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Jenn H's avatar

Ed Burns, a filmmaker, wrote something like this in his memoir INDEPENDENT ED. His most successful projects were those that had a "story" around them, a story about the project *itself* (for example, his first successful film's story was "Scrappy unknown wows Sundance Festival"--we all love that rags-to-riches, underdog wins, story!).

Erica Jong also wrote something like, your art can't just be this great meal that you cook; you also have to set the table, pour the wine, butter the bread, stimulate the appetite. That you have to draw people in, not just put out the product and hope it lands.

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Brent Hartinger's avatar

Sadly, this is really true. And, yeah, it was true even before social media. Cher, and Matt Damon and Ben Afleck won Oscars because they had really good stories too! So this is not a new phenomenon. But it does feel super-charged right now.

Erica Jong is 10000% right.

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