Of
all the things about my new job I dislike, it’s the meeting with the
higher executives that irks me the most. It’s not their attitude or anything. In fact they’re really
nice people. It’s more about how they confuse things all the time. The first
meeting I was in, I was introduced to everyone, and my first initial thought as
I sat down to begin was that there might really only be one brain amongst them.
Then
one of them decided to speak and prove it.
He
asked me to explain what was going on with the project and where I saw it
going, but…and he raised his right index finger to stress this very thing, he
wanted me to explain to everyone in a high concept way.
Ug,
groan…yep another idiot who needed everything spoon-fed. It wasn’t a waste of
time for me though. It made me realize that a lot of people don’t really
understand what High Concept is. Some think it’s about dumbing down our writing
so that even a 4th grader can read it. Sorry to burst anyone’s
bubble, but that’s not what High Concept is all about. We’re not supposed to
dumb anything down. In fact, publishers want great and intelligent writing that
they can be proud of.
So
what is High Concept? Simple.
Was
that too easy of an answer? Sorry. High Concept is about the idea behind the
story. The simpler it is, the better. It’s also why most publishers want a log
line. If they can’t understand the concept in one sentence, it’s too
complicated and too risky for publishing (with exceptions of course).
Has anyone else ever notice this misunderstanding?
Auzy
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