A few years ago Susie and I were writing books with very high concept premises. Or is it premii?

She was writing RITA finalist My Foolish Heart. I was writing Dining with Joy. The former was about a radio host for the lovelorn who’d never been on a date. The latter about a cooking show host who couldn’t cook.

Great ideas. Great pitch lines. Easy to see and understand. But when we were writing, the premise itself became paralyzing. We dubbed those books the ones with the paralyzing premise. High concept is great. Almost necessary in today’s publishing world. But writing them can be a challenge because you’ll always wonder, “Am I capturing the premise well?”

In Dining with Joy, not only did I have to explain how and why she was a cooking show host who didn’t cook, but I had to capture the elements of “dining with joy” and the impact of food on the human body, heart and mind. Most people laughed when I gave them my premise. So, it had to be funny.

I found myself bending the characters and the concept every which way in order to “get” what I was trying to do. And it was… trying!

Same with Susie in My Foolish Heart. She had to fit the characters into her premise. This can also happen if an author is retelling a fairytale or a great play. Maybe a movie or Biblical story like Francine Rivers in Redeeming Love. Though you have a great premise, the characters HAVE to be the story tellers.

In my current WIP about a prince who falls for an American girl, I’m more or less telling the Cinderella story. But without the ugly and evil step mother and sisters. Without my heroine being oppressed and put upon.

I realized I can’t write that kind of heroine well. So if Cinderella had been my premise, I’d be all kinds of twisted and stretched to retell that story.

Instead, I let my hero and heroine tell the story and weave in fairytale aspects as I can. I keep with the very high concept of Cinderella – a working girl captures the heart of the prince. But the rest of the story is all  mine.

If you’re writing with a high or classic premise, you still have to do ALL the character and back story work to create “living and breathing” characters that pop on the page and TELL the story. In other words, your premise cannot do the work for you. Premise don’t tell stories. Characters do.

So, here are a few tips.

1. Do all your character back story work. I highly recommend the Book Buddy for this exercise.
2. Keep the premise as a guiding light but let the characters tell the story. Let them change the story even.
3. If you’re retelling a classic, keep the main concepts but let the rest be fluid. For example, if I’m retelling Cinderella, I keep working girl, nothing going right for her, invited to “meet the prince,” some supernatural provision and a happily ever after. The rest is mine to change and create, make unique.
4. There might be legitimate premise points you need the character to make. Good! Make sure the motivation is there. If you’re retelling Romeo and Juliet, Juliet must proclaim WHY she loves Romeo. We must see them fall in love.
5. Understand the reader may not perceive your awesome high concept or understand your fab retelling of a classic story. So make your book about your characters. Let them tell the reader the classic or high concept inspiration. Let it come from their own lips.

Rachel Hauck is the best-selling, award winning author of over 15 novels. Her latest, The Wedding Dress appears in bookstores in April. Rachel serves My Book Therapy as the lead MBT Therapist and excels in assisting aspiring authors to find their story and voice via her one-on-one book coaching.