Turn my novel idea into a strong premise and one-line pitch
A sharpened premise with protagonist, goal, stakes, and conflict, plus several one-line pitches and a check on what makes the idea fresh.
The prompt
Help me turn my novel idea into a strong premise. This is step 1 of writing my novel.
The idea: [DESCRIBE IT however it exists now - a character, a situation, a scene, a "what if"]
Genre and audience: [e.g. "adult literary thriller", "YA fantasy", "not sure"]
What draws me to it: [the feeling, theme, or question I want to explore]
Books it might sit beside: [titles I think it's similar to, if any]
Do this:
1. Ask me up to 5 questions if key pieces are missing (who the main character is, what they want, what stands in the way).
2. Shape the idea into a premise: protagonist and their flaw, what they want, why now (the inciting event), what stands in the way, what they could lose, and the central question the book answers.
3. Write 5 one-line pitches in different angles (character-led, high-concept, emotional, mystery, theme-led).
4. Test the premise: Is the conflict strong enough to carry a whole book? Does the protagonist make choices, or do things just happen to them? What makes this different from similar books in the genre? Be honest about weaknesses.
5. Suggest 2 alternative directions that could make the idea bigger or more personal.
6. Give a typical word-count range for the genre, marked as a general guide.
Return the premise in one paragraph, the pitches, and the test results. Keep it - in the next step I'll outline the novel from this premise.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Creative Writing prompts
What to fill in
- e.g. "adult literary thriller", "YA fantasy", "not sure"
- the feeling, theme, or question I want to explore
- titles I think it's similar to, if any
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
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