posted
You guys and gals want an interesting exercise in fiction? Take a movie, preferably a good one, and write it out as an outline for a book. Now, don't start writing a book, just the outline. Add as much detail as you like. Break up the scenes into exchanges, noting what plot devices are used, what methods the director used to advance the plot, set up conflicts and show the protagonist's (and there can be more than one) growth. Try this with something like the Green Mile, or Lethal Weapon 1. Then take the finished outline, and compare the methods with your own story telling. I'm not saying copy; that would be foolish, but just take a look at the way the stories are told on the screen. I read an interesting article a while back about the price of a single scene in a movie. On average, a single scene, say four or five pages of a movie script, would cost around 130 thousand. That's the question to ask yourself when writing, and that's the point of the exercise: Are your scenes worth 130 thousand dollars?
Posts: 331 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
Now see, I'm trying to think of a scene in a movie that's worth $130,000... Besides that, the idea of examining the plot structure of a movie, play or book is an interesting exercise. Thanks for suggesting it.
[This message has been edited by MaryRobinette (edited January 03, 2005).]
Moviegoers don't plunk down their dollars for the script. They pay to see famous actors, and fabulous locations, and things blowing up, and all that other stuff that costs money.
Try a different exercise. Try to write a candy bar wrapper that would sell for a dollar a copy. You know, a snappy name and nifty slogan, an ingredient list and nutritional info. Having problems? Consider for a moment that people buy candy bars for the candy, not for the writing on the label.
posted
Well, yeah--I was ignoring the fact that the $130,000 price tag on the scene is not for the script. But breaking a movie or book down to its basic elements is still a good exercise.
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
I was saying that it costs 130,000 to shoot a scene, using four or five pages of a script. Any scene, for a average budget movie; it doesn't have to be a particular scene. For example, in Lethal Weapon 1, in the opening scene, when the girl wakes up, snorts some draino, and takes a header off the balcony, that might cost 75-100 thousand dollars, U.S. to shoot. The point is that when you're writing, especially in a movie script, if it doesn't advance the plot, detail the characters, and generally tell the story, then it's cut in a heartbeat. In fiction stories, novels, whatever, there's more leniency, but the principle is the same. Lose the empty baggage that's weighing down your tale.
By the way, I looked at the article again, and it's not 130,000. It's 300,000. Sheesh.
[This message has been edited by Netstorm2k (edited January 09, 2005).]
posted
I'd probably suggest listing books or films that youve liked, then write what you liked about them. After that look at the scenes that stood out. Why did they do that?
Then look at what you would have changed and why.
Or look at a short story like one of the ones on the twighlight zone. What would you change, why would you change it.
For example there was a recent one that had a time traveling woman who went back in time to kill Hitler as a baby. She was chosen because of her DNA. Now in the end she killed the baby and herself and the maid then bought a gypsy baby and passed it off as the real one. That then grew to become Hitler.
Personally I would have had it so she killed the baby, the father caught her and then forced her to marry him after killing the current wife off. She would have then been pregnant and had the "real" adolf herself. hence why the dna was brought up. Thats just an example of the exercise.
posted
Sorry for being flippent earlier. But I'm also serious. It's a bad idea to judge anything you've written by whether it would look good on screen, unless you're specifically writing it to be on the screen.
People follow this advice all the time and turn in amatuer screenplays as attempts at narrative prose...it just doesn't work. And besides, you don't do this yourself. At least, from what I've read. Your recent story would be very easy to film on an indy budget. There are no special effects, you never even fire any of the weapons, all the bodies are offstage...you don't even have any difficult locations.
The main thing is that your text looks good to the reader of your book.
posted
I found the original article that I referred to. It's by Les Standiford, and he published it in the August, 1998 issue of Writer's Digest. Obviously, I can't reproduce it here, but I'd be willing to scan it in and email it as a .pdf if anyone's interested. It's a good article.
Posts: 331 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
Netstorm's suggestion to analyze what works in a scene is a good one, whether it's written, filmed, or played. There are story things (like pacing, snappy dialog, build-up, resolution, and so on) that each medium has in common, even if they tell the story differently, and those story things can be good to understand. Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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posted
Yeah. I'm just chronically allergic to any suggestion that other forms of writing should learn from screenplays, that's all. If we had a lot of writers trying to write long narrative prose in the form of sonnets, I would probably get that way about poetry and stuff.
Posts: 8322 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Okay, here's a rephrase: Instead of making a .pdf, and instead of text recognition, I'm going to just stick the dang issue in the mail, and mail it to the first person who asks. And then, when the next person wants to read the article, then the one I mailed it to mails it on, and we'll all do this until everyone has read it, and the last person can mail me the tattered fragments, which I'll use to light my barbecue grill. Okay. Good. Glad everyone agrees. stupid computer...
Posts: 331 | Registered: Jan 2005
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