Has a friend ever asked you what your novel is about, and you gave them a three-hour-long explanation? Well, here's how you can find that snappy, one-liner, "elevator pitch" that will have literary agents swooning.

One mistake I see over and over in work-in-progress novels is that they lack a choice and stakes. So many times the protagonist is simply reacting to external stimuli, just being dragged along for the ride because they have to. What makes a great novel is when the protagonist is faced with a problem and/or creates a problem for themselves, has to make a choice, and both courses of action will lead to consequences.

If there's one thing I've learned from agonizing over my query letter for months, it's that you don't know your novel as well as you think you do. When forced to address the protagonist's choice and stakes, I was at a loss. She didn't actually MAKE any choices. And that huge flaw forced me to reevaluate the entire plot and how the protagonist plays her role. I'm currently rewriting that novel, and it's looking so much better with that focus in mind.

Let me show you exactly how to present your protagonist, their problem, and the stakes involved. While lurking through a query-writing forum, I found a great post that outlined a Hollywood movie pitch formula:

After ________(your inciting incident), a ________(description of protagonist) must ________(do what? what's the main action) or risk/while risking ________(what are the stakes?)(during ________(setting, if unusual).

Here are some examples of how to fill this out:

After a thief attempts to steal the Sorcerer's Stone, a boy who has only just learned about the world of witches and wizards must find the stone hidden in his school or risk it being used by the most evil wizard of all time, who happens to want the boy dead.

After building a high-tech battle suit and saving a town from being massacred, Tony Stark must keep his weapon and new superhero persona secret while risking the internal collapse of his weapons' industry.

After being brought together by the organization S.H.I.E.L.D., a group of hot-headed superheroes must reconcile their differences and learn to work together or risk the evil Loki enslaving the earth.

EXERCISE Try this out with your own novel, and post your result in the comments below! If you can't do it, you may find a bit of plot reconstruction is in order. But don't get discouraged! Better to find out the flaws in your novel now, rather than after getting a long slough of rejection letters from agents.