Rambuchan
The Funky President
@ North King & Capulet: I'll have you know that while I was working in the film industry, I was responsible for a lot of dramatic writing and script editing. I've been trained ad nauseum in a number of screenwriting and dramatic writing disciplines. I took these skills on to prose writing also. Now generally you will find that most publishing houses and production companies will make their mind up on a story in a matter of minutes.
How? You read the abstract/pitch/treatment for the outline plot. If that makes sense then you read the first page for the style. If you're still happy, you read on, jumping pages to ensure the style is maintained and serves the plot with good delivery. If you're still happy, you either develop the script and make the film (if the story has legs through development) or you publish the book.
Harry Potter fell at the first hurdle for me. ~ It was a clear rip-off and too similar to Earthsea. If you read the book you will find there are many more similarities than just 'magic'. It was also too close to much Greek and Roman mythology. It was also clear to me that there was too much of a reliance upon existing mythology and that she failed to apply enough invention to 'make them her own'. Result? The plot rang like a bell without a peel.
I gave it a chance at the second and it fell again. ~ JKR does has a very childish style of writing. It isn't one which I feel inspires much joy for the written word in a child. It's basic, not very colourful and the dialogue is wooden, cliched and forced. And like I say, she also fails to reinvent any of the myths (Cerberus the three headed dog for eg) with enough ingenuity, which frankly left me disappointed. Instead she provides a pastiche, a clumsy cut and paste job, where she picks up one image (the dog) and just slaps it into her scrap book of other cuttings. The result is very 2 dimensional. All this stacked up to a big fat no vote for me.
That's just my opinion. But it is a well trained one and one that has had good money thrown at it to come up with the kind of glib statements you are rolling your eyes at.
And before you go on about what a big mistake I made in turning down what has become a tearaway publishing phenomenon, consider that I wouldn't run a cheapo, rip-off publishing house, which patronises cultural dilution.
*gets off his soap box*
How? You read the abstract/pitch/treatment for the outline plot. If that makes sense then you read the first page for the style. If you're still happy, you read on, jumping pages to ensure the style is maintained and serves the plot with good delivery. If you're still happy, you either develop the script and make the film (if the story has legs through development) or you publish the book.
Harry Potter fell at the first hurdle for me. ~ It was a clear rip-off and too similar to Earthsea. If you read the book you will find there are many more similarities than just 'magic'. It was also too close to much Greek and Roman mythology. It was also clear to me that there was too much of a reliance upon existing mythology and that she failed to apply enough invention to 'make them her own'. Result? The plot rang like a bell without a peel.
I gave it a chance at the second and it fell again. ~ JKR does has a very childish style of writing. It isn't one which I feel inspires much joy for the written word in a child. It's basic, not very colourful and the dialogue is wooden, cliched and forced. And like I say, she also fails to reinvent any of the myths (Cerberus the three headed dog for eg) with enough ingenuity, which frankly left me disappointed. Instead she provides a pastiche, a clumsy cut and paste job, where she picks up one image (the dog) and just slaps it into her scrap book of other cuttings. The result is very 2 dimensional. All this stacked up to a big fat no vote for me.
That's just my opinion. But it is a well trained one and one that has had good money thrown at it to come up with the kind of glib statements you are rolling your eyes at.
And before you go on about what a big mistake I made in turning down what has become a tearaway publishing phenomenon, consider that I wouldn't run a cheapo, rip-off publishing house, which patronises cultural dilution.
*gets off his soap box*
