Big Ideas are so effective that they sell to publishers even when the writing itself is weak.  Before I buy books, I flip to the middle and check out the quality.  Sometimes a great idea comes with great writing, but too often I can't believe the manuscript got past a beta reader let alone an editor–until I read the back and the concept grabs me.  I'll even read through a book I don't like just because the idea is so damn cool!  Not that that's an excuse for poor writing, but it illustrates how valuable the Big Idea can be.

 

Ideally, a single sentence includes all you need:  personality, a problem, unique detail, and stakes.  

 

Jurassic Park:  An eccentric billionaire's amusement park collapses when its' genetically recreated dinosaurs escape.

 

Arthur C Clark's  “The Nine Billion Names of God:”   two programmers are hired by Tibetan monks to write software that will list all the possible names of God.

 

"Confessions of a Demon-hunting Soccermom" - the title itself is the pitch.  Combine the sale history of something like Buffy (demon hunting cheerleader) with another unusual hunter–the suburban mom.  

 

It's taken me far longer than I want to admit to sift my novel into a concept and I won't be sure I've really got it until I start getting responses to my query.  I had to delete and re-think the pitch hundreds of times…the novel didn't change, my thought process did.  

 

I started out by trying to condense my novel into two paragraphs but what I needed to do was tap into the essence of the overarching conflict and let the rest speak for itself when it's time.  I didn't even realize what I had until my coworker asked about the novel and the first sentence of my query fell out of my mouth ;)   When asked, I've always struggled to explain the story chronologically, making sure to hit all the cool parts but that just gets confusing.  But us long-winded authors don't  want to leave anything out!  

 

I need a "less is more" tattoo ;)

 

Rather than being intimidated by the need for a high concept, I'm enjoying it.  Once I've got the concept down, it keeps me focused and energized as I work.  I'm giddy with several particular secrets ;)