Writing terminology doesn’t always work for me. I lie. Writing terminology rarely works for me. Tell me I need a rising action and a black moment and my brain starts to develop a fuzz. Tell me I need tension and conflict and whatever’s in my belly starts to curdle. So I take these terms, these THINGS that are necessary to fiction, and I figure out what they mean and assign new names for them, the way my kids assigned words or phrases to things when they were little, words that made sense to them. To all of us. Sprinkle cheese. Fishy crackers. Pick me down.
RISING ACTION – I think of this as the character’s TO-DO LIST. What he or she has to do to get where her or she needs to go, in order of intensity and importance.
BLACK MOMENT – Yes, this is the worst thing that happens to the character. Seems pretty self-explanatory, but for me, the term “black moment” doesn’t resonate. I think of this ROCK BOTTOM.
TENSION – We know we need it but what does it mean? To me it means WORRY. I have to make the reader worry about the character even if she isn’t worried about herself.
CONFLICT – Oh, I hate conflict. I hate having it and I hate writing about it. It’s my nemesis, this conflict thing, so I think of it as a KNOT that needs untangling. First I tie the knot, then I work over time to untie it. If there’s no knot that needs untangling, why would a reader continue? If there’s a knot but no untangling over time? I wouldn’t like that either!
Perhaps this sounds complicated, but for me, having the words that make sense to me make it possible for me to write novels.
But, I think that in today’s publishing climate, the most difficult term to understand is HIGH CONCEPT. We know we need one, but what is it? Some say it’s being able to describe your book in one sentence. C’mon, anyone can do that but it doesn’t make it high concept. To have a high concept idea you have to know what that is. Then, you have to see if your story has one. If it doesn’t, you have to see if it can.
To me, high concept is THE MOMENT. What’s the moment in the book the rises to the top of your thoughts? It’s not a sweeping generalization, it’s as specific as can be. (The rest can float around it.) HIGH CONCEPT isn’t about the big picture, it’s about an moment that is active and understandable and vivid.
THE GLASS WIVES — A divorced mom takes in her ex-husband’s young widow and baby after he dies.
THE GOOD NEIGHBOR — A single mom invents a boyfriend and then is hired to be a relationship expert.
LEFT TO CHANCE — A woman returns to her hometown to photograph her dead best friend’s husband’s second wedding.
THE LAST BATHING BEAUTY — Just kidding! I’ve only begun writing this, as you know, so I can’t even go there! I cannot yet boil down the jumble of ideas to a single MOMENT.
Yes, these MOMENTS are oversimplified but you have to start somewhere. You have to have something to say that makes someone UNDERSTAND when really, they don’t have much information at all. There’s so much more to each of these stories, but at their core, this is what they’re about. These are the palpable moments that are the heartbeat of these stories, the purpose that runs through it. It’s not the theme of the story and it’s not the whole story — it’s a bit that sparks thought and imagination and curiosity. It’s what sets up the need for more. It needn’t be clever, it needs to be direct. It shouldn’t be vague, it has to be specific.
All of those other elements can and should be present in a pitch, back cover copy, a synopsis. But to pinpoint your high concept you need to hone in on A MOMENT. I also can think of it as a hook, but I tend to think of the hook as the first page or first scene (and we’ve talked about that, remember?).
Do all books have a high concept? Today, most commercial fiction does. It has to in order to compete with the gazillions of books out there.
So, what’s yours? Share your high concept for your book, books, or works-in-progress in the comments. Do you have a different though on what high concept is to you? Let us know.
As with any writing advice, your mileage may vary!
Last but not least, in honor of my trip to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt homestead and presidential library in Hyde Park, New York in the Hudson River Valley (not the Hyde Park in Chicago or London), I’m kicking off May’s NEW DEAL FOR EDITING. In April, I critiqued a slurry of first-fifty-pages for $100. (And shh! Don’t tell anyone, but if you email and ask me to extend that old deal, I’m likely to do so, but that’s just between us.)
THE NEW DEAL for May: OPENING PAGES – 10 line-edited and critiqued pages – $40.
Just email me at amysuenathan at gmail dot com to be added to the editing queue so we can work on YOUR first scene or chapter and find out if you’ve set expectations and hooked your reader (me)!
Hi Amy Sue, don’t know if you remember but you critiqued my manuscript a few years ago and I took your instruction to heart – “Making Arrangements” was just chosen for publication by Amazon’s Kindle Scout. Logline: A surprised-to-be-alive widow learns her not-so-perfect husband carried a secret to his grave that can ruin her life. Thanks for all you do for writers, and congrats on your success!
Ferris! I don’t know if you’ll believe this but TWO days ago I was poking through old blog posts looking for something and happened upon a comment of yours. I thought to myself “I wonder what ever happened to Ferris Robinson?” Here you are and now I know!! Congratulations! Please keep in touch and keep me posted!
Amy xo
Amy … I am not sure I totally (adverb) agree with your definition of high concept. I’m stuck on tagline or pitch or the answer to “what’s the story about?” all said in as catchy a style as possible.
For Postcards from Wonderland, my second book, I’ve used: Arrested in a raid during prohibition, a man leaves his young wife to fight the mob for his release and her own life.
I always think of high concept as the message of the book and likely not what I’d pull someone in with. I do, as you say, search for that message from the many moments in the story. Perhaps, in my book, it’s: Women once were defined by their fathers, brothers, uncles, and husbands, and few understood or came to know who they were as themselves.
Which do you think works best?
Hi Rona!
As with all writing and publishing advice, take what you need and leave the rest! This is what has served me well when writing my novels, but of course it’s not going to strike a chord with everyone!
I’m glad you have something that works well for you! (Whatever works, right?)
Amy 🙂
Amy…I think your interpretation of writing terminology (black moment, tension, etc.) makes sense. It feels like you have distilled those terms into something concrete that a writer can work. My brain kinda locks up when I see a chart that shows your book should have action in this section, a black moment here, etc. That makes it feel like I am constructing a wall instead of telling a story. Whenever I read one of these articles, I stop and think of my WIP and I believe I am hitting all the points…not necessarily in the exact spots that others say I should. But I am certain the structure will gel more when I start working on revising. …As for high concept, I’m not at all sure I understand that term. And from the responses so far, it looks like it’s still open for debate.
Absolutely, Beverly! This is what works for me, and has worked for distilling the high concepts for my first three novels (and it worked, they’re all published, or about to be). It likely won’t work for everyone. But hopefully it gives you another point of view.
I’m with you, those charts and graphs confuse me. That’s why I had to figure out what these “commonly used” terms meant to me as they applied to my stories.
Amy 🙂
Great post, Amy. I try not to think about those concepts at all, because I wear myself out worrying about whether 1) I understand them and 2) if I’m “doing” it right and 3) when the editors will start wanting something new I haven’t even thought of yet! But, regardless of all that, you’ve described the essential elements of compelling commercial fiction in a way that’s easy to grasp here. Thank you!
Thanks, Holly! <3
Oh man I love a character’s to-do list!!!
(Just wrote novels that included a honey-do list and a bucket list, and those were shockingly helpful to reveal their personalities too — lists, who knew??)
Just more proof that we are actually the same person! xo