New Novelists - Have You Tried Writing A Movie?

I have a pet peeve about first person point-of-view.

I find there are a fair number of books that rely heavily on telling, rather than showing:

I’m told a male lead is hot, sexy and caring, even though his actions are shown as manipulative, cruel and insincere.

I’m told a female lead is tough, even though she is shown as indecisive, passive and reactive.

This inability to look past actions makes me a terrible mind control candidate. I judge by what I see rather than what I'm told. I guess you could call me a "visual reader". You'll probably find "visual writers" penning movies, TV shows, comics or graphic novels.

I have enjoyed many books where the writer is being contrary on purpose. Sadly, there are just as many books where there is no supporting evidence to signpost this intention.

I can’t say this method is storytelling is wrong. There are dozens of books on bestseller lists (both-legacy and self-published) that do this. But, I've also read just as many first person books that are able to propel a story and characterisation forward visually, without having to tell me who the characters are.

So how can a teller become a seer?

There are many valuable tools for writers, but it wasn't until I wrote a screenplay that I really started to understand show-don't-tell in prose.

In screenplays, you only write what you see and hear. It's like plonking your novel in a sensory deprivation chamber. The kind Uncle Walter is so fond of. Your readers no longer have an ESP plug into the characters heads, which makes it vital that everything they say and do speaks for them. And you can't cheat by having everyone just say what they are thinking. You'd have to add "crazy" and "overly dramatic" to the character descriptions of every single one of your characters.

Writing a screenplay makes it easier to spot the problems.

If you rewrite your 300-page novel as a movie, and you can only manage 20 pages of story, then you'll know you are spending too much time in your character's heads.

A character-driven story can still have a satisfying beginning, middle and end, complete with stakes, obstacles, climaxes and resolutions. First person point-of-view doesn't replace this or make it any easier. If anything, I've always considered first person one of the hardest formats to write because it is rather tempting to just tell readers the plot, rather than let them see it for themselves.

Think of your favourite movies and TV shows.  Can you recall specific examples where action spoke louder than words ever could?

What/when was the last script you read? If it was Shakespeare in school, that's okay too.

Have you ever tried writing a screenplay? Would you be willing to give it a try, if you haven't?

I'll talk more about screenplays later, but in the meantime, there are plenty of scripts online that you can try out for yourselves. Remember to stick to movies/TV shows that you like or are in your preferred genre.

Some places to read more about screenplays:

Screenwriting Tricks For Authors - Alexandra Sokoloff

Script Gods Must Die

What Would JC Do? (Nice Guys In Storytelling)

I like nice guys. There. I admit it. Out loud. And, I’ve decided not to duck my head in shame over it, either.
While the rest of the world embraces the Spikes and Damon Salvatores of the fictional world, I prefer the Angels and Stefans. You know, the “nice(r)” option. A lot of people immediately respond to that with “oh, you mean the boring option, right?”.
“Nooooo,” she wails to the universe and pats her nice, misunderstood favourites on their (oddly often) perfectly-styled heads.
While it is true that a lot of characters that start off as “nice guys” become insufferable, boring black holes whose only purpose is to suck the rest of the characters down with them, the nice guys I’m referring to are, at their heart, redeemable. Yes, bad boys aren’t the only characters that need redemption… or can get away with moments of wickedness. I always feel the characters that are introduced as bad boys have it easy. They can get away with murder because they’ll flash a sexy smile or make a darkly delicious statement that promises to reveal their soft underbelly or a twisted past that “made them who they are”.


Nice guys seem to get immediately dismissed as boring because they aren’t trying to make someone else miserable.
That’s why whenever I write a “nice guy” character, I’ll inevitably ask myself the question “What would John Crichton do?” or more accurately "What would I do to John Crichton?"
John Crichton was the ultimate nice guy when his character first appeared on the little-known oft-missed, science-fiction epic, Farscape. He was an all-American hero: astronaut, scientist, former football star and a great believer that “talking” and “reasoning” could solve any problem.
Sounds boring, right?
But what if I told you that by the end of season 4, John Crichton was making choices that, from an outsider’s point of view, only the worst of humanity would ever make?
And that he was still a nice guy?
A great number of his plans would end in tears… or screaming. Entire races would accuse him of being a monster. But, heck, you still hoped his crazy plans would succeed. You still wanted him to get the girl; you revelled in his bromance with a giant, angry alien; and you winced each time he monumentally frelled up.
Despite everything he did, he never gave up that part of himself that made him someone we could relate to. Even when he was full of bluster and bravado (and a stark raving looney), he could be proven wrong, fail and fall. At his worst, the fierce loyalty his friends and lover had for him reminded us that he was someone worth saving. A good man in impossible situations. He still believed in friendship, love, heroes and saving the world. He just had a more “flexible” idea of how to go about it.
A “nice guy” character takes does not have to be boring. His sole purpose is not to get the girl or prevent the bad boy from getting the girl. A nice guy has an arc and journey all of his own. He strives to be a better man, and occasionally he can stumble. He’ll tick you off and make you roll your eyes, but if you let him, he can also make you smile, enjoy the quiet and remind you that if there weren’t any nice guys, the bad boys probably wouldn’t want to become better men… and what would be the point of that?

Personal Milestone Smashed! 50 Books This Year

On Thursday I passed a massive milestone for me. I've read 50 books in 2011. I know some book readers will consider that a fairly small number, but for the past six or so years, I've been averaging about 10 books a year, including rereads.

I couldn't be happier with my progress. I'm starting to love fiction again and finally emerging from my "all work, no play" reality-induced lifestyle.

The increase was prompted by two factors:

a) My company moved location, so I'm now catching a bus and getting home about an hour and a half earlier. I quickly filled that time with reading.

b) I got a Kindle. I'm sampling more new authors and authors who are in the social space. A combination of liking the samples and liking the writers themselves is making me buy more than I ever have before. The more I buy, the more I feel the burning need to get through my massive to-read list. Who says an electronic library squared away on your digital device doesn't hold you as accountable as a pile of paper books on your shelf?

I'm not going to change my 2011 goalposts on Goodreads, although I am curious to see how far I can go.

I haven't been keeping track of the screenplays I've read this year, but I imagine that number is around 20-25. They were all for beta reading purposes.

Anyone else recently pass a milestone they are happy about?