The concept of a concept · 11:08am Feb 16th, 2014
It has long been an adage that one should not judge a book by its cover. The basis of this statement is obvious, because the two are completely different artistic mediums. Often, though, the adage is applied to other things; people, jobs and what have you. Personally, I've always kept in mind one usage much closer to the original: that you should not judge a book by its concept. It's one of my most often stated opinions that any concept can be written well. I wholeheartedly believe this is true.
The thing is... we do. We judge books by their covers all the time, and we do the same with concepts. This, I've always felt, is the purpose of a concept. To draw initial interest in the same way a cover does, so that your writing has a chance to even be seen and judged by its merits.
I may have been too quick to judge the value of a good concept, however.
As I mentioned previously, Chapter 11 of Sharing the Night has been coming slow. As a result, I've had a chance to do quite a lot of reading recently. Tonight, I read The Retribution of Chrysalis and its sequel, The Redemption of Chrysalis. A good seventy-five thousand words which I largely enjoyed.
After I turned the final page of the .epub on my tablet and went on to like and favorite the second story, however, I stopped to think. These were what I would call well-written stories. While they had their issues, they succeeded in what I would normally call the most important aspect—they made me care. It was sad indeed, then, when I realized, that these stories which had gotten me short of breath and misty-eyed, were somehow also stories that I would soon forget.
It's a very strange feeling to realize that a story you've gotten so invested in simply doesn't have anything to make it stand out. To realize that this will effect how you remember it (or don't) in the future. To realize that perhaps the job of grabbing the reader's attention is important not only before a story is read, but after as well.
Memorable concepts can be a shortcut to the memories they represent.
I've never really thought about what makes a story leave a lasting impression.
Maybe I should.
Does a story needs to make a lasting impression? If you had fun reading it the story fulfilled ist purpose.
It's an interesting thought. A story is -- if you're up for some hardcore abstraction, that is -- the execution of a concept, really. And if the concept doesn't grip readers by the balls it's pretty hard to write something really remarkable, even if the writing itself is technically flawless. And then, in turn, you've got to make the most of your idea otherwise it's just a squandered opportunity that would have been better off with someone else.
I think that making a lasting impression after the story ends is probably a very difficult thing to do. I know that relatively few books have done that to me. I could probably name most of them off the top of my head, if needs be. But with each of the ones that really resonated with me they all ultimately had that initial grab courtesy of a compelling underlying idea and the execution to sustain my interest.
I think the elements of what creates a lasting impression differ from reader to reader. As an author, I think you should be more concerned with whether or not you're fully realizing your vision and writing what you want to write than lining up specific little elements to make it perfect for one type of reader or another. And besides, I've read a lot of stories that I didn't think much of at the time, but then found myself reminiscing fondly about five or ten years later.
An interesting idea. Well, if it helps you've apparently unintentionally succeeded in creating memorable concepts with Sharing a Night, since things like Twilight having to eat her way out of a giant star bear and the moon and stars cradling each other leading to their physical incarnations doing the same stick with the reader. As evidenced by me going through all your blog posts hoping for update hints and finding April fools trolling instead (and a survey).