LOUD and clear

Margaret James urges you to shout about the central concept of your story

What’s the big idea behind your story? The central concept, the big question, the one line pitch, the overarching theme – any or all of those things, because to some extent they are roughly interchangeable – how does your story-indevelopment measure up?

Or, to put it another way, do you know what you are writing about, and could you tell someone else in a few wellchosen words? Or at most in a short sentence or two?

You might have come across the expression elevator pitch.

It’s based on the assumption that a writer is momentarily alone in an elevator with an influential literary agent or the sort of publisher who might like his or her kind of fiction, and has a minute or two to tell this person about the author’s amazing novel, story, script or screenplay-in-progress.

This situation might well arise in your own life, not necessarily in an elevator, but at a writers’ conference, either face-to-face, or – which is sadly more likely nowadays – online.

What could you say?

Your pitch would ideally reveal your central concept, and then tell your captive audience a little more about your project in a few well-chosen words. These words are really important because they – or a paraphrase of them – could end up in print in advertising copy, on a promotional poster, and/or on the cover of a published book.

So what could the words be?

Maybe your title, as in the case of the bestselling Eleanor

Oliphant is Completely Fine, which sounds so defensive it suggests to the reader that Eleanor is not fine at all. Or perhaps your provisional shout line? Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive – but not how to live. I’d be intrigued – wouldn’t you?

A great title and shout line need to intrigue readers, but not to confuse them. They need to suggest what will happen in a story, but not give too much away.

What is a shout line?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as a line of promotional text designed to draw attention to an advertisement, book cover, etc, typically using sensationalism, hyperbole or striking typography.

I’d agree that a shout line needs to draw attention to the story in question and that cover designers frequently make use of striking typography.

But, as for sensationalism or hyperbole – although these certainly crop up in shout lines from time to time, always bear in mind that if you’re trying to get someone on your side, you shouldn’t make any promises you might not be able to keep.

Let’s look at three more titles and shout lines from recent bestsellers.

Family comes first – even before the truth is the shout line on Ian Rankin’s latest Detective Inspector Rebus novel A Song for the Dark Times. What song, wonders the reader, what dark times, and why should family always come first, even before the truth? These are good questions.

Getting back to promises – good titles and shout lines are certainly allowed to make promises to readers, provided the author will be able to honour them.

Something happened on her wedding day. Ten years later, she’ll learn the truth promises the shout line on Shalini Boland’s The Wife, a novel with a simple title but with a great shout line, connecting the words wife and wedding effortlessly.

He looks the same. He looks like a stranger declares the shout line on JS Monroe’s The Other You. Hang on, thinks the reader – how can someone who looks the same also look like a stranger, and who is the other you?

If you’re still stuck, you could imagine your novel being produced as a movie.

What would this movie be called, and what would the shout line be?

Although you’ve wracked your brains for months searching for the perfect title that encapsulates the central concept of your story, your working title might still be something as simple as Jack and Emily, or even just Emily,

but with a bit of luck that could still work. After all, the 1940 movie of Daphne du Maurier’s bestseller Rebecca has become a classic. The shout line on cinema poster asks: could the secret of Manderley destroy their love? So we’re promised a secret, the threat of love being destroyed, and also invited to guess where or what Manderley could be.

There are a few things you probably shouldn’t say when pitching your work to industry professionals.

• My romantic novel is about a girl who gets a new job and meets this man who…

Yes, in romantic fiction girls generally do meet men, so don’t start off by stating the more or less obvious.

• I’m writing a story about a serial killer.

Oh, are you? So are thousands of other novelists. What is special about your book? Maybe the killer is a family member, as is the case in My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, which incidentally has a great shout line, too: blood is thicker than water and harder to get out of the carpet.

• I’ve been an accountant/dentist/chemical engineer all my working life, and I have a huge fund of funny stories that I know would make a great novel…

Tell people about your work before you tell them about you. Some titles are so clever that they suggest a shout line too. I dare say the one of the most famous titles (which is also the shout line) in literary history is Pride and Prejudice.

‘Yes, that sounds intriguing – please tell me more,’ I could imagine a present-day literary agent saying to a timetravelling Jane Austen during her first one-to-one at a writers’ summer school.

The working title of Pride and Prejudice was apparently First Impressions, which is not a bad title, but the one we all know and love is a great one.

Next month we’ll talk about getting going on your actual story.