Shiny new ideas

 I came up with a shiny new idea this weekend (yay!) and even wrote the first two chapters. Then I read this post by agent Jill Corcoran about what makes a book sell. Her first tip is to come up with an original, compelling idea. Which is kind of obvious. Her post also gives a litmus test for shiny new ideas (SNIs for short) and mine only passes half the criteria.

My SNI isn't original. It's a quest story, which has been done about a gazillion times in literature. You know, the story about a hero(ine) who has to get somewhere to do something world changing/life saving, and the journey is actually more important than the destination. ( LOTR is a gigantic quest story. Many Celtic fairy tales are quest stories, generally told with rules of three: three tests to pass, three monsters to face, etc.)

So if my storyline isn't original, it must be compelling. And that's what I'm mulling over as I begin to outline my plot.

What makes a story compelling for you? Consider this an unofficial survey and leave your responses in the comments.

Tomorrow I fly to Dallas for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics convention. The entire teaching staff at my school is going through the end of the week and we're all a little giddy.

And the fact a math conference is getting us excited is proof that we're nerds teachers. I won't be back until Saturday a.m. so there will be no Friday Funnies this week.

Have a great one!