazing story." 

This is the story that will sell. This is the story that will have editors and agents begging for you. With that in mind, your get to your computer as fast as possible and start writing. Your fingers cannot type fast enough. It seems that the story is writing itself.

The problem, however, is that you don't see what is really happening. That great premise you started out with turns into a chain of thought style of writing. You quit looking at the big picture and only see the scenes in front of you. 

Your story has to be much more than a premise. Remember that the concept of premise is that it is simply the "initial idea." It is the beginning of a bigger argument. It is a hypothesis. If you look at his from a logic standpoint, it is up to the person arguing the premise to follow it up with something substantial to prove the point. For authors, that initial idea might have had "something to it" but it wasn't enough.

A lot of times, the idea you have for a story is not really enough for a story, but could certainly be used as a piece of a larger and better story. When, I say larger, it is not just about word count (although this is a factor), I am referring to a more complex and deeper story. 

So how do you work yourself out of this predicament? Don't rush it. Don't throw out the premise but think it out. Plot it out. What are all of the things that are going to happen in the story. What is the bigger conflict. Just take your time.