Well, it\u2019s been a while since my last post, and to get started up again I just thought I\u2019d mention a few things that I see writers do in their first novels that really are wrong. So let me start with this:<\/p>\n
Are you writing a novel or a screen play?<\/p>\n
Every so often I\u2019ll pick up a posted (unpublished or self-published) story and as I start to read the first thought that occurs is this writer watches a lot of movies or television.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because there are very different styles of plot development required between writing and visual media.<\/p>\n
In a movie or tv plot you have to throw in background material quickly, and, hopefully, subtly because you only have fifty minutes to a bit over two hours to tell your story.\u00a0 In a book you can develop plot in a more logical manner.<\/p>\n
Let me give you an example. Consider the original Jurassic Park movie based on Michael Creighton\u2019s novel. Very early on Grant, the paleontologist, starts lecturing the volunteers at the dig about attack methods in carnivorous dinosaurs (which never happens in the book). I might add that the setup was nicely done, using the little kid, who\u2019s obviously an annoying jerk, as a catalyst. As a part of his mini-lecture Grant says something along the lines of \u201c\u2026you think Velociraptor\u2019s<\/em> vision is motion activated, like the T. rex<\/em>\u2026.\u201d This is important because it gives verisimilitude to the later scene where Grant protects the children from the T. rex<\/em> by getting them to stand perfectly still.\u00a0 So what\u2019s the problem?\u00a0 Well, knowing a bit about dinos, my reaction was, \u201cHow the hell does he know that?\u201d Remember, at this point Grant has never yet met a live dino. An editor reviewing a book might have the same reaction and toss the book onto the reject pile.\u00a0 So how did Creighton get away with this in his book?\u00a0 Simple.\u00a0 It\u2019s never mentioned until the first T. rex<\/em> attack, and then Grant notices that the T. rex<\/em> ignores stationary people, but immediately goes after those in motion.\u00a0 He concludes that like amphibians, the T. rex<\/em> has motion activated sight or recognition.\u00a0 In the book this makes sense, but in a movie (unless we\u2019re talking 1950\u2019s scifi B movies) for Grant to explain what happened after the fact would just stop the action and kill the movie\u2019s momentum (which is what always happened in those 1950\u2019s scifi B movies).<\/p>\n Well, a recent story post I read started off with a young man saying goodbye to his wife at a train station as he prepares to go off to war.\u00a0 I thought the writer did a pretty good job of setting a contrast between the \u2018gung ho!\u2019 spectators and the grizzled war veterans along the station who were anything but enthusiastic.\u00a0 As the train leaves the scene shifts to his wife riding back home.\u00a0 She immediately starts thinking about how they met at the Spring dance or some such.\u00a0 That\u2019s tv plotting. It shows how deeply in love they are and tosses in backstory, all in a few minutes of on-screen time.\u00a0 But why do that in a novel?\u00a0 Think about it.\u00a0 Unless this young woman is totally narcissistic and so independently wealthy as to have nothing to do for the next few years but pine away for hubby, daydreaming about how they met is about the last thing she\u2019d do.\u00a0 Yes, she will pray for him, fear for him, etc., but tell us about the challenges she now faces (which most assuredly are on her mind).\u00a0 The back story can be thrown in later, at some more appropriate time – while she\u2019s searching around the house, looking for some things she can sell to help pay the bills, or trying to decide how she can help the war effort, some memento she stumbles upon triggers the memories of that first meeting.\u00a0 Or maybe late at night, as she sits alone, exhausted after a long day, her mind wanders to memories of better times.\u00a0 Whatever, but make us believe it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n I concede that if you are writing a Romance novel or some such, the above example may not apply.\u00a0 The first rule of writing should be obvious – always to be familiar with the genre you want to write in and be true to the conventions of that genre.\u00a0 Read a few books in your chosen genre and think about how the better writers plot out their stories.<\/p>\n In general though, leave the screen play for later.\u00a0 You\u2019ll have plenty of time to worry about it once you sell the rights to your novel to a movie company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, it\u2019s been a while since my last post, and to get started up again I just thought I\u2019d mention a few things that I see writers do in their first novels that really are wrong. So let me start with this: Are you writing a novel or a screen play? Every so often I\u2019ll…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10,7,42,9,6,26,43],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-photophoosk100","4":"post-414","6":"format-standard","7":"category-jotting-and-stray-thoughts","8":"post_tag-fun-writing","9":"post_tag-getting-published","10":"post_tag-rules-for-writing","11":"post_tag-writers","12":"post_tag-writing","13":"post_tag-writing-a-novel","14":"post_tag-writing-donts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions\/416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}