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Twitter, today I am going to take you from idea to elevator pitch to agent pitch to proposal pitch to cover copy! The entire evolution of an idea that became a book. Just give me a few minutes to get my screenshots in order.
We start with the idea. Or rather, we start with the ideas. THE GIRLS I'VE BEEN is the combination of two high concepts I developed separately, years apart, only to realize they fit together. First (oldest) concept you can see here on my idea list that I keep on my phone:
When I say this concept is old, I mean: I saw this movie when it came out in 2001 and was like "Wow, the entire concept of setting your daughter up to be sexually assaulted via a con is REALLY fucked up and no one is addressing it! What would a book about that be like?"
So that concept has been on my idea list since 2001. I wrote and sold this book in 2019. So roughly 18 years of me turning that question over in my head: What would a book like this look like? What kind of mother would do that? What kind of girl would you be?
This brings us to my second idea on my idea list. A few years ago, when I was considering what my next adult thriller would be, I was playing with the idea of a locked room thriller. And ended up getting THIS idea when I was brainstorming that I added to my phone list:
So now I have two totally separate ideas. Am I magically an instinctual genius and just know like a lightning bolt: "THESE CONCEPTS BELONG TOGETHER?" No. No I am not. What I am, however, is a calculating writer.
About two years after I added idea #2 up there on my list, Jim and I have a discussion. He wants a YA from me. It's been pretty long since my last original YA. So it's time to move if I want to nurture that branch of my career. So I go to my idea list. Start scrolling through.
"What are the most high concept ideas on this list?" I ask myself because I need to actually sell the YA and not waste my time. I narrow it down to these 2 ideas, and a third, more fully realized idea that I had created for an audition for something that never came to be.
Once I saw them side by side, I realized: Oh, these go together. In fact, they create a EXTRA STRONG high concept with all these layers! It answers all my questions about each pitch! THIS is how she's outsmarting the bank robbers realistically: she's a con-artist.
