Is Your Story High or Low Concept?
All stories are developed from an idea. In one way or another, they’re shaped from anything you draw inspiration from, from snippets of interesting conversation you’ve heard while sitting in a café, or a particular piece of art that captures your attention, or a character you’ve come up with that you just adore so much you just want a story with them in it. You may have a few general concepts in mind, but perhaps it’s not a story quite yet. In fact, you may not even have a premise.
So how do you know whether your story idea is low concept or high concept?
First, let’s go over the two different types more in-depth…
Low-Concepts:
Low concepts are simple at first glance and tend to be broad and vague. They are mainly character-driven, usually centered around self-discovery, coming-of-age, or a relationship. They tell us of what the story is at its core — what it’s generally about and what to expect from it. It can be anything, from a widow learning to love again, or a girl beginning her first day of school, a detective solving a mystery. Because of its generic-ness, they can be easily identifiable and familiar to an audience.
However, this doesn’t give us the exact story — just the basic essence of one in the simplest of terms. There’s no conflict or antagonist, yet, nor a definable goal. Rather, there’s no plot. In fact, this kind of concept isn’t easily explainable, as it could take on so many directions in many different ways.
This doesn’t mean they can’t be interesting or that you shouldn’t write one. The main qualm with a low-concept is that they’re generally harder to pitch to agents or readers.
Here’s a few examples that are low-concept.
- Jane Eyre
- Pride and Prejudice (in fact, most romance novels are low-concept)
- Lady Bird
Low concepts are usually fine on their own — you don’t need a grand hook or plot-heavy events to make make the story you want to tell. But what if you want to make it more compelling? What if you have a concept with a unique twist, goal, or setting? This is where high-concepts come in...
High-Concepts:
On the other end, high concepts convey fresh, intriguing, or original ideas in just a few words or sentences. They can even put twists on original ideas, offering something completely revamped or unexpected (such as Titanic, taking a Romeo-and-Juliet love story onboard the famous ship).
High-concepts deliver a prime situation, conflict, and a character arc, all luring its audience in with a hook. There’s a differentiating factor that acts as an attention-grabber that makes it high-concept, allowing the audience to have an idea in their heads of what the genre is and how the story might go, while also leaving room for bigger questions to string them along and leave them wanting more.
Here’s some examples considered high-concept.
- Lord of the Rings
- The Maze Runner
- Mortal Engines
The main takeaway here is that the former is more focused on plot and a unique hook, and the latter has less of an emphasis on external events and more on character and emotion.
High-concepts can even be built off of low-concepts... or even work together in tandem. No matter which one you choose, both sides need at least some balance between internal and external — character and plot, I mean. Significant external events need to happen in a character-driven low-concept, and engaging characters with emotional changes and arcs are needed to experience the story through in a high-concept. (Whew, that’s kinda tough to explain. I’ve included a helpful link on this topic below, for clarity sake.)
Which one is right for you?
At the end of the day, what matters most is the kind of story you want to write. Are you more interested in stories with high-stakes, a realized villain/antagonist, and immersive settings, driven by a sequence of events? Or, are you more interested in cozy reads focused more on character and growth; something less action-packed or plot-heavy?
Don't let one kind of concept turn you off from the other. Both are valid ways of creating the foundation or heart of your story. Try looking at the stories you love, and try to identify which ones might be considered high concept or low concept. What is it about them that draws you in?
Happy writing!
Discover the world of high-concept and low-concept storytelling, and how knowing the difference can guide your reading choices based on your
