Defining “The High Concept”
“I BELIEVE THE ART OF LIVING CONSISTS NOT SO MUCH IN COMPLICATING SIMPLE THINGS AS IN SIMPLIFYING THINGS THAT ARE NOT.” ~ Francois Hertel Before I can shape my individual scenes and vignettes into a story structure, I have to be able to identify an overriding story idea, the ”high concept” . According to James Bonnett high concept involves” being able to reduce your story idea into something powerful that the reader will be able to make an emotional connection with~ a logline with a twist” He goes on to explain that defining your high concept will “force you to come to terms with what your story is about”. Distilling the complexities of life into a few words is not something I view as simple and I am...
Winter Dreams
” HOLD FAST TO DREAMS,FOR IF DREAMS DIE,LIFE IS A BROKEN-WINGED BIRD WHO CANNOT FLY.”-Langston Hughes, American Writer When I woke up this morning , I looked out at our first real snowfall of the season. The fluffy white snow laced the trees giving them a shape, accentuating each branch while giving an overall picture of a winter wonderland. You might say, they told a story of winter in the Northeast and all that conjures up~ visions of happy children and fluffy dogs romping in the snow, grandsons bobbing on sleds pulled behind the Kubota, cherry-cheeks , giggles and cold noses. Then coming inside to warm up with a cup of cocoa and some homemade pasta fagiola. The vision of those snow-laced trees provided a structure for the stories that...
“Muse” Alert
“IF YOU’VE EVER BEEN ON THE CORNER OF WRITER’S BLOCK AND MAIN, TAKE A WRITE.” Matthew Koceich from a Christian Writers Guild blog, Just Write:Building Stories Out of Writer’s Blocks We’ve all been there. We can’t help ourselves. We love to write and you’ll find us jotting frantic messages on napkins, used envelopes, scraps of loose papers, anything we can get our hands on to get our ideas down in written form. We’ll be at train stations, in grocery stores, sitting in waiting rooms and at traffic lights. With any luck, we won’t be driving. We are the self-professed writers of the world, published ,unpublished, yet to be published regular people from all walks of life who just can’t help...
Untangling the Web
” RATHER THAN SIMPLY TELLING A STORY FROM HER LIFE, THE MEMOIRIST BOTH TELLS THE STORY AND MUSES UPON IT,TRYING TO UNRAVEL WHAT IT MEANS IN THE LIGHT OF HER CURRENT KNOWLEDGE.” Judith Barrington, Writing the Memoir. As a current participant in Linda Joy Meyers’ NAMW Memoir Workshop , I am learning that the key to finding my story is to keep writing. Week after week, we send in stories of our own choosing for others to review and critique. Some stories and scenes gush out of me with such force and clarity that I can hardly type out the words fast enough. I am riding on a wave of crystal-clear recall,unhampered by the years and circumstances that have intervened to change me into the person I am today. Then sometimes I hit a wall that...
It’s All About Story
” A TOTAL COMMITMENT IS PARAMOUNT TO REACHING THE ULTIMATE IN PERFORMANCE” Tom Flores, American Football’s First Hispanic Quarterback and Head Coach A collective boom resonates to send a message across cyberspace, in writing workshops and conferences like a parent warning a child,“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times(fill in the blank)..if you are going to write a memoir that sells, you must have a story that reads like a novel. You can have beautifully written sentences, compelling events, descriptive scenes, fascinating characters, tons of conflict but if it doesn’t flow like a story with a plot and a narrative arc, well fuhget it…(Here’s an interesting post about this from...
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Kathy
I am a writer and a retired family nurse practitioner working on a memoir about the power of hope through my faith in God. Hope Matters. I believe we are all enriched when we share our stories.
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." Ralph Hodgson
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- KathyPooler: Three Questions to Ask Before Writing a Memoir~ A Story http://t.co/MtiumzUk "The What, Why & How " of #memoir #amwriting
- KathyPooler: RT @laurazera: Six Tough Truths About Self-Publishing (That The Advocates Never Seem To Talk About) http://t.co/kfOPrAvd via @RChazzChute"
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