The Proven Formula That Makes a Story Irresistible

what made all of these wildly popular books so successful it's not the genre not the writing not even the author in the publishing industry this Secret Sauce is known as a high concept premise but what does high concept mean and how can you make your book High concept I'm going to walk through what sets a high concept book apart from the rest and give you a framework to craft a high concept Prem that makes your book sell itself make sure you stick all the way through to the end so you don't miss out on your

next great story idea first let's talk definitions what is a high concept book these stories have an attention grabbing premise that can be summarized succinctly in a single sentence because the plot is so easy to grasp these books essentially pitch themselves and immediately make someone want to pick it up high concept books tend to to have a broad appeal and a large potential audience which is what makes them so attractive to literary agents and Publishers who of course want to sell the most books they possibly can there's a common misconception that high concept books tend

to focus more on action-driven stories or plot driven stories that don't have as much character development this is not necessarily true and there are many examples of high concept novels that also feature strong character develop elment now there are certain genres that might lend themselves more naturally to a high concept premise such as Thrillers or sci-fi but you can have a high concept book across any genre at the same time also know that it is not essential for you to have a quote unquote High concept book to get traditionally published literary fiction for example tends

to be a genre that is quieter on plot and more focused on thoughtful Pros these novels may or may not have a high concept premise but but can still be executed in such a way that makes them extremely successful stories you will see the term High concept listed in many literary agents and editors manuscript wish lists but know that even if your book is high concept the pitch alone is not enough to sell it it also has to be executed extremely well let's go through a few examples of high concept books that also have a

very high level of execution that allowed them to reach bestseller status the basic plot of all of these books can be described succinctly in a single sentence which is what signals that they are high concept first the silent patient by Alex mades a woman brutally murders her husband but refuses to talk another example is the Martian by Andy Weir where a stranded astronaut must use his Ingenuity and survival skills to survive on Mars while ating rescue another example would be the handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood where the United States becomes a totalitarian Society amid a

fertility crisis and women are forced into sexual servitude just because each of these books has a high concept premise doesn't mean they aren't meaty in terms of the themes that they explore for instance the handmaid's Tale in particular explores a lot of issues related to gender patriarchy power and control politics and religion note too that these examples come from different genres including suspense sci-fi and speculative fiction though you will find high concept plots in genres other than these so now that we know what a high concept book is how do you come up with a

high concept story idea or how can you tell if the book you've already written is high concept before we get into all of that if you're liking this video so far give me a thumbs up it really helps out my channel and if you haven't yet subscribed hit that subscribe button to join our amazing community of authors every week in addition to writing tips I also offer deep dives into the publishing industry from my experiences as a developmental book editor now let's walk through four proven techniques to craft a high concept premise number one is

to re-imagine a familiar Trope many high concept books take a familiar storyline or Trope that readers are already familiar with in our literary canon and twist it or turn it on its head in some way this strategy works so well because we will immediately already understand the foundation of the type of story you're telling and be excited for the fresh spin you are going to take with it this makes it at once familiar but also completely original for example for a classic Western set in space look at Star Wars for Pride and Prejudice but with

zombies look at Pride and Prejudice and Zombies you can immediately conceptualize what this story will be and how it will play on those familiar storylines the next approach to craft a high concept premise is to ask what if try asking big bold questions that challenge the reality we find ourselves in these will immediately create create a sense of intrigue for the reader to want to see how that might play out in your story these questions could be super Broad and far-reaching or they could be super specific narrowing in on a human experience that few people

have or know about for instance what if dinosaurs existed in the modern world that's Jurassic Park what if you could travel back in time and prevent the JFK assassination that's 112263 by Stephen King what if two teenagers with cancer fell in love that's the Fault in Our Stars these questions are guaranteed to make your story immediately intriguing the third way to craft a high concept premise is to create an unexpected mashup High concept books can often be described in the X meets y formula where you put together two unexpected and wildly different stories here's a

fun exercise you can use to come up with some high concept story ideas make a list of some of your favorite stories whether they're novels or TV shows or movies ideally they would be in different genres then write down what you love most from each of those titles for instance that could be the setting the characters or a specific part of the plot now try mixing and matching those different elements what if you took the characters from title A and put them in the setting of title B here are some examples of the X meets

y premise in action the novel before I fall could be described as Groundhog Day meets Mean Girls and the novel Cinder could be described as Cinderella meets the Terminator you would never think initially of those titles going together but then once you put them together in your mind you immediately have a sense of what that story is remember that the titles you use don't have to fall into the perfect criteria for a comp title which we often talk about in query letters they don't necessarily have to be in the genre you're writing in or the

format you're writing in they don't even need to have been published in the past 5 years like comp titles should the idea is for these titles to help the agent reader or publisher immediately conceptualize the story you have crafted the final technique for crafting a high concept premise is to experiment with structure employing a unique narrative structure or method of Storytelling can take what feels like a normal plot and instantly make it high concept the unique structure on the page is what makes this book stand out from others in the genre for example Daisy Jones

and the six takes a unique interview structure that makes the story feel like a documentary and the novel sad is a mystery told in the format of a podcast transcript now that you know the secret sauce to making an agent reader or publisher immediately want to pick up your book drop me a comment letting me know your high concept pitch for your book as I said before though a pitch alone will not sell your book so if you're in the process of developing your novel I have a free resource for you waiting in the description

below it's story self assessment worksheet it's a quiz I designed to help you understand what's working well in your current draft and how you can improve it and take it to the next level downloading that is going to opt you into my free newsletter chapter break where I'm dishing out interviews with literary agents and bestselling novelists they're giving amazing tips I don't want you to miss out on the link to check out chapter break is also in the description before you head out if you like this video give me a thumbs up to let me

know and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on my next one thanks so much for watching and happy writing [Music]