If you don't know, the high concept was something that was developed in the movie industry. I think Michael Eisner was especially fond of it. High concepts are the kind of ideas like "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies." It's basically taking two things (or more) that are popular and putting them together. The beauty of it is that you have a short, simple pitch, usually just one sentence: "It's Jane Austen only with zombies in it!"
On Maass's list you have:
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Potter
- Black Lord of the Rings
- The Big Sleep: Riyadh
- The World According to Gump
The problem with a lot of high concept ideas is that they're great for a pitch meeting, that's why literary agents and movie producers love them. But when you have to work them out, you often don't find much to work with. It's like when I watched the movie "Hancock" which was a perfect high concept: It's like Superman only he's drunk and angry! The problem was after introducing the high concept they didn't seem to have any idea what to do next.
With these Maass seems to think a good idea is to take an existing story and throw in some minority. So what? So the detective is a Muslim? So the Hobbits are black? So Huck Finn can cast spells? What's the fucking point? Why the hell does it matter? (I'm not even sure what the World According to Gump one is supposed to mean. Wasn't Forrest Gump already a cradle-to-grave Dickensian novel about an idiot savant? Or was Gump not a savant?)
Those aren't stories. There's no meat to these high concepts. Of course someone in power like Donald Maass or Michael Eisner just waves his hand to dismiss that protest. Hey, you guys are writers, you figure it out! The problem is that writers need real ideas. A good story has to be about something. That means characters with goals and conflicts and stuff like that.
Especially the problem with ideas like Black Lord of the Rings is: why would I want to retell the same story only with different ethnicity? What value is there if the Hobbits are black? What's really the difference if the detective is Muslim?
What sucks about this is Maass is expecting you to write these on spec. At least if you pitch an idea to movie producers you might get some seed money to work out a script. As it is, you're supposed to turn these shitty high concepts into something halfway coherent and then pray that in six months or a year he hasn't changed his mind or that the intern who sees your letter wants the same high concepts and not "Gone With the Wind...with Dwarfs."
With an industry this fucked up, it's a wonder there are any successful authors.
(And thanks Donald Maass for making me so angry I had to stop writing the story I was working on to scream about this.)
Dammit, I wasted a year and a half doing my black Harry Potter novel. I didn't know it was supposed to be Black Lord of the Rings.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I did write a gritty novel that was Bridgett Jones Diary meets The Dirty Dozen. That one is erotica.
Crap, now I won't be able to do anything but think of improbable mashups. Winnie the Pooh meets Deliverance. Saw III meets Bill and Ted's Excellent adventure.
Well, I do think it's stupid if that's how anyone writes their novels. I hope they want you to write your story first, and once it's done you are able to label it as _____ meets ______.
I submitted my would-be novel to someone that asked for the one sentence pitch. I said, Rendezvous with Rama meets Clerks. That wasn't real accurate, but that's what they wanted. I didn't write it with any of that in mind.
Well, based on your blog title, lately, I'd say we have Grumpy Billdog meets Chuck. Or should that be vs Chuck?
ReplyDelete:P
The Huckleberry Finn could have something to it.
And Rusty... that Winnie the Pooh thing just scares me.