Thursday, February 10, 2005

The Trouble with Books Today

They say there are only about 24 possible plot summaries total. You remember in creative writing classes how they used to talk about 'man vs. man;' or to get more detailed: 'boy meets girl; boy loses girl; boy gets girl back;' or there are 'quest' stories.

Maybe it's the issue that every story has already been told before using different names and locales. But it seems like today's authors and publishers are stretching it a bit. Does every book have to include multiple issues of the day? The descriptions of some books are humorous enough... a young girl born to a poor family comes of age on the Outer Banks of North Carolina while dealing with an abusive alcoholic mother, oh and she has Tourette's Syndrome, oh and a hurricane threatens to destroy their home.

No comments: