Today, J. Mark Bertrand, an amazing writer who just landed an agent for his first novel, had a post on writing vs. story. It's excellent. Here's an excerpt:
There is in our commercial age an understandable emphasis on ideas -- on "high concept." I accept this. But what does a high concept actually enhance? Not so much the story as the blurb. The movie I was watching got onto my list because the blurb sounded good. It had a clear, compelling concept. But that didn't help the actual story much. Because it isn't what you're writing about, it's how you're writing about it.
You can find the whole post here.
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All right. Enough with the down-in-the dumps posts. I realized that I had way too many of them in the past few weeks and I am bumming myself...
Melissa, Can you check those trackback links? The one to J. Mark Bertrand's site works, but the next two don't, so I can't find this post and it sounds good. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info. (And he's not hard on the eyes either, is he?)
ReplyDeleteSorry about that, Lisa! 'Tis fixed now.
ReplyDeleteAngie - I agree! He's quite handsome. I used to love men in beards. *grin*
ReplyDeleteI was just having a "high concept" discussion on a web board. So many high concept books hook me by the blurb, but fall short. No more, unless Amazon reviews back it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting that. I have to agree with what he said too.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to go read that post--what he's saying sounds a lot like something I'd say.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
SW - Exactly. I think it's the same for movies, too. A lot of high concept ideas just don't follow through with their promise.
ReplyDeleteDebs - You're welcome!
Therese - I think he said it very well, better than I could have. :-)