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THE THREE LAWS OF TESTING YOUR STORY IDEA

Isaac Asimov's robots followed three inviolate rules in his short stories and novels. Robocop had only 3 prime directives. There were only three active stooges at any one time. For these arbitrary reasons and many more, there are three things you have to know when testing a story idea. For most true storytellers, these laws already make sense - you know them innately - but sometimes it's good to see them in print, and have that "ah-ha!" moment when you realize that what you always knew to be true, in fact is.

Rule 1: Your grandmother is not always the best judge of character

For most amateur writers, the only people they think they can trust with their works are family members. Brothers, sisters, parents, even Aunt Louise, who once had a "Life in These United States" story published in Reader's Digest. The fact of the matter is that for most writing, and almost assuredly for science fiction, your family is not going to be able to give you impartial, critical advice or analysis.

There's three primary reasons for this. First, as is evident from every audition episode of American Idol, family members grossly overestimate the talents of their kin, so they're more likely to tell you that an idea that needs significant work is really a great idea. Second, because of the unique nature of the genre, your average Joe on the street (or cousin Louie in Rhode Island) isn't going to be able to tell you that having a story set on a waterworld where the lead character looks like Kevin Costner with gills isn't a very good idea. Finally, as much as they want to, family members usually aren't qualified or willing to give good, hard criticism to other family members, unless it's about how much turkey they ate last Thanksgiving. You need your strongest, hardest critiques at the beginning phases of fleshing out a story, so plot holes and science blunders don't kill you down the road.

Rule 2: No one wants to steal your story

On his site wordplayer.com, acclaimed screenwriter Terry Rossio has a fantastic article about the time he tried to help a young writer out by offering to read his script, but the writer refused, afraid someone would steal his idea. Rossio muses over this and asks how that person expects to ever sell a story when sometimes, literally hundreds of readers, producers, agents and production assistants will have to see and evaluate the story.

If you're anything like me, or Rossio, or almost any working pro, then you're probably so

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