Craft: Concept and High Concept

[whdean]

Dec 8, 2015 8:24:45 GMT -5 Daniel said:

Dec 8, 2015 0:12:52 GMT -5 whdean said:

But still, I never looked where people have looked before, except to see what's been done before. The last place to look for new things is old things. You have to read something else entirely if you want to get outside the box.

My strengths are in analysis and synthesis. When I use the term "influence" related to "old things," what I mean is that I break them into pieces and throw them into a pile along with all of my other life experiences. I agree with you that history can be a great source of transformative ideas, as can philosophy, superstition, technology, and just about any other subject of study. Those bits go into the pile too.

I don't think it is a good idea to go too far outside the box because I believe readers need familiar mental touchstones to remain oriented in the story world. In fact, I think a story world is more compelling if you can make it feel familiar to readers while you wow them with freaking cool differences. I'd rather work inside a box filled with options that let me synthesize something both recognizable and original.

Perhaps we're saying the same thing. It may be a matter of degree with regard to originality. I doubt that any so-called original modern novel could be broken down into original components.

I was half in the bag when I wrote that, so we probably are thinking along the same lines. First off, though, let me say that I'm not presuming to tell you something you don't know; I'm just thinking out loud.

So, back to the point. I meant to suggest that the books and authors you cited go to the case for coming up with a cool idea. But I doubt they'll be much help in generating new cool. What those authors did has now been done. So one needs fresh stuff, which, by definition, means stuff from your head and from elsewhere. I don't trust my head as much as I trust what exists elsewhere--an attitude that I think is more reliable (hence my earlier self-praise). An example of the new from elsewhere for fantasy might be Azande magic. I don't think anyone has used that in fiction yet. That makes it inherently interesting without breaking with the conventions or going too far out of the box.

[Rinelle Grey]

I have trouble figuring out what the concepts for my novels are, even after they're done. For Twin Curse, I guess it's that twins have to marry the same person, but fall in love with different people. For my paranormal series, it's dragons in the Australian outback. But for my sci-fi series, it's way too complex to simplify it down into one sentence. An abandoned colony is sitting on a gold mine of fuel, but can't use it because they're shipwrecked? Is that the main concept? Or is that a colony is so desperate to increase their population that they're messing in people's relationships? Or is it that a spaceship pilot is stranded on a planet and falls in love with one of the locals? I don't know which one is more important!