that's not a novel idea but it could be

Once upon a time, I had a novel idea.

No, wait, hang on. Once upon a time, I had about eighteen novel ideas, or what I thought were novel ideas, but were actually not novel ideas. Here is what I mean when I say that I had a novel idea (by which I mean an idea for a novel):

• what if magical cat people

• what if dragons, but they turn into people, and they have soulmates?

• what if magic guns lesbians

• what if gay pirates. no, wait, what if gay pirate and GAY SEA MONSTER

Do you see the problem? These are concepts. They aren’t novel ideas. Here they are, translated into novel ideas under my new understanding of what it means to tell a story:

• What if the princess of a kingdom joined the rebellion against her own royal family and then, after growing romantically intimate with the rebellion leader, realized she was wrong about the rebellion’s goals and had to bridge the divide before civil war ended her country? (Yes, this is the cat people book I was writing as a child. No, it wasn’t that good when I wrote it then.)

• What if there was a girl who was a dragon-soulmate, but she didn’t like that fate had determined her life for her and, despite loving her dragon, sought a way to change the magic and their connection? (This is my current novel.)

• What if the priesthood and the army of a kingdom were at odds, and the high priestess and major general (both women) had to work together on something and, while contemplating stabbing each other in the back, accidentally fell in love? (+ magic guns because, jesus that’s awesome)

• What if the monster the Captain is hunting is actually her long lost lover, transformed by a curse?

So — the difference is probably pretty obvious if you’re not me and haven’t been brute-forcing your way through the process of writing a novel, but let me lay it down for you: the second set of bullets have a clear central conflict. You do not know, from the outset, how the characters are going to get across it, or if they will. Maybe the princess fails, her rebel boyfriend takes the throne, and a new regime begins. Maybe the girl finds the magic but chooses not to use it; or maybe she uses it, and it changes everything. Maybe the priestess admits her love, but the general doesn’t; maybe neither of them can set their pride aside. Maybe the captain finds the magic to save her lover; maybe she only learns when it is, fatally, too late.

Don’t you want to find out?

I do!