The best thing you can hear as an author when you try to attract interest in your story idea is:
"I hate it, what else you got?"
Which means you should try to have a bunch of ideas. A lot of people ask writers where we get our ideas. This practice is mine.
When I'm coming up with my ideas, I write elevator pitches. Can I boil down the logline of my story into one (maybe two) sentences? Awkward run-on sentences are allowed.
Seeing as an elevator pitch doubles as the blurb to attract readers off the main page of SOL it's a great idea to practice.
What is an Elevator Pitch?
You just got on an elevator with someone you want to invest in your project, you have to sell it to him before he gets off the elevator, he's only going one floor up, can you do it?
This one actually got an idea made into a movie:
Twins separated at birth come together as adults, only one is Arnold Schwarzenegger and the other is Danny DeVito.
And that's how we got James Cameron's Avatar.
When someone wants me as a reader for their story, I expect them to give me an elevator pitch. Most people are incredibly excited to talk about their idea or their project and instantly vomit out a thirty-four page word document to sell their seventeen page short story. This kinda thing makes my eyes glaze over. I doubt I'm the only one.
The logline also works as a touchstone. If you can boil your idea down into a couple of sentences, you can pull yourself back from exploratory writing your way off a tangential cliff.
Putting my money where my mouth is, here are some of my examples:
Monkey Wrench
A kid is abducted by aliens along with nine other classmates, but he's the only guy and everything from eating, to sleeping, to showering, only happens together.
Magic is Gross (2)
Five teen girls summon a demon to grant their secret wishes, the demon does grant all 5 wishes as promised but to all 5 girls and Leanne wasn't planning to have HER David fall in love with her four mutual best friends.
Lost Toys
When Matthew rescues a broken and masterless magic slave from a harsh mundane master, the slave bestows on Matthew the power to enslave all he sees fit; Matthew never learns restraint.
Kitty's Cookies - Just started posting publicly
Jordan is too polite for his own good. When his best friend's little sister bakes him cookies, he smiles and says they're amazing, overdosing on the greatest baking disaster of all time. But as they say: What doesn't kill you, gives you mind powers...
Ring's Hallow - Ongoing Patreon Only at the moment
Dom's passing grandfather bestows upon him a magic ring and the genie entrapped within, his grandmother sought to channel Dom's "three wishes" through one amazing girl, but a loophole lets the genie extend her power exponentially outward for the first time in centuries.
My Schemes as a Teenaged Supervillain - Trying to make a game out of it, actually.
A medley of hypersexualized western cartoon parodies that become aware they act within a shared universe as one supposed minor mad scientist villain herds all of the greatest heroines into his own harem and finds that his army of sexy teen warrior-chicks aren't as expendable as faceless henchmen.
If someone asks for more clarification beyond the logline, before you dive into the world-building and character essays, maybe start with "It's kinda like X meets Y." or "It's THIS GENRE with THIS QURIK."
My Schemes as a Teenaged Supervillain is kinda like if Megamind met Rance.
(Or Megamind met Calligula if I expect the person I'm talking to doesn't know anime.)
Kitty's Cookies is a Erotic Harem Story where our hero cannot control his powers when he has access to multiple women.
Does anyone else use these tools to brainstorm ideas? One of my favorite mental exercises is sitting down with another creative person and just producing ten or twenty loglines together as quickly as possible.
It means I have dozens of stories I'll never write, but better than struggling to have something at hand.
