Ive been studying a group of movies in a specific sub genre I want to write a book in. I’m rewatching one now and taking notes with time in minutes. In the first 45 minutes of this film, there has been 19 scenes and 5 POV characters, including one who died. There have been close to 20 named characters. If this were a novel, I think the first 45 minutes would be 45-90 pages depending on how much description and exposition is being replaced by visual story telling. For such “silly” movies, they have a lot going on. Lots of early clues, foreshadows, distractions from covert reveals, blah blah blah. It’s pretty advanced writing. Anyone have tips on novel writing this kind of jerky, fast action story? Any recommendations for books in this style? The fifth POV character that shows up is the most sympathetic: beautiful, down on her luck, unjustly involved and wronged but fighting hard. We meet her late so the movie uses every trick to get us on her side in one scene.
Movies are generally not a good substitute for books ... i'd tend to suggest reading a bunch in the sub genre concerned
1. If you can find scripts and compare them to movies, it might teach more. 2. If you find book based action movies and can compare book, script and movie, it might teach even more. 3. Visual descriptions, expositions, clues, foreshadowing... makes room for fast action. That kind of showing is hard on books. And rhythm in books is different. Also action is different. You can't get conflicts work in text in the same way they work in movies. You must think about this difference. 4. Think visual with verbs. 5. Fast action might need another main emotion beside suspense. What suits you? Love? Fun? Something else? 6. Cross examining methods and styles over movie <=> book <=> script borders can teach you a lot. Do it more, dig deep, don't stay in one genre. 7. Read script doctors. They have some good books.
I suppose it's possible to write a book where the scene changes are fast and furious, but I can't think of any. (That doesn't mean they don't exist, by the way. I just mean I don't remember reading any.) It's important to remember that movies are a lot different from books. LOTS more information comes your way a lot more quickly. The film opens on a scene. You immediately clock the setting itself, the nature of the setting that you can made a judgement about (houses, are they expensive, middle-class, hovels, third world, first world, what?) You get a quick view of weather, perhaps, or climate. Is that a row of palm trees or douglas firs—so you might be able to figure out an actual location? Jungle? Seascape? Frozen wasteland? Desert? Recognisable places, or totally strange? Are there people in the scene? Animals? What kind of soundtrack are you getting? What's your first impression? You'll have all of this down in seconds, in a movie. Before anybody says a word. You can't really do that in a book. Reading not only takes a bit more time to actually read, but the words have to create pictures in the reader's head, which then translate to what the pictures mean, etc. Working for sudden fast scene changes in a book—changes that will carry the reader into the story, and not drive them away from it— isn't going to be easy. Do you have a particular reason for wanting this to happen?
Action scenes should be intense. Scene breaks pull the reader out of the point of view. This is less problematic in cinema because there is a cinematic point of view, you’re not inside anyone’s head. With books we can do more though and fast scene breaks can give up some of those tools. I’d say to keep the action fast paced. You can scene break though, it just won’t be as effective as in action movies I think. I have read some stuff that dabbles in this though. If you can make it work then it works.
That would be like splicing chunks of DOOM together, without having the time to get all the details, world building, characterization, and other important bits down. It would be a bunch of fast paced moments, with few slow moments, and lots of mayhem throughout with little to no plot for the readers to work with beyond: Doom guy has gun shoots demons. Works as a visual medium, and the new one has more story to it but, that is because the tech is way better than the 1980's was, so they could expand upon things to make it less of just a simple run and gun that the original was. (DOOM Has a book series, but it is a bit different to the games, but still kinda what you expect from that type of storyline with one trait characters and what not.) Perhaps you could write one of those tie-in anthologies that tells each character's story, and how they are all intertwined in some way or another, kinda like Sin City? In my WIP the POVC changes rapidly if they are in the same room, and interacting with other MC's in some form or another to get both sides and thoughts in those moments, but that is still a bit different from what you are speaking about, I think.
