High concept is one of the most understood concepts in storytelling. So what does high concept mean?
High concept means that a novel/movie/TV show’s plot can be described very succinctly in appealing fashion.
- Kid wins a golden ticket to a mysterious candy factory? High concept.
- Wizard school? High concept.
- There’s this guy who walks around Dublin for a day and thinks about a lot of things in chapters written in different styles and he goes to a funeral and does some other stuff but otherwise not much happens? Not high concept.
High concept is very often misunderstood because what it sounds like it means and what it actually means are basically completely opposite. It doesn’t mean sophisticated (opposite), it doesn’t mean cerebral (opposite), it doesn’t mean difficult to describe (opposite). And it’s very important to know what it means because although high concept is often a term used derogatorily, I am hearing from more and more editors that they want high concept novels, even for literary fiction.
Why? Well, my hunch is that the more media, the more Tweets, the more links we’re constantly besieged with, the more readers are drawn to hooks that we can easily understand and digest.
So not only do you need to know what high concept means, you might also want to consider embracing it if you’re thinking of a new project. But only if it’s true to the story you want to tell.
UPDATED 12/10/19
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Vegan Zombies
All too often these days I read about agents wanting "high concept" but I hear "gimmick." Can you elaborate on the difference, Nathan?
Does the old "It's like X meets Y" pitch apply to high concept?
It's like Tron meets King Kong.
It's like Twilight with Mountain Trolls.
It's like Ulysses meets Something with a plot.
AH – thank you! I have been going around and around with the definition of this term, and now it makes sense. I don't think "high concept" are at all the right words to use to describe what "high concept" is supposed to mean, which is ironic since we're talking publishing and these are the people who should be able to pick exactly the right words, but whatever. That doesn't really matter.
What matters is that your readers know what it is now. Thanks!
anon-
It doesn't have to be a gimmick. A literary novel could be high concept, for instance. It more just means that the novel has a punchy, appealing hook. The execution might be shoddy or incredible, but the idea of the novel itself is both appealing and easy to wrap your head around.
Balloon boy!
t.n.-
I've seen it described that way, but I don't always agree with that definition. I think true high concept is more based on describing the plot in hook-y fashion. Sometimes the X meets Y works (Jane Austen and zombies), but for the most part I think it's more based on what is happening in the actual novel than the works that are similar to it.
Honestly, I'd pick up the novel about the wandering man over the candy factory any day of the week. But clearly, that's just me.
https://www.blakesnyder.com/2006/02/02/the-death-of-high-concept/
That's a post by the late BLAKE SNYDER author of SAVE THE CAT! series on screenwriting.
The real eye-opener though is in the comments below it. Read what Sara Beach had to say. I think she hit on the explanation with the idea of the mountains seen from afar — a point of view shift.
All other definitions I've found in the industry focus on the end-result of what you have AFTER you've applied the "High Concept" screener to your material.
Sara and Blake have hit on what a writer DOES (inside the mind) to "get" a High Concept idea.
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
https://jacquelinelichtenberg.com
Vodka Martini shaken not stirred.
High concept.
I was going to use another example, but I'm a teacher, after all.
Werewolves on the Moon.
My wife wanted that for the title but my publisher preferred St. Martin's Moon, so guess what the book's going to be called?
I always think that if the title says it all — Snakes on a Plane, Wedding Crashers, Atonement, Pride and Prejudice — then it's high concept.
Maybe I just need to come up with better titles for my slower, literary, book club fiction type novels and trick the pub industry into thinking that they are high concept.
I think it's the bias against high concept, though too, that despite what the writing may hold, pitching it can come off as gimmicky or too broad — Janet Reid just eviscerated someone on Query Shark for something that was pitched in that same broad manner that I would call a high concept pitch.
So, many works in the comic industry would have the high concept of "Super Heroes" or "Masked Vigilantes"?
Can genre/niche work as High Concept? I.e. Space Opera, instead of the more blanket 'science fiction'?
It sounds like it uses the more literal meaning of the words. The concept of the story at the very top, the most simplest aspect of it.
