Don't Let Movies Sabotage