Brainstorming Your Novel

Every bestselling story begins with an idea. But in the highly competitive publishing market how does a writer decide which ideas need telling and which stories to tell?

As every writer knows, an idea is not a story. It’s merely a spark, a memory, a current or historical event, a snapshot, an insight, a family story, a feeling.

It's an iceberg that sinks an unsinkable passenger ship on a crystal clear night in the North Atlantic. But an iceberg sinking an unsinkable ship still isn’t a story. It’s just an idea.

It’s an historical event that lacks the ill-fated, forbidden romance between the beautiful, young, upper-class Rose DeWitt and the free-spirited, steerage passenger, Jack Dawson who, in that short voyage, teaches Rose that 'life is a gift', that 'she must make every day count' and, with his heroic, dying breath makes her promise she will survive the icy waters, and never give up on her life, no matter how dark or hopeless things become, giving Rose the courage to throw off the shackles of the suffocating Edwardian society that held her prisoner and, in the decades that followed, to make her life count.

James Cameron's Titanic is a fully-realized story that came from a simple historical event. An idea.

Ideas! We writers see them everywhere. But sorting through the clutter of ideas for the one that suggests the greatest story potential can be painful, time-consuming and frustrating.

From First Spark to Blockbuster takes the pain out of brainstorming your next book! You’ll learn how to:

Brainstorm the Origins of Your Idea
Reveal Why your Idea has Meaning to You
Compile a List of Theme Words
Develop a Dynamic Premise
Orchestrate a Robust Cast of Characters
Devise an Elevator Pitch

Join Award-Winning, USA Today Bestselling author, Linda Needham in this interactive brainstorming workshop-in-a-book, and turn your First Spark of an Idea into a bestselling work of fiction.