Vampire High School Romance. Or Wizard School. They explain a lot about the story in very very basic terms, and its not until you go several levels down that you start getting into the more "Coming of age story AT Wizard school" or something like that.
High concept is the new vampire.
Isn't it always a risk to compare a story to a movie or TV show? If the person you are pitching hasn't seen the show, your high concept will be a total wash.
At what point does a movie/show/book become famous enough to use this way? For instance, you might say it's The Sixth Sense meets Hansel & Gretel, but would Medium meets Hansel & Gretel have the same impact?
In his book _Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing_, David Morrell suggests "high concept" means a plot that can be described briefly enough to suit the attention span of a Hollywood producer whose brain is fairly fried from drugs.
Watching movie trailers is a good place to learn about high concept because most movies have a high- concept premise (unlike a lot of novels). You should be able to get the gist in a second or two. For example, the teenage children of an upscale SoCal lesbian couple look up their mothers' sperm donor, who suddenly becomes involved in all their lives…(THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT). In one sentence you have a high-concept plot.
Stu Pitt – I'm glad I didn't have any water in my mouth whenI read your comment or it would have been a spit take. Too funny, especially coming as the first comment after Nathan's post.
word verification – undumb – seriously.
Yeah. Snakes on a Plane tells you pretty much all you need to know.
About a year ago, I found out what "high concept" was, and I was very surprised. Recently, I’ve been sending out queries for my science fiction novel novel – written in literary style – about outer space aliens and religious holograms designed by the military, and have heard back that this novel is "high concept" and a "potential best-seller". Makes me happy. (And I will be much happier when and if I actually sign with an agent.)
I did NOT know what high concept meant, and now I do. I had all the miunderstandings you mentioned.
Thanks, Nathan.
Is that Dublin book real? Oh my, I am so commercial. Why would someone read that? On the other hand, that sounds rather easy to write. Is lit fiction easy to write? I wonder if I pissed anyone off asking that – sorry. But I could write a book where someone wanders around thinking and does nothing. I really could.
Anyway, that would be a fun challenge to re-write lit fiction as high concept. An Irish guy who has 'questions' reaches an ephiphany (sp?) at a funeral. That's kind of fun. You could write anything as high concept, I think, you just have to tweak it.
I'm sort of rambling in this post, but evidentally that means this post is literary fiction, right?
Mira-
The book he is mentioning is Ulysses by James Joyce and is considered a masterpiece.
I also love ULYSSES by the way, it's one of my favorite books of all time. It's just basically the exact opposite of high concept.
At last, a clear explanation! Thank you! I'm sending everyone to your blog!
Oh dear. I'm such a doofus. Sorry for bringing down the intelligence of your blog, Nathan.
Well, now I'm going to have to check out Ulysses and form an EDUCATED opinion.
Color me embarrassed.
Although….it does sound easy to write. Doesn't that sound easy to write? Maybe I'll feel differently when I actually read it. I know. I'll buy it on my I-phone and read it tonight.
Ninjas, pirates, zombies and monkeys take on robots-gone-wild in the middle of a Dubai resort!
Seriously though, I gave it a shot on my writing blog…came up with a distilled "high concept" for several of the short stories on there:
https://justindjohnson.com/a/general/high-concept/
My husband has his heart set for vampires going out in to outer space.
Maybe he's on to something?
I dunno…
Great explanation. I get it and I happen to write it…or at least I try very hard to.
Vampire virus infected monkeys!
I tend to like high concept but in small doses. Sequels, (Matrix, I'm looking at you), third season (yes, 24, you too), etc. and the edge is gone. High concept doesn't mean the story isn't there but it really limits the directions you can take it in the future.
Like Water for Chocolate was pretty high concept for lit fic. A repressed woman's emotions spill into everything she cooks.
Most of the lit fic examples I can think of have that mystical reality vein.
I've given up my quest to write a high concept novel since Hollywood stole my idea for a literary novel about a hot tub that is also a time machine.
Okay, I just bought Ulysses on my Kindle/I-phone for 1 dollar. I read the first five pages.
I can't understand a word. It's completely incomprehensible to me. I wish I did understand it, Nathan, since you love it. I wish I could understand it.
