Hello, writers. So you know what I really suck at? Describing what I’ve written in an enticing fashion. Most writers suck at this.
We either go too far:
Dear Editor,
I’ve written a sure-fire bestseller. It will win the National Book Award, the Newbery, the Booker and quite likely a Nobel. Please respond before 6 pm tomorrow, as I expect to have multiple offers by then.
or get too vague:
This is a story about a girl who overcomes overwhelming odds to achieve a worthwhile goal. She learns to trust her heart, follow her dreams, and believe in herself.
or talk about things that nobody particularly cares about:
This story explores themes of loneliness and depression and seeks to define truth in such a way as to link it to the evolution of the human spirit.
Here’s the description I kept giving people (on the phone, not in writing) of my fantasy series:
It’s about a forest, see. Only it also represents the unconscious mind. Only that’s mostly in the background, it’s not like the main thing or anything. Because I know people don’t like that. There’s this big forest near my house.
(Fortunately my agent did a better job.)
I forget where I first read this advice, but: Try to sum your novel up in one sentence. The sentence should be no more than 20 words long. Under 15 words is even better. Then you can build your query or synopsis or pitch up from there… you’ve eliminated unnecessary characters and subplots, so you can present the idea clearly.
If you can’t do it, there may be a problem with your novel.
Now I wanna talk about a term that I keep hearing lately…
High Concept
You may have noticed that some literary agents say they are interested in “high concept” stories. What is high concept? According to David Morrell in Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing, high concept is a plot simple enough to explain to a movie producer who’s on drugs. (Or something like that. He does not like it.)
According to blogging literary agent
Rachelle Gardner—
When an agent says they want high concept, they’re looking for an idea that can be captured in just a title and a brief, pithy tagline—and from that brief description, will immediately attract interest.
A high-concept pitch has inherent appeal – just from the one line description. The idea itself has immediate sizzle when someone hears it.
The blog of the
Waxman Literary Agency defines high concept thusly…
It’s an idea that is immediately accessible & appealing to a large group of people, that taps into the hive-mind if you will, but with the added spark of feeling new (even if it’s as old as the hills).
And member Cyia at AbsoluteWrite says
Twilight: A girl encounters a family with a centuries' old secret -- they're vampires.
Hunger Games -- A determined teen replaces her sister in a televised fight to the death.
Basically, it's a one-sentence formula akin to:
A [descriptive] [noun] [strong verb] [what they do].
So.
Tonight’s challenge:
Come up with a single-sentence pitch for a “high concept” novel.
The more ridiculous the better.
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