Pitching high concept fiction can be the key to skyrocketing to the top of agents’ slush piles, according to Angie Hodapp of Nelson Literary Agency. But what is (and isn’t) high concept, and how do you go about pitching your high concept idea?
I had the pleasure of attending the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference a couple of weeks ago. Alongside old friends of WD like James Scott Bell (Don’t miss him at our Novel Writing Conference in California next month!) and authors I personally admire (A two-hour world-building workshop with Christopher Paolini? Be still my heart!) were dozens of literary agents, authors and editors who presented in-depth and engaging talks on everything you need to know about writing and publishing fiction.
One session that attracted me with particular magnetism—and then delivered magnificently—addressed “high concept” ideas and pitches, presented by Nelson Literary Agency’s Angie Hodapp (@angiehodapp on Twitter). Here are a few of the things she covered.
What Is (and Isn’t) High Concept Fiction, and How Do You Pitch It?
If you remember nothing else, remember this: “High concept is all about premise.”
Generally, we think of high concept as a Hollywood term, but high concept novels (and queries) tend to rise to the top of agents’ slush piles because they offer something broadly applicable but totally new, or a totally new spin on a familiar model.
Here’s a breakdown of the contents of your average agent’s slush pile, according to Angie:
- 85% of queries are quiet, derivative (e.g., generic vampire story) or blandly situational (e.g., watch someone deal with a divorce)
- 10% of queries are “whackadoodle” (so outside the norm that you can’t even begin to imagine how to make it work)
- 5% of queries are “I must read more” (offering something completely new or a completely new take on something—this is where high concept lives for the most part)
“High concept is not required to get published.”
Literary fiction, for example, is generally not high concept. It is about artful prose or experimentation with structure and typically tends to be internal, experimental and introspective.
Genre fiction doesn’t have to be high concept either. There you’ll find many audiences with a certain itch and genre-specific expectations that must be fulfilled—and that’s about all you need to get a piece of genre fiction published. Think, for example, of the popularity of superhero movies over the last decade: The audience for that type of film is usually looking for a certain tone, type of character arc, etc. There are exceptions, of course, that are high concept, and they often have the power to open up new routes and tropes within the genre. (E.g., Watchmen first defied genre as a graphic novel when it came out.) But you’ll find a lot more formula there than not. But…
“High concept does exist in every genre.”
Because it’s all about premise. But more importantly…
“High concept is about mass commercial appeal and wide audience potential.”
To qualify as high concept fiction, your story should have the potential to:
- capture many sectors
- be a hard-cover release (from a publisher’s perspective)
- have series potential
- have crossover potential (which gives it the opportunity for placement in bookstores on a center display)
- display general human appeal (vs. genre-specific formula-based appeal)
“High concept is built around a unique what-if premise that can be pitched in one to three sentences.”
BUT not all stories that can be pitched in one to three sentences are high concept. The distinction is easiest to explain through examples of high concept pitches.
How to Generate High Concept Ideas—and Pitch Them
Remember when I said earlier than most high concept queries are in that 5% “I must read more” portion of the slush pile? In order to write high concept fiction, Angie recommends two strategies for getting started:
- Think of something recognizable and twist it.
- Embrace your comp titles and core tropes.
These are really two aspects of the same step. According to Angie (and to Paula Munier, who has said much the same thing at the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference and in her webinars and courses), the best way to get an agent to understand why your high concept idea is new and where it fits in the market is to explain it in relation to comp titles and core tropes:
- “It’s a buddy cop story but with _________.”
- “It’s Breaking Bad meets Outlander.”
- “It’s a teen girl’s first romance story but with _________.”
- “It’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off meets Firefly.” (This tells us that it’s funny but probably has serious themes, and probably takes place in space.)
HOWEVER, not every twist makes a story high concept.
For example, this is not high concept: “It’s Cyrano De Bergerac with a gender swap.”
Why isn’t it high concept? For a story to be high concept…
“Whatever element you twist has to impact the plot, not the characters or the setting.”
To impact the plot, you must return to that what-if question—the premise (remember?)—and add characters.
Angie had a whole host of full pitches—you’ll have to ask her for more of them—but here’s a paraphrased version one she shared.
Filmed in a mockumentary style, this comedy film features a group of vampires from varying ages who room together. When a visitor they had intended to eat is unexpectedly turned into a vampire, the group struggles to adapt to the norms of modern life while the new vampire struggles to fit in.
If you haven’t seen What We Do in the Shadows, it’s an excellent film, and its twist on both vampire and mockumentary genres with comedy and friendship make it a powerful high concept idea.
Why should you write high concept fiction?
As I mentioned earlier, most high concept fiction is found in that final 5% of the slush pile. Not everything in that segment is high concept, but the ideas that aren’t high concept have something strikingly groundbreaking and genre-defying about them, usually execution-based: Think 2001: A Space Odyssey, Pulp Fiction, Sliding Doors—movies that were something totally new when they arrived. One example from literature is House of Leaves, where the found-document, interactive shape of the book defines what it is. These typically don’t “work” more than once without seeming derivative or overly echoic.
If you can do something this groundbreaking, Angie says, that’s great. Otherwise, aim for high concept to get the attention of literary agents.
So there’s your crash course in writing and pitching high concept fiction, courtesy of Angie Hodapp of Nelson Literary Agency.
Is your novel or story idea high concept? If so, share your high concept pitch in the comments below—we’d love to hear it.
Coming Soon: Plot Perfect Online Boot Camp
Whether you’re writing a novel, short story, memoir, stage play, or screenplay, this boot camp will show you how to craft a great narrative scene-by-scene. It’s a hands-on event that provides personalized feedback on your story structure and plot. The agents of Talcott Notch Literary Services share the secrets of creating a story structure that works—no matter what your genre—in this entertaining and informative online event. Learn more and register.
The post What Is (and Isn’t) High Concept Fiction, and How Do You Pitch It? appeared first on WritersDigest.com.
from Writing Editor Blogs – WritersDigest.com
http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/writing-fiction-online-editor/what-is-and-isnt-high-concept-fiction-and-how-do-you-pitch-it
No comments:
Post a Comment