Brainstorming Your Novel

<p><strong>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?</strong></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>James Cameron's <em>Titanic</em> is a fully-realized story that came from a simple historical event. An idea.</p><p><br></p><p>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.</p><p>From First Spark to Blockbuster takes the pain out of brainstorming your next book! You'll learn how to:</p><ul><li>Brainstorm the Origins of Your Idea</li><li>Reveal Why your Idea has Meaning to You</li><li>Compile a List of Theme Words</li><li>Develop a Dynamic Premise</li><li>Orchestrate a Robust Cast of Characters</li><li>Devise an Elevator Pitch</li></ul><p><strong>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.</strong></p>