I'm not sure what else to say, so I guess I'll be quiet now.
So high concept = clear idea in one sentence? Sounds like something every story should boil down to. If that's the case, isn't every story high concept?
mira-
I personally think the only way to really understand ULYSSES is to read a "how to understand Ulysses" book at the same time or to take a class with an expert. It seems a little crazy to read a book to understand the book you're reading, but once you see what Joyce was accomplishing it's pretty amazing. It's a lot of art for art's sake and by no means a beach read, but also, I think, a phenomenal achievement.
Listening to Ulysses being read in French when it's not your native tongue…now that's something. Not only do you need the guide to understanding Ulysses but an accompanying translator who has read the guide.
t. anne-
While every book can be summarized, high concept tends to be very hook-y. They elicit a "that sounds awesome" with just the one sentence.
So according to your article (and what I view as reality) these are our choices:
Write a high concept story that panders to the everyman and makes big bucks for ourselves and the industry; write a high concept story that resonates with some, makes a lesser amount of money, but gets high praise from the critics du jour; or write a smaller story of our choice, that has little chance of every being read, much less published, but has a slim chance of becoming a classic after we're dead.
I choose option number two. I'm not gifted enough for option three, and not interested enough to read, let alone write, option number one. (There are certainly pearls on the genre shelf, but IMHO, they're the exception).
And for sure, the definition of "high-concept" is going to morph the same the way "literary fiction" has morphed.
Nathan – Thank you! I'm not doubting it's a masterpiece. But I was starting to doubt my own intelligence.
I do think that understanding high art can require training, but once you 'see' it, it can be very profound. I feel the same way about art appreciation courses. Someday, maybe, I'll take a literature appreciation course on Joyce. 🙂
But at least I'll know it isn't easy to write. I couldn't write that in a million years. I can't even read it!!
Uh-Huh. Thanks Nathan. So when I submit my book with an anthropomorphic, fast talking, well dressed crocodile as a pivotal character amongst a group of Hollywood 'A' listers holidaying in a resort on Australia's 'Great Barrier Reef, I should list it as "high concept'?
Or is it preferable to have the Agent tell me that themselves?
Soooz
soooz-
I'd let the agent figure it out on their own.
You know what might be fun and useful for us all? If we each try to describe our own staggering work of epic genius as a "High Concept" project.. it Could be useful for all those authors who struggle to reduce their own work to that one sentence synopsis?
headed to the Forums to post the idea right now…
Thank you for explaining this in clear, direct language.
D'Oh! I'm so glad you defined this for me. The term sounds so obvious I'd never thought to look further for a definition. And now it turns out I was completely wrong! One misunderstanding down. More likely to come
Thanks for this post! Very helpful.
Before the whole vampire and zombie craze erupted (again) in the last several years, I had this idea: Zombies are killing all the humans, and a vampire must save them so he won't run out of food.
That's the closest I ever came to high concept. I'll stick with my quiet literary fiction instead.
Nathan and Mira –
I belong to an online book club in which one really bright person repeatedly says that ULYSSES is the ONLY really good novel ever written. 🙂 I don't agree, but he feels that ULYSSES sticks to the true form of a novel better than any other novel ever written. He's read more books than anyone else I know, even foreign books in their original language.
flibgibbet –
High concept books often get high praise from the critics. High concept simply means that the concept or idea appeals to a large number of people. The critics then take a look at how well the book was written.
Ahh, you make it sound so simple! But I get it now. And hopefully will be able to execute it well in the future.
@Nina: I wrote something like that once, of a sort. It's definitely high-concept, but mine still needs a lot of work, so he should get a move on!
I like the story about the guy who walks around Dublin for a day. I like quiet stories about quirky people. I like black and white films. Maybe "high concept" is not my cup of tea….
Yeah all the new 'definitions'are great but can someone please tell me what 'steampunk' is??
https://damselinadirtydress.blogspot.com
Thanks for explaining high concept in a high concept way (succinct and in a way we can all understand)! I never really got what it meant before.
Excellent example with Snakes on a Plane. I've had to write a lot of tag lines, but this is even more concentrated.