Needless to say, on this front I remain disappointed.

As a fervent book-reader, much of my time spent browsing was on the website of publishers and booksellers, authors and fansites as they sprang up all around me. For the first time there were easily accessible forums to learn about books and authors and connect with other fans. And I loved it.

(A few short anecdotes in no particular order: (a) I was an enthusiastic member of an extremely active website/e-mail fan club for YA author Christopher Pike based on his book The Midnight Club; (b) I played the Animorphs video game on my old-school PC; (c) I browsed the PBS website in search of trivia on my childhood television/book series, like Arthur and The Magic School Bus.)

Digital interconnectedness for today’s twelve-year-olds is as commonplace as any other marvel of the modern world, and today publishers and authors are scrambling to entice the ever-more technologically savvy youth to read an ordinary, paper book.  Especially with the advent of electronic book-reading devices, including the Kindle and Sony E-reader, and the increasing popularity of video and computer games, kids and teens today are coming to expect their entertainment on a digital platform.

Rachel Deahl of Publisher’s Weekly discusses the publishing industry’s response to this trend in her article “The New Storytelling: Multimedia Children’s Publishing,”  which examines the multimedia platforms being developed to add multidimensional layers to the book reading experience. In short, books are developed that have several interlinking elements outside of the paper copy, including websites, forums, media content, cards, and even handheld games. Fourth Story Media’s The Amanda Project is one such example. The company, which focuses on new media content, describes The Amanda Project as an “interactive, collaborative mystery series” targeting teen girls. The intrigue of title alone would certainly have grabbed my attention when I was twelve.

But the challenge of any book that seeks to extend itself beyond its traditional form is in maintaining the integrity of the storytelling. Scholastic’s The 39 Clues, a collaborative book project utilizing a card set and website tie-in, marketed itself as a “built-in bestseller” meant to follow the success of Scholastic’s flagship title, the Harry Potter series, but has so far seen little of the media and public attention that its traditional predecessor received. Reviews of the series have been generally positive, though not enthusiastic, and make frequent reference to the “gimmick” behind the books. Such is my personal fear and trepidation about many of these projects—that story will play a secondary role to technological entertainment.

Rick Joyce of Perseus Book Group, which in 2006 published the highly unique Cathy’s Book, a predecessor of young adult interactive fiction, acknowledges the difficulty of keeping a story focused and characters interesting by asking the essential question: “Do I want to spend time with these characters?”

But publishers and authors alike seem to realize that whether or not they choose to embrace it, the future is already here. While multimedia and multiplatform young adult (and perhaps even adult) fiction are still at an experimental level and do not seem poised to replace the book-reading experience as we know it now, it certainly offers this newest generation a chance to shape for themselves how they choose to consume a story.

Tell us your thoughts on digital content and multimedia in young adult fiction. Intriguing new element to books or publicity stunt that detracts from them?

Writer’s block.

It’s not that I don’t have ideas, because Lord knows I have ideas. A plethora of squirming ideas wriggling about, waiting to be plucked and put to the hook, bait for a story to swallow it whole. (Gruesome but truthful.) The problem is their lack of substance. I might have a few scribbles in my notebook after an hour of brainstorming and they all mostly come down to a story about a so-and-so, who faces so-and-so challenge to reach so-and-so goal. It’s formulaic, stale, overdone, and about as gripping as watching a dying earthworm crawl along the sidewalk. I want to cultivate my ideas because they’re precious to me, but in truth, so few of them move beyond that first, stagnant concept.

A professor of mine once said that when you are writing, you should jot down the first four ideas that come into your head for your story. And then you should immediately cross out the first three, because they’re clichéd, hackneyed crap. What you want to create is beyond the surface. You don’t want a “concept,” you want a high concept. Something universal but fresh, an interesting twist, a compelling new confection. Which some might argue is difficult, given that many scholars, critics etc. have decided there are only seven story ideas in the whole world.

Except that there are fourteen. Depending on whose side you’re on…

Here are the seven (via the Internet Public Library):

1. [wo]man vs. nature
2. [wo]man vs. man
3. [wo]man vs. the environment
4. [wo]man vs. machines/technology
5. [wo]man vs. the supernatural
6. [wo]man vs. self
7. [wo]man vs. god/religion

Or, alternatively, here are the seven (as found on suite101):

1. the quest
2. voyage and return
3. rebirth
4. comedy
5. tragedy
6. overcoming the monster
7. rags to riches

I’ve found that melding the two is best: From the first list you choose your theme, from the second list you decide your plot. And when you combine both together, you create your high concept.

Examples:
-    During the Great Depression, a young man leaves school and becomes a member of a traveling circus, falls in love with a star performer, and takes care of an eccentric elephant. (Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants)
o    Theme: man vs. the environment
o    Plot: voyage and return

-    A family narrative of sex, love and secrets as recounted by the youngest generation’s child, an intersexual who metamorphoses over the course of the story from woman into man. (Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex)
o    Theme: [wo]man vs. self
o    Plot: rebirth

-    When a teenage girl is displaced to a dreary town, she becomes fascinated with a local boy who seems almost supernatural, only to discover that she is falling in love with a vampire and putting both of their lives at stake. No pun intended. (Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight).
o    Theme: woman vs. the supernatural
o    Plot: overcoming the monster

Brenda Janowitz’s article in PW toys with the notion of the “high concept” idea—stories like Good versus evil, man plays God, New York fashion—and its significance in today’s market. Janowitz notes, “It’s hard to describe what exactly makes an idea high concept—it’s almost the opposite of what it sounds. But simply put, it’s an idea that is easily explainable and can be sold in one sentence.” But as her agent friend said, it may seem simple, but if you don’t have a high concept, you won’t get your book published. But publishers don’t want a formula, they want chemistry. And though I’m not a science professor, I can offer this thought: high concepts may hold untold depth, but they all begin with simple formulas that, through your own creativity and inspiration, become said chemistry. Your idea + theme + plot = your story.

Brenda’s final conclusion is to keep writing, and the high concept will emerge.

But remember, scratch out the first few ideas.

What makes the news almost cruel is the unabashedly hopeful column posted the very same day to publishersweekly.com. Talk about poor planning. I’ve no doubt that Sara will resurface doing something great soon, but it’s still a disconcerting change in the short term.

Now, yesterday, news of the death of a titan of American letters. John Updike, who stayed with the same publisher for over fifty years, dead at 76. Amazing that a man capable of creating such convincingly self-absorbed and unsympathetic characters could come across as friendly and as genuinely likable as he often did in interviews and public appearances. This discussion of his 2008 work The Widows of Eastwick is no exception.

Click here to view the embedded video.