Concepts

CONCEPTS

This week, I want to talk a little about ideas... the premise upon which a story is built. When it comes to writing contest entries on WDC, the concept is many times already selected in the form of a prompt. When a writing activity challenges you to "write a story about a hitman who falls in love with his or her mark", or to "set an erotic encounter against the backdrop of a rock concert," your concept has already been decided for you, and all that's left is execution. (Is that all? ) But what happens when you don't have a prompt to tell you what to write? A concept can make or break a story, particularly when it comes to trying to get your work published... because concept is what you have to convey to a publisher to get them interested in reading your manuscript. Without a strong, appealing concept to attract an audience, it doesn't matter how well written the work may be.

So how does one come up with a good concept? More accurately, where does one find a good concept? There are two places from which concepts can be drawn: situations and characters.

SITUATIONAL CONCEPTS: Situational concepts are those that, as the name implies, come from an external situation. In Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl the bad pirates are looking for the last piece of Aztec gold that will help them lift their curse. Elizabeth Swan just happens to have it. In Lord of the Rings, Frodo must destroy the One Ring before Sauron finds it and uses it. In Jurassic Park people go to visit the island and become trapped when the dinosaurs get loose. Each of these concepts relies on an external situation or conflict to create the premise for the story that follows.

CHARACTER CONCEPTS: Character-based concepts are those that stem from an internal character quality, flaw, or need. In Up, Carl's feelings of letting Ellie down, combined with the risk of losing his house, compel him to fill all those balloons and take off for Paradise Falls. In Twilight, the human Bella and the vampire Edward fall hopelessly in love despite one of them being the ideal food for the other. In A Beautiful Mind, John Nash balances precariously on the line between genius and schizophrenia. Each of these stories has a concept that comes out of an internal conflict that the protagonist experiences, and thereby drives the story.

When it comes to writing a story, most people come up with their ideas using one of the two methods above. They either think, "what if this [situation] happens?" or "what would this [character] do?"

Now that we've talked about types of concepts, let's talk about what makes a good concept. Because regardless of where it comes from, it needs to be compelling... which means that it needs to have two key elements in order to work. It has to be familiar, and it has to be unique. I know that may seem contradictory, but let's break it down into the two components. A concept has to be familiar because audiences need to be able to identify the elements that are understandable to them. Character motivations, location, setup, etc. have to be somewhat rooted in reality, so that a connection to the audience can be built. Even in genres that push the limits of reality (sci-fi, horror, etc.), there are key elements - like characters and themes - that are firmly based in our world, which is what allows us to understand the story. Star Wars would be confusing and completely bizarre if there weren't underlying themes of good versus evil, rebelling against oppression, etc.

At the same time, your concept has to be unique in some way. It needs to be something that the reader hasn't seen before, or the reader is going to become bored. Star Wars was the familiar story, as mentioned above, about good versus evil, rebelling against oppression, etc. But it wasn't a story about Nazis or Roman soldiers or the serfs in feudal Europe. Instead, it was about a small Rebellion rising up against a Galactic Empire being led by evil rulers who control a mystical Force. There are spacecraft, lightsabers, and alien races galore. It took that familiar story and put a unique twist on it. If it had just been another story about the serfs rising up in feudal Europe, a reader is likely to say, "Yeah, so what? How is this different from any other movie or story I've seen about serfs rising up against their oppressors?"

So all you have to do to come up with a good concept is to think of something that's been done before, but hasn't. The next time you're thinking about writing a story, push yourself to create that familiar originality... push yourself to start writing in the best possible way; with a concept that's going to captivate your reader and make them see the world in a whole new way.