High concept is a term that gives me an instant headache. I’ve read several articles about it and am still trying to pinpoint what makes a story “high concept”. I’m wondering if it’s subjective. This article uses examples that I didn’t think fit the definition of high concept.

So why am I trying to understand it? Because I have a project I’d really like to write that I was told wasn’t high concept, lacked a hook. If I can figure out a way to develop the story so that it has a strong hook and/or high concept, maybe this book will fly in the future. Also, if all editors are really looking for hooks and/or high concept stories it kind of makes sense for my writing future to get a handle on what this means and how to apply it.

As much as the topic gives me a raging headache, I actually understand the reasoning behind it. Go into a bookstore and just look at the sheer number of books, even in a small store. If my little book is going to have a shot at succeeding, it has to stand out in some way. And it starts with being something that’s easy to sell to the publisher’s marketing department and to booksellers. If booksellers have five hundred titles in a given genre already, why should they carry mine, too? What special quality does my story offer that nobody else’s does?

Voice, of course, but that only helps if you’ve reached the point that people will buy based on author name alone, knowing they’ll enjoy the voice, the way that author tells a story. In the meantime, what about this book makes it sound interesting to people? “Two people fall in love and live happily ever after” is, um, not enough. So while everybody else is off at RWA, I’ll be trying to wrap my head around high concept. I think it’s gonna take a lot of chocolate.

Good grief, it’s been hot here. I need to write something set in the middle of winter. Snow everywhere. Icicles. Frosty windows.

I’m more than halfway through reading The Red Heart of Jade. Oh, this is the best Dirk & Steele book yet! Wonderful story. And it has dragons. Really, what’s not to love?

I should be blogging something useful, like talking about organization for writers or something, but it’s too hot. I’ll see what I can come up with for tomorrow.

There’s a new intereview with me up on Gotta Write Network if anybody’s interested!

This seems to have been The Week Of The Synopsis. I wrote 3 of them. Well, rewrote one, but still. This is your synapses on synopses. (I think that’s the plural of synopsis…) I’ll be on the couch reading somebody else’s book…

My summer reading list is longer than my arm. Reading feeds the muse, though, and I’m working the muse hard so bring on the books, I say! I picked up Until The Knight Comes and The Red Heart of Jade yesterday. Then we got the email from B&N this morning about their summer clearance sale, and, well, a few more books are en route…all those bargains! And if we bought a couple more books, free shipping. You know how it is. Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down was actually in the sale and so that’s part of the package coming from B&N.

There are lots and lots of ebooks on my list, but I’ve been writing a chapter a day and I’m starting to feel it in my hands and eyes, so I’m avoiding reading onscreen for a bit. I will probably have a nice ebook binge in a couple of weeks.

is approved! Since it’s not going to be out until Jan. 08 I don’t want to say too much about it yet, but I think it’s the perfect follow up to Wild Wild West.

Let’s hope the agent and editor feel the same.

Next up, finishing Samhain stories. I’m very excited about the upcoming Samhain anthology, and I am loving my Siren series over there. Once I clear the decks here I will figure out what Siren book is next. I think if it’s not Dane I’ll be lynched so I’ll need to pull up the pages I’ve got on him and cogitate. When we left him at the end of The Gripping Beast, he’d been given the task of getting rid of the armbands, but that’s not so easy…

Yesterday I minded the small people all day so the husband could catch up on his workload, technically a day off after turning in Wild Wild West. (Normally we split child time and work time, since we both work from home.)

But then I thought, I should really see how far along I am on sample chapters for the proposal for SMP book #2. And talk through the storyline to make sure I’m ready to write the synopsis. (The husband thought it sounded like a great book; good to have somebody to talk a plot through to.) Then do the math on chapter length and total ms. length and figure out what needs to be in the first two chapters.

The end result is that after my “day off”, I have the synopsis done and I’m about halfway through the sample chapters. (I got all productive during nap time and after kids went to bed.)

After I finish that proposal, I have two stories to turn into Samhain. Maybe I should take another day off and see how far I get on those goals!

All joking aside, I find that days off hurt me. I lose momentum. I lose focus. I try to avoid them for that reason. Not that I’m a workaholic, but I took several days off a couple of months ago and it took me most of a month to recover from that and get fully back up to speed, something I really can’t afford to repeat right now. The husband and I both seem to be alike in that time off has impact far beyond the days planned, and so we try to balance our work days so that instead of days off, we work some every day, with time to do other things, too.

I honestly think it’s a more natural work/life style than working 9-5 with weekends off. Work a few hours, play a few hours. Every day. It works for us, anyway.