I took a little time out of the glorious weekend to read through my notes from the High Concept workshop Lori Wilde gave at the last Toronto Romance Writers meeting. She was fabulous -- and did a great job putting together a guide to assist us low-to-medium concept thinkers. ;)


Actually, this took me right back to a comedy school scriptwriting class, where my instructor would lean back into his chair, listen to a student pitch and idea and then, after looking at the ceiling for a moment, ask: "So what?"

That was his way of indicating that our pitch wasn't strong enough, or, as Lori Wilde might say, not high concept enough. Sigh.

High-concept ideas are the ones that have editors drooling, agents auctioning and Hollywood calling. They're ideas that have a universal appeal with a unique twist. And they can be conveyed in one sentence. Or even just a few words.

As my scriptwriting instructor would say: Wizard School.

But we all know how long it took JK to get her first book deal. It only became easier with the next one...and the bunch after that...."So what" indeed. ;)

Labels: ,