Crush the Slush Pile with a High-Concept Premise

Tradwife influencers glamorize farm life with their Little-House-On-the-Prairie dresses, chicken tending and sourdough starters.

But what if one of those influencers found themselves whisked back to the 1800s, leading a real tradwife existence in a drafty, broken-down farmhouse with no phone to post charming photos?

YESTERYEAR by Caro Claire Burke is an upcoming novel and getting great buzz, not just for its send-up of influencers, but also because it’s what’s known as a high-concept novel.

When you read the description, did a movie play in your head? Maybe you imagined the tradwife lamenting the loss of her oat milk latte or trying to wash clothes with lye soap, a scrubber, and a washboard. (You can see the real movie soon as film rights have been purchased.)

That’s the power of a high-concept premise. It’s a visual idea that most everyone understands, making it a breeze to pitch. If you enter “high concept” as a search term in Manuscript Wishlist, you’ll get forty-eight pages of results.

Not only does a high-concept pitch compel, but it also contains the elements needed for a well-crafted story. Let’s see how YESTERYEAR fits that bill:

An inciting incident that packs a wallop. (Being whisked back to 1800s)

Numerous built-in challenges. (Where’s my microwave? What do you mean I can’t vote?)

Stakes. (Am I stuck here forever?)

A character with an arc. (Likely the influencer, at the end of the story, will view the old-fashioned farm lifestyle through a different lens.

Most agents and editors welcome high concept novels but what are the best ways for writers to craft them?

What’s your genre?

T. J. Newman, a flight attendant, used her down time to create what-if scenarios for a novel and at one point, hit on a high-concept idea that eventually turned into her thriller debut, Falling.

What if a pilot's family was kidnapped 30 minutes before a flight to New York, and the pilot must choose between saving his family or his passengers?

Certain genres lend themselves to high concept ideas and thrillers are one of them. Sci-fi, horror, and action adventure are others But high concept premises can be found in every genre, including women’s fiction and romance.

Author Rebecca Serles specializes in high-concept stories like her latest, Expiration Dates, which is about a woman whom, every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it—the exact amount of time they will be together.

If a high-concept premise is particularly compelling, it can attract readers outside the genre. For instance, Hunger Games is a young adult novel but because the premise was so arresting, many adults crossed over to read it.

Life events

Major life events have inspired many high-concept novels, and death, in particular. has been the basis of dozens of premises. What would it be like if you reunited with someone who died? That’s the premise of Jason Mott’s The Returned. You might also wonder what might happen if you didn’t die and never aged like the main character in The Age of Adaline.

Death is shrouded in mystery and Lovely Bones attempts to answer the question of what happens when you die. No one typically knows when death is near except for the characters in The Measure and The Immortalists.
What would you do if you had a child who claimed he had died young in another life and now he wants to go back to it? The Forgetting Time by Sharon Gushkin addresses that question.

Motherhood, another big life event, has sprung plenty of high-concept novels, everything from The Push to Night Bitch to All the Other Mothers Hate Me.

When brainstorming concepts around life events like coming-of-age, weddings, funerals, first job or more, imagine what elements might make a life event much worse or much better?

Catastrophizing

If you’re a hand-wringer, why not bring that into your fiction? Karen Thompson Walker wrote The Age of Miracles about an eleven-year-old girl and her family who discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow, setting off all kinds of unpleasantness that will eventually doom the planet.

A look at any newspaper can give you so much disturbing material to inspire fiction. AI concerns? Annie Bot is about a robot that outgrows her owner. Climate change? The End of the Ocean imagines a worldwide drought. Pandemics? How We Go High in the Dark is about a melting glacier that releases a plague.

If only it were so

But high-concept novels aren’t just about darkness. They can also revolve around wish fulfilment. What if you could go back to your youth with the knowledge you have now? That’s the concept of Natalie Messier's upcoming EVERY VERSION OF YOU, in which a Los Angeles lawyer gets a second chance at life and love when she dies and is offered the chance to start over at 18 again—with all the knowledge from her first life.

Or what if women developed special powers that resulted in them being the dominant gender? (The Power by Naomi Alderman.)

What if you could use a remote to fast forward through difficult parts of your life? (Click).

Engaging emotions

You can also tap into your emotional experiences. Anger, in particular, often fuels fiction ideas. After watching Blasey Ford testify about Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual assault, Kelly Barnhill wrote When Women Were Dragons about 1950s housewives who turn into dragons and eat anyone who’s wronged them in the past.

Revenge can be expressed in high-concept fiction. Woe to the peers who gave Stephen King’s Carrie a rough time, and Jennifer Weiner’s novel Good in Bed is based on a boyfriend who did her wrong.

Fish out of water

What character would flounder most in a beauty pageant? How about a tom-boyish FBI agent? (Miss Congeniality).

Who would most be out of place at a convent? A foul-mouthed mob moll (Sister Act).

What about an Amish community? A brash city slicker cop. (Witness).

You can see where I’m going here. When brainstorming high-concept premises sometimes it pays to begin with fun settings or situations and ask, “Who would struggle most in this setting?”

Going deep

Burning questions about life can sometimes be answered through a high-concept premise. The Midnight Library answered one character’s question about what it’s like to sample various life choices. Other questions include what is the purpose of life? (The Alchemist) Is it possible we’re living in a simulation? (The Matrix)

What about moral dilemmas? My Sister’s Keeper asked the question, how far are you supposed to go for family members. The Chain has parents putting other children in jeopardy to save their own.

BLANK but with BLANK…

Sometimes you can lean on existing source material to brainstorm high-concept premise. Examples: Pride and Prejudice but with zombies. Jaws on a spaceship (Aliens.) Cinderella but with a cyborg in a dystopian world (Cinder). Retelling of the The Wizard of Oz from the witch’s POV. (Wicked)

Here’s a recent deal that borrowed from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:

THE GOOD PARTS… following a woman who undergoes an irreversible memory-erasing procedure, and the man she once loved who reenters her life as a stranger, determined to make her fall for him all over again—but at a cost,

Change one element

The Invention of Lying is about a world where no one lies. Yesterday imagines a world where the Beatles didn’t exist except for one person. The Uncoupling is about a town where all the women stop having sex.

Look around you. What if all the sudden one element of your town, country or family was changed? What are the possible repercussions?

Unexpected protagonist

Can a miserable octopus held captive in aquarium be a protagonist in a novel? What about a five-year old child or a dog? If you’re familiar with Remarkably Bright Creatures, Room and The Art of Racing in the Rain, you know the answer is yes.

A fresh world view can elevate a novel into high-concept territory. In The Art of Racing in the Rain, we can imagine how a dog views long absences, aging, his owner’s love life and more.

Pay attention

One of the most useful things you can do is be alert to great ideas for movies or books and study what makes them interesting. Keep a notebook handy while scrolling Netflix. Scan your bookshelf and make a list of your favorite premises.

Caveats:

It’s important to remember that, while a high-concept premise will usually draw people in, it’s secondary to a well-told tale. The film Downsizing had a fun and thoughtful premise: It’s about people who voluntarily shrink themselves in order to use less resources. Ultimately, the execution was flawed and great premises can’t rescue a poorly conceived story.

On the other hand, sometimes a high-concept premise can deliver an unexpectedly satisfying tales A Barbie doll who becomes philosophical and ventures into the grit of a city could have been the world’s flimsiest tale, but instead Barbie delivered on theme, authentic characters, and emotional resonance.

When you get a high-concept idea, it’s tempting to rush to your computer, but it’s probably best to let the idea marinate and deepen for a while. Either the idea will fizzle out or you will discover satisfying nuances and layers that will elevate the execution.

Also, nothing beats a personal connection to an idea. Caro Claire Burke didn’t get the idea for her tradwife novel out of the blue; she’s been writing about them for a long time. When brainstorming high concept ideas, your own life is the best place to start.

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Do you have a strong story idea? Six questions you need to ask yourself.

If you need help with queries, manuscript evaluation and other services, here’s what I offer. I have one remaining query letter review at $50 for next week. (Usually $70) Otherwise, I’m booked for services until sometime in late July, I’ll announce openings in upcoming newsletters.

THIS WEEK IN PITCHING

Where I analyze recent deals from Publisher Marketplace.

Elsie Chapman's THE HIDDEN ELEMENT, a caper about a reformed art thief who left her criminal past behind when she got pregnant, except for the one figure from her past who blackmails her into the occasional heist—until she's faced with an opportunity that would allow her to get rid of her blackmailer once and for all, if she can successfully navigate the ultimate deception alongside her new world of sleepovers and parent-teacher conferences.

The collision of two worlds, suburban mom and art thief, makes this novel deliciously high-concept. The title could be stronger, giving us a hint of tone. (Funny, scary? I’m guessing funny since it’s a caper.)

Also, the pitch could use some tweaks. This is the usual order of a pitch:

A flawed character whose ordinary world is disrupted, faces obstacles that threaten her way of life, prompting her to take action to prevail.

The ordinary world of sleepovers and parent-teacher conferences should be upfront to make this stronger and read more like a story. Here’s my fix:

REVISED:

A reformed art thief starts a family and is happily ensconced in the world of sleepovers and parent-teacher conferences ,when a figure from her past blackmails her into engaging in occasional heists, threatening her way of life, which sends her on a risky quest to get rid of her tormentor once and for all.

Best title

THE DISGRUNTLED BLACK LADIES BOOK CLUB, a contemporary women's “book club” novel about three women, each facing different life problems, who lean on each other, their book group, and the power of literature to stand up to the injustices and indignities they face daily.

I like titles that communicate a clear message to the reader. The pitch is a little general, but it’s tough writing one for three protagonists. I might add some specifics about the injustices and indignities they face, and I’d also indicate their ages.

NEW YOU CAN USE

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