The Ingredients Are Not The Recipe

When you look at the labels on food products, it's easy to see the ingredients list and think that you know what the food is like. You might even think that you could make your own version of those things. The problem comes when you actually do try to make some food of your own. All of a sudden, you realize that the ingredients list doesn't have any actual quantities or temperatures or times or any other instructions.

The ingredients are not the recipe. This is just as true for writing. Knowing a book's genre doesn't tell you what will happen in it. Knowing a book's premise doesn't explain the experience of meeting its characters. Knowing the plot itself still does not convey the voice of the author actually telling you the story.

In a world full of reviews and synopses, it is easy to think that getting the short-hand version of a story is good enough, but in actuality, it will never be the same as experiencing the original.