Build Your Novel: High Concept

Your book begins with a High Concept. The High Concept statement will not be seen by your readers, it is for you alone. It's purpose is to help guide your writing by keeping you focused on a single set of information that will be consistent throughout your story. A strong High Concept helps keep your story consistent in its plot direction and presentation of elements. A weak High Concept means your story is more likely to be inconsistent, with elements that don't mesh well overall. Importantly, your High Concept is not set in stone. As your story and outline develop, you will revise your High Concept until the story is finished and the editing process begins.

Your High Concept consists of a single complete statement that explicitly describes the genre, hook, setting, primary conflict, and characters of the story. The genre may be general (such as western, science-fiction, or fantasy) or it may be as specific as necessary (such as paranormal romance, cozy mystery, or slow-burn coming-of-age biography). The hook provides you with an instant point of contact with your story that possibly references something with which you are especially familiar. The setting describes the location in which your story is set, and determines how important it will be to the overall story. The primary conflict defines the element that prevents the action of the story from concluding prematurely and motivates the characters to action. The characters are the people and personified elements whose actions and choices will influence the developing plot of the story. Your High Concept statement can be as long as it needs to be.

You may have already chosen a title for your story, or you may simply be referring to it as "Reel2-Dub2". It is likely your title will evolve as you write. I've chosen a title for my Nanowrimo 2023 project: Roc.

The Genre

The purpose of choosing a genre is to define the expectations of the audience and narrow down the tropes and story beats common to that type of story. A heartwarming romance story typically does not involve serial killers. A young adult adventure romp will have very little in the way of blood and guts. A hard science fiction epic will likely exclude magic spells, ghosts, and fairies. Your choice of genre will influence the way you use your elements. A key question to ask when choosing your elements is, "How does this make sense within my chosen genre?"

Roc will be written as a cast-elimination, modern-day, natural monster hunt.

The Hook

A solid hook serves to remind you of the purpose and feeling of your story by referencing other things strongly related to your story. The hook is the one thing about the story that interests you the most and is likely the reason you wanted to write the story in the first place. It may be an intellectual concept, an entrancing location, a strongly desired feeling, or a thing with which you are fascinated. Every time you revisit your hook, you should be freshly motivated by the possibilities of exploring your hook within your story. 

When writing Roc, I will be asking myself, "What if the giant eagle from Sinbad was living in an American mountain range?"

The Setting

The setting is the location of your story. Your story may be strongly influenced by specific elements of the story, or it may serve as a kind of general backdrop for more personal action. Choose your setting and determine how much it needs to be featured as an important part of your story. The warring families of Romeo and Juliet could have been in any city romantically envisioned as violent and passionate, such as modern-day Los Angeles. Jack London's Call of the Wild is difficult to set in any environment that does not share the forbidding and icy wastes of the frozen Arctic. When you refer to your setting, always keep in mind its most important and relevant features.

Roc will be a journey through the mountain ranges of the central United States. The untamed wilderness, towering heights, thickly forested regions, and isolated locales provide contrast between the Roc and humanity. 

The Primary Conflict

The primary conflict is a single event, or a closely related set of actions, that propels the action of the story forward. This element is heavily influenced by the genre of the story, and it does not need to be thematically unique. Many romance stories have as their primary conflict the idea that characters who are destined to be romantically involved cannot initially get along with each other. The primary conflict will motivate your characters to take action in order to resolve the conflict, and the story cannot conclude until the primary conflict has been resolved. Other conflicts will develop as you write, but they should never become more important than your primary motivation to action.

In Roc, a massive bird of prey has begun attacking hikers and mountain climbers, making the area unsafe. 

The Characters

Finally, your story needs characters in order to make decisions that move the plot forward and to give the reader someone to whom they can relate. A character will almost always be a person, but any subject that takes meaningful action should be treated as a character. In fantasy and sci-fi, non-person characters often take the form of alien humanoids, artificial intelligences, or spiritual beings. The main characters of Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" are all animals. In the works of Jack London and Ernest Hemingway, the setting itself is often personified and described as if acting from some inscrutable motivation. Characters will interact with every element of your high concept, and are the agency behind decisions and actions that change the conflict and allow the story to progress organically. 

The three main characters in Roc are: Saul Berm, an amateur mountain climber and professional photographer; Timothy Harris, a park ranger dedicated to protecting people on the trails; and the Roc, a megafauna bird of prey that is attacking people who get too close to it's habitat.

The High Concept Statement

Once you have settled on each of these individual elements, put them together to form your High Concept as a complete thought. Your High Concept will act as a touchstone while you write, helping you maintain a consistent tone, direction, and motivation.

The High Concept for Roc is: humans have begun encroaching on the territory of a megafauna bird of prey, who lives on the heights of the heavily forested and isolated mountains of the mid-west United States; Saul Berm wants to capture or kill the Roc; Timothy Harris wants to alter its behavior or prevent further encroachment; the Roc will continue to hunt and kill people and large game animals for food and self-defense as long as they are in it's territory; the story is primarily a modern-day adventure, with strong elements of cast-elimination horror but without an overt supernatural element.

Your High Concept is the foundation of your story. Think long and hard about it, and let's get scribblin'!