Comments on: What is High Concept?

By: M.L. Eqatin

M.L. Eqatin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:07:46 +0000

Hmm. High-concept sounds like it refers to speculative fiction, fantasy, suspense, etc. I’m trying to fit historical fiction — not the kind with time-travel or alternate history, but real, well-researched HF — into the ‘concept’ mold. Would the fall of Richard III, or the discovery of the West Indies by Columbus, count as high-concept? Both events impacted history globally, but there isn’t much suspense now, is there?
But that isn’t exactly low-concept, either. Might be quite sweeping and impersonal, battles and all that. Let’s take the Hornblower series, for example. Would you call that high-concept or low-concept?

By: Daan Van der Merwe

Daan Van der Merwe — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:11:17 +0000

Thanks for this Randy.

Cogratulations Pam! Good to see you post again. I was beginning to think that you got lost in the Giant Redwood forest.

By: Camille

Camille — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:32:52 +0000

Thanks, Randy, for noting that a novel does not have to be high concept to be great, and that intensely personal is a low but worthy concept. Although if Jane were alive today, I think she’d figure out a way to blow up a helicopter with subtle, ladylike irony. Or with Lady Catherine.

By: Livinus

Livinus — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:23:12 +0000

High concept novels are the most difficult to write WELL. Problem:
1. Your unbelievable story must be made believable, at least temporary in the world you create. The higher your concept the more prosaic your details must be – I think Randy’ knows better how to do this.
2. The danger must be made visceral or personal at some point, so as to get deeply into the skin of a reader.

Who cares if a planet size meteor is falling to earth, except a small fragment would hit a barren but now pregnant woman who in the spate of miscarriage would rush to the neighbourhood hospital to discover that the hospital electricity has also been damaged and . . .

I sometimes fight the urge to keep working on high concepts, but have not succeeded yet.

By: bonne friesen

bonne friesen — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:58:58 +0000

Camille, you make me howl! Lady Catherine could blow up a helicopter with a glance!

By: Karla

Karla — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:34:51 +0000

Regarding regional dialects that we talked about last week: I found a fun website that tests your vocabulary: http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/yankee_dixie_quiz.html

Have fun!

By: Tiffany Shaw

Tiffany Shaw — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:16:44 +0000

M.L. Eqatin said, “Would the fall of Richard III, or the discovery of the West Indies by Columbus, count as high-concept? Both events impacted history globally, but there isn’t much suspense now, is there?”

Sometimes, the stories that everyone knows about, or knows the end to, or knows the incidents that followed from it can be refreshed and made intense by telling the story from the perspective of a different character.

I’m currently reading a fantasy novel called Night of Knives, the first book by Ian Cameron Esslemont. He’s writing a series concurrent to and based in the same world as Stephen Erikson’s series the Malazan Book of the Fallen, but this book is basically a prequel to Erikson’s books. But despite the fact that anyone who read Erikson’s series knows how Night of Knives turns out, the story is very gripping, because it’s told from the perspective of new characters. All of the very intense action takes place on one very high stakes night.

By: Peter Knight

Peter Knight — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:12:34 +0000

The notion did come from scriptwriting didn’t it? I’ve seen it described as ‘That which fits in a one line description’ - but not a ‘blurb’, and stakes would have to be high: So it seems that it could be a form of writing in a box, setting oneself constraints - which is very useful anyway. Good thing you brought this up; thank you.

By: High Concept Means Death and Flying Ninjas — Goodword Editing

High Concept Means Death and Flying Ninjas — Goodword Editing — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:23:53 +0000

[…] Ingermanson published a good definition of the high stakes, high concept novel over at his site a few days ago. It was an idea that came up several times at a Mount Hermon […]