Novel Concept

amnielsenauthor

Sep 10

3 min read

An open novel: A well-drafted work takes time and effort.

Definition:

The novel concept is a foundational idea that guides the narrative and a blueprint that shapes your plot, characters, setting, and themes before you begin writing.

A well-defined concept:

Prevents plot holes and inconsistent character development
Keeps the writer focused and confident
Helps ensure reader interest and emotional investment
Serves as a roadmap for revisions and expansions

Ingredients of Concept:

Genre
Protagonist
Opposition/Antagonist
Setting

The formula: “In a mystery [genre] set in modern Los Angeles [setting], a female bomb squad technician [protagonist] pursues a mad bomber [antagonist] who killed her partner.”

Apply the question “What if?” to every aspect of the concept. Make it interesting, distinct, and unique. What if…genre? What if…protagonist? What if…opposition? What if…setting?

What if you write in the contemporary romance genre? What if your character struggles with gender identity and has no interest in romance? The genre has been twisted. It’s not what a romance reader expects.

What if you write about a character, a man who is a mathematician but leads another life? By day, he is a highly ordered, by-the-book atheist researcher and professor. Off campus in the evenings and on weekends, he is a transvestite woman, dressing as Little Bo Peep, speaking with a Tennessee drawl, and quoting the Bible as his alter ego.

What if the opponent is the protagonist’s doll-like, gorgeous sister? He envies her. She is everything he should have been. Near the end of the novel, readers learn that the protagonist is an only child, and the fictitious sibling embodies what he believed he needed to be to earn his single mother’s love and approval.

What if the novel is set in contemporary New York City, but your protagonist believes he’s a buxom, square-dancing, farm-country belle with lots of makeup and big hair? Throughout his youth, his mother chose to attend cheerleading competitions and beauty pageants, missing his science fairs and orchestral performances. Lonely, a nerdy introvert desperate for companionship, he denies his true self and lives in his mother’s image, which feels right.

All these “What if” examples twist a single element of the concept. Now, what if you develop a contemporary romance novel set in New York City about a mathematician who sees himself as a Little Bo Peep on the weekends, competes with his imaginary belle of a sister, strives to earn his Miss Tennessee mother’s love (she just died), and is transformed by a female therapist he meets on the subway, who teaches him to be his true self rather than the self he believes he must be to earn somebody’s—anybody’s—love?

A high-concept story draws an audience by promising an emotional, compelling experience. Would you buy a book about a nerdy mathematician who falls in love with a therapist, or one about a nerdy mathematician/transvestite with identity issues who argues with an imaginary beauty-queen sister, craves loving attention, and goes about it all wrong?

Here are some examples:

- In The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Katniss enters a deadly game that forces children to kill one another to save her younger sister’s life. Shocking. Compelling. High stakes.

- In My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult, a girl named Anna is conceived by her parents to serve as a bone marrow donor for her older sister, Katie, who suffers from leukemia. Interesting. Heart-wrenching. Emotionally evocative.

- In “Bo Peep No More” by Anonymous, a mathematician named Andrew Riordan becomes Little Bo Peep on the weekends to attract positive attention, only to discover that Andrew Riordan is far more attractive. Shocking. Compelling. Outrageous. Emotionally evocative. Heart-wrenching. An interesting dilemma.

Adding a kicker can elevate the story’s concept from ordinary to extraordinary.

For example, in My Sister’s Keeper, what if Anna hires a lawyer and insists that, because it’s her body, tissue donation is her decision? What if she wins? What if this creates a rift between Anna and her parents? What if this changes the dynamics between Anna and Katie?

Your central idea/concept with kicker must be…