But I wrote ten more pages in the historical, taking them right up to a nasty confrontation. Today, I'm not doing so well, as you can see if the time feature on here works. Mid-morning, and I'm already procrastinating!
Friday, August 17, 2007
Sorry about missing yesterday! I usually do my blogging and e-mail in the afternoon after my morning creative blitz. Yesterday, I had a long dental appointment right after lunch, then had to stop and flip through catalogs at the plumbing supply, looking for fixtures that don't exist yet. By the time I got home, thunderstorms had moved in and I had to turn off the big computer. My laptop's built-in wireless died after contact with the hotel's broadband last time we traveled, and I keep hoping for a miraculous resurrection, but so far, it's not happened.
But I wrote ten more pages in the historical, taking them right up to a nasty confrontation. Today, I'm not doing so well, as you can see if the time feature on here works. Mid-morning, and I'm already procrastinating!
But I wrote ten more pages in the historical, taking them right up to a nasty confrontation. Today, I'm not doing so well, as you can see if the time feature on here works. Mid-morning, and I'm already procrastinating!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Research Headaches
With the contemporary proposals out the door, I returned to my historical draft and realized that I had left off in the middle of research of Somerset England and the area around Glastonbury in particular. I am not the most organized researcher in the world. I have all applicable books from my shelves stacked around my desk. I have maps from Google Earth saved. Occasionally I might bookmark relevant websites or copy tidbits from webpages. Once in a while I might even find them again. 
But in this case, there is no one good website or book on my shelves. I should have ordered some before I dropped everything and ran to play elsewhere. I’ve seen lots of lovely pictures, measured lots of maps, and have vaguely figured out how to get my characters up the coast to the area around Burnham-on-Sea. My characters are being stealthy, so they won’t pull into any port. I’m not about to figure out where on those mud flats they can safely disembark, so I’ll name no names. But figuring out how they’ll get from whereever they land to my imaginary estate near Glastonbury is yet a mystery.
Hours and hours of research to write what will most likely be a scene of two pages. I’m giving myself a headache. But the images I'm culling are lovely. Check some of them out.
But in this case, there is no one good website or book on my shelves. I should have ordered some before I dropped everything and ran to play elsewhere. I’ve seen lots of lovely pictures, measured lots of maps, and have vaguely figured out how to get my characters up the coast to the area around Burnham-on-Sea. My characters are being stealthy, so they won’t pull into any port. I’m not about to figure out where on those mud flats they can safely disembark, so I’ll name no names. But figuring out how they’ll get from whereever they land to my imaginary estate near Glastonbury is yet a mystery.
Hours and hours of research to write what will most likely be a scene of two pages. I’m giving myself a headache. But the images I'm culling are lovely. Check some of them out.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
High Concept, Too
E-mailed the two proposals this morning, including the bloody raw pulp of the third chapter, after Mary Jo gave it a quick lookover and decided it didn’t drip too badly.
I gave up on the high concept idea, opting for comparing the proposals with known authors and market niches. Like Maggie and Devon (Hi, “Devon”!) I don’t know enough TV shows and films to make a strong comparison. I know there are shows out there about psychics and military men and lawyers, and I could possibly look them up, but coming up with that additional “twist” to give it originality… Ugh.
But for those who don’t understand the “point” of high concept, look at it this way: If you were told a book was a Beauty and the Beast with a Sixth Sense story, would you instantly grasp what that book was about? Would you be interested? Granted, the book could stink to high heaven, but marketing doesn’t care about the product, only the hook. That’s a concept they can sell.
So a “high concept” idea is one that can intrigue everyone—agents, editors, marketing, readers. It’s the reason we’re seeing all these Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen books and movies—they’re concepts that sell. The Prince and Pygmalion, Cinderella meets Heathcliff… Jane Eyre doesn’t marry Rochester! Not necessarily romance friendly, but a high concept.
But selling psychics is tougher. How many psychics do you meet in fairy tales or literature? It’s just television and films and fantasy, and I don’t think I can sell a romance editor on a fantasy character unless someone can come up with a famous one. That’s why vampires are such an easy sell—who hasn’t heard of Dracula?
I gave up on the high concept idea, opting for comparing the proposals with known authors and market niches. Like Maggie and Devon (Hi, “Devon”!) I don’t know enough TV shows and films to make a strong comparison. I know there are shows out there about psychics and military men and lawyers, and I could possibly look them up, but coming up with that additional “twist” to give it originality… Ugh.
But for those who don’t understand the “point” of high concept, look at it this way: If you were told a book was a Beauty and the Beast with a Sixth Sense story, would you instantly grasp what that book was about? Would you be interested? Granted, the book could stink to high heaven, but marketing doesn’t care about the product, only the hook. That’s a concept they can sell.
So a “high concept” idea is one that can intrigue everyone—agents, editors, marketing, readers. It’s the reason we’re seeing all these Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen books and movies—they’re concepts that sell. The Prince and Pygmalion, Cinderella meets Heathcliff… Jane Eyre doesn’t marry Rochester! Not necessarily romance friendly, but a high concept.
But selling psychics is tougher. How many psychics do you meet in fairy tales or literature? It’s just television and films and fantasy, and I don’t think I can sell a romance editor on a fantasy character unless someone can come up with a famous one. That’s why vampires are such an easy sell—who hasn’t heard of Dracula?
Monday, August 13, 2007
High Concept
Frantic energy today, writing a "meet" chapter for the new paranormal contemp, polishing and editing both proposals, and re-reading really bad summaries and unable to figure out how to improve them.
And now, the piece de resistance (no idea how to put accent marks on here!)---are these high concept proposals? Can I say one is JAG meets Samantha the witch and no one gets killed? Probably not. How in heck am I supposed to boil very individual characters into TV or movie or book characters everyone will recognize, and then give them a twist? I'm lucky if I can give them names!
Does anyone out there buy books simply because they like them? Have we become a nation of attention spans so short that we can only recognize a product from TV commercials?
And now, the piece de resistance (no idea how to put accent marks on here!)---are these high concept proposals? Can I say one is JAG meets Samantha the witch and no one gets killed? Probably not. How in heck am I supposed to boil very individual characters into TV or movie or book characters everyone will recognize, and then give them a twist? I'm lucky if I can give them names!
Does anyone out there buy books simply because they like them? Have we become a nation of attention spans so short that we can only recognize a product from TV commercials?
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