Many authors put epigraphs at the beginning of their novels, a quote that foreshadows the story in some way.

Does your story idea have an epigraph? If not, see if you can find/Google/make up something that might work.

Now, write a scene that epitomizes the epigraph. What kind of scene goal does it suggest? What kind of conflict? Select some characters and a setting and write. As usual, this scene may or not make it into your manuscript, but it might unleash ideas, descriptions, details, motivations, subtext, plot elements that are still useful.

That’s it for me!

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Also, people have been hiring me to review their loglines with the kind of analysis seen here and here, and I’m enjoying it. So, if you think your logline (or something else!) might benefit from a looksie and want to hire me to review it, email me at writeswithtools @ gmail dot com.

Thanks!