High Concept
Writers never stop learning, and sometimes I wonder why I didn’t figure certain things out before now. Things my kids understand from their study of script writing, that sails right past me. Stuff that is not always easy to get my thoughts to grasp.
I’d been working on a sequel to One Murder Too Many, the book my agent is shopping right now, and I was making progress. I like One Ransom Too Costly and am enjoying the writing, but what if the first book in the series takes a while to sell? There are other projects, of course, but nothing that fits my chosen romantic mystery/suspense genre.
So my oldest son, Jeff, and I started brainstorming Friday night. And he brought up a point I had not seriously pondered before. I’d heard of it, but not really let the idea sink in. It’s that thing called “high concept.”
High concept is the bigger picture, the idea that is unique yet attractive to readers, something universal. Jeff’s a great teacher, and he helped me grasp what this meant through the medium of movies.
Take some of my favorite romances – Runaway Bride, for instance. The high concept of that story is that “she runs away from weddings” (and from commitment to a man), and of course we want to know why.
Pride & Prejudice carries the well-known plot device of the wealthy lover sacrificing pride and position (in the eyes of his peers) for the beloved. Such sacrifice is a high concept.
Titanic – highest grossing movie of all time – why? Because it carried the highest concept of all – the lover sacrificing all for the beloved. Like Romeo and Juliet. Like God’s love for us. (There is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends…Jesus’ words.) The background of Titanic was a historical tale, but the love story is what gave the story that unique attraction.
So I started thinking about high concept. And Jeff sent me to a screenwriter’s website called Word Player. They have some great articles on the subject that I’m not done reading. Their word for high concept is “strange attractor” meaning strange (unique) and attractive (compelling). Many movie scripts fail for lack of a good concept.
The more I brainstormed and the more I’ve read, I’ve come to realize that this is what is lacking in many stories today. If other authors are at all like me in the way I’ve been writing, they/we come up with an idea and put the story together without really knowing that high concept. Then when we are asked to sum up our story in one sentence, we struggle to do so. We describe what happens in a paragraph and then try to condense that down to thirty words or so. But that may not be the high concept at all. It may be what happens in the story and the story may be compelling, but does it have that unique appeal that will compel the reader to keep reading? That will appeal to a wide audience or just a select few?
My brainstorming did produce some new ideas, one of which I think is a good concept, and the funny thing is, that concept, which could also be the answer to the “what if?” questions, is what brings excitement back into writing. Today I sat down and wrote over 1500 words because the idea compelled me to write it down.
My friend (who brainstormed with me on the phone last night) had some very good advice. She said to write the story that you have a passion for because in the end if you write just as a business and not from that passion it will show in your writing.
John Grisham said he tries to make every book his best book yet. That only comes with high concepts and passion for the story.
That’s my goal…we’ll see if I can make it happen. :)
