Writing like a Movie?

Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by 0---TY---0, May 7, 2010.

  1. Aeschylus

    Aeschylus Member

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    Well, I did say earlier that he shouldn't use it if it doesn't work. But he shouldn't give up his technique simply because other people don't like it, either.
     
  2. 0---TY---0

    0---TY---0 New Member

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    Oh, so that is a bad idea? Man I really should find that kid....

    Haha, just kidding, but I get what both of you are saying. I really appreciate the fact that you guys are cool enough to give constructive criticism on stuff like this without losing your minds (it has happened before).

    Much appreciation XD
     
  3. Aeschylus

    Aeschylus Member

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    Now I'm curious, TY: How have people lost their minds over stuff like this? Is there a story here?
     
  4. 0---TY---0

    0---TY---0 New Member

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    Not much of one, its just the simple fact that some people are just really really freaky about how you write. So I mentioned this one other time at a writing chatroom and people just started going off about how it "was a ridiculous way to write!"

    Such like that.
     
  5. stubeard

    stubeard Active Member

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    I find thinking about how your book would work as a movie can help if you're trying to avoid the old trap of "show don't tell". In a movie you can't tell the audience how a character is thinking (unless there is a narrator, of course). You have to show it through interaction and speech.
     
  6. QueenVictoria73

    QueenVictoria73 New Member

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    I visualize action before I think of the words to describe it, but I don't excactly look at it like a movie. I also immagine the feelings and smells of the scene before I write, as well, and that isn't something you get out of a movie.
     
  7. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    Nothing wrong with present tense :)

    I sometimes get the feeling, when reading, that the author is writing "like a movie." It's not a positive thing, in my view. The characterization is typically much more shallow than I like, for one thing. With those books, I get a strong sense that the writer has simply put together a screenplay in novel form, and I don't care for it.

    So in that respect, I don't think writing like you're putting together a movie or TV is a good idea.

    If you just mean visualizing the scene in your head as you're writing it, I think everyone does that to one extent or another.
     
  8. miss_darcy

    miss_darcy New Member

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    I picture the scenes and characters in my head like a movie and it makes it clearer to me to describe and make it flow. I obviously don't write a novel like a screenplay but picturing what is going on in the story makes me feel like I'm in the action and I can write it like that.
     
  9. Taylee91

    Taylee91 Carpe Diem Contributor

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    Oh my gosh, O---TY---O! That's exactly how I go about writing! (You are not losing your mind).

    I've been a movie junkie for a few years now, and everytime I sit down to write, I imagine more of what it would look like on a screen than anything else. It's kinda become an immediate nature to me. I always seem to view my stories as movies, not novels.

    T
     
  10. 0---TY---0

    0---TY---0 New Member

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    Wow, good to know I'm not insane.

    Yeah, I do love to picture the screen, and as miss_darcy said, it does also help me feel like I'm in the action. And I'm a nerd who wants to be an action hero! So that helps...

    Thanks for the massive replies guys!
    ~TY
     
  11. Sang Hee

    Sang Hee New Member

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    Yeah, I do it pretty much that way too because it's the easiest way to do and because I actually work with movies too so I'm affected. It's not exactly a professional approach, though. A proper way should be more descriptive and technical of writing like the professional published authors do. Can't imagine that Cogito, for example, would write his stories like a movie. Just can't.
     
  12. miss_darcy

    miss_darcy New Member

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    But maybe it could be considered an author's style by writing the story by what they visualize in their heads because some people do write as they visualize like a movie while others don't. :)
     
  13. Sang Hee

    Sang Hee New Member

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    Yeah, but it's still necessary to describe things, moods and emotions to your readers. You know everything about the story and its world, they don't.
     
  14. Maybe one of the best things you can do is learn to visualise like a movie, see characters move, sweat dripping down their cheek, the fright in their eyes, for example, then reverse the point of view to subjective third person.

    You get the intensity of a movie sequence with the insight of subjective third person.
     

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