Paige's Writing Guide

Testing Your Idea

TESTING YOUR IDEA

So you have an idea. Thats great!

But...

Before making it happen, you should find out if you should write this idea.

What will we test? Of course, the substance of the idea.

Say you have this idea: "Girl farts and boy is handsome."

It doesn't make sense, right? Would anyone be interested in a story they don't know what's about? We have blurbs were we, bookworms, find out the gist or substance of the story. If it doesn't have a substance we will just ignore it and scroll to the next story.

Some ideas are not ready to be made a story yet. Testing Your Idea is a process before Making Your Ideas Happen.

This will help you prevent yourself from starting a story you cannot finish. Or making a story that doesn't make sense, in a bad way. (I have to admit that I enjoy stories which doesn't make sense from time to time. It doesn't make sense, right?)

Here we go.

Testing Your Idea Checklist

I got this from a wattpad book called "Unstuck" and wrote my own interpretation. Visit it if want to see a slightly different take on this checklist.

☑ Working Title

Every story has a title. So if you're writing one, give it a working title. You can change the title later on, by the end of the story. Most of the time, the flow of your story deviates from your working title so you have to change it to something that suits it better. Something that attracts more attention and something that is unlike the other.

I have to emphasize the importance of title. It is the first thing the readers look at, if not the cover. It is either an eye-grabber or just one of the many similar titles.

Don't:

⚠ Use a sentence as a title.

Examples:
"I Got Summoned to Another World As A Hero and Fought A Demon Lord"
"I Became the Wife of My Idol"
"I am Just an Ordinary Salary Man. Oh, a Bunch of Girls Wants to be My Wife?"

It. Sucks.

You may or may not know these but some Japanese novels have titles like these. Some stories in wattpad also has these types of title.

Why is it bad?

▪ Do you even need to ask?!
▪ Seriously, bruh?
▪ It is too long to be remembered.
▪ You gave away your whole story with the title alone.
▪ It's a freaking title, not a story description.
▪ It sucks.

⚠ Use a title that is already existing.

Avoid it at all costs, even of you really want that title. Why? Maybe you wrote some good shit and it was recommended thousand times over but those who received the recommendation read the other book with the same title. Maybe you don't like your book being compared. So many maybes that wouldn't exist if you chose a different title that is unique to your story.

Here are titles of some of the books that I enjoyed. It may give you inspiration:

Unrepentant
The Story of Two
Paying for His Mistakes
Fracture
Fear of Flying
A Place in Time
Wonder
A Step Into the Past

☑ Genre

Readers and writers have a genre they prefer. By categorizing you story under the right genre, your target readers can find your story easier. You wouldn't place a Detective-focused story under Humor genre. Even if there is a little bit humor in your story, you have to know your focus.