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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& #39;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& #39;s been pretty long since my last original YA. So it& #39;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.
