Generating Ideas That Sell: Proven Methods for Sparking Your Next Great Story

Elevated Magazines
Oct 7
5 min read

Have you ever sat down in front of a blank page and tried, for hours, to come up with a story idea?

You're not the only one. In fact, 47% of authors are now using AI tools to help them brainstorm ideas for plots and characters. And here's the thing…

The only difference between a bestseller and a manuscript gathering dust on the publisher's desk is often this one aspect:

The idea behind it.

If your story concept isn't strong, all that pretty prose won't be able to pull your story out of the quicksand. But here's the good news…

Developing sellable story ideas is a skill that you can learn. In fact, with tools like an AI book title generator, you can take rough concepts and turn them into hooks that publishers and readers won't be able to resist.

Here's how the pros do it.

What you'll discover:

The Science Behind Sellable Story Ideas
Mining Your Life for Gold
The Genre Mashup Method
Using AI to Supercharge Your Creativity
Testing Your Ideas Before You Write

The Science Behind Sellable Story Ideas

Did you know this secret that most writers don't…

The best story ideas follow a science to them. They hit universal human truths while still providing a unique perspective on it. And, according to research, LLMs can match human performance in originality while generating 2-3x more ideas.

Think about it:

Every blockbuster has the same emotional beats. Every page-turner has the same psychological triggers to hook the reader. Once you understand those patterns…

You can replicate them.

The most marketable stories are the ones that include all of these three elements:

A relatable problem that the reader can instantly connect with
An unexpected twist to make the concept feel fresh
Clear stakes for the characters to create urgency

But here's where most writers run into a roadblock. They want their stories to be so original that they completely ignore established concepts.

Mining Your Life for Gold

Have you ever heard this one before?

The best story ideas are already there, right in front of you. In your everyday life. In your conversations. In your family's odd behavior.

Christopher Booker identified seven types of stories that are universal. But here's the thing…

Your own personal twist on them makes them original.

Here are some writing exercises to help you along the way:

Take a look at your most embarrassing moments in life. Now what if it happened to someone in a high-pressure situation? A diplomat at a peace summit? A surgeon at a life-or-death operation?

Think about the strangest person in your family. What if they were now put in charge of something important. What kind of chaos would ensue?

Think about the worst decision you made in your life. Now give it to a character of yours and increase the stakes by ten.

Cool, isn't it?

The real magic happens when you take ordinary life experiences and start asking what if questions. What if that awkward family dinner took place… on a spaceship? In the middle of an alien invasion? In medieval times?

The Genre Mashup Method

Did you know this one?

Publishers are always looking for "X meets Y" story ideas. It's the easiest way for them to sell the book to readers who are looking for something familiar yet different.

And the data confirms it. 92% of consumers prefer brand stories that feel fresh yet recognizable. The same applies for fiction books.

Try it out with these combinations:

Romance + True Crime = A serial killer falls for the detective trying to bring him down
Western + Sci-Fi = Cowboys on Mars dealing with alien cattle rustlers
Horror + Cooking Show = A chef who discovers that their restaurant is built on cursed ground

The key?

Don't just mix genres together. Find the emotional core that unites them. What human truths can you explore through this unusual lens?

Using AI to Supercharge Your Creativity

Here's something worth knowing…

AI tools are not going to replace human creativity. Far from it. Less creative writers derive more benefits from AI assistance in the form of story idea generation.

Here's how you can use them to your advantage:

Start broad: Input general ideas and let the AI spit out variations on a theme. "A story about betrayal" turns into dozens of unique scenarios

Add constraints: The more specific you are about the constraints, the better the AI can generate results for you. "Betrayal in a 1920s circus setting that involves twins" leads to completely different results

Use it as a springboard: AI-generated suggestions are not the final product. Use them as a launching pad for your own creativity.

And don't just use it for generating plot ideas…

AI can help you with character names, world-building elements, chapter structures, and more. The trick is knowing when to use it and when to trust your own creative process.

Testing Your Ideas Before You Write

Here's the truth:

Not every idea is worth writing a whole manuscript for. And that's fine. Better to test ideas now than to waste months and years working on a story that is not going to sell.

The question is: how do you test story ideas?

The Elevator Pitch Test: Can you explain your idea in one sentence? If not, the concept is likely too complicated

The Emotional Hook Test: Does your idea elicit an emotional response in you the moment you hear it? Fear? Curiosity? Excitement? If not, no reader will either

The Market Test: Search on Amazon for similar books. If there is nothing out there, congratulations. That is either a stroke of brilliance or no market. If there are hundreds of entries, how is your idea different?

Write some test scenes and see what your beta readers think. Try to figure out what resonates.

And here's a pro tip:

Use social media to test how people respond. Post up your concept and see what the engagement looks like. That will tell you everything you need to know.

Bringing It All Together

Developing ideas that sell is not a process where you sit around and wait for inspiration to strike. It is about understanding the elements that make a story compelling and actively creating concepts that meet all those benchmarks.

A couple of things to remember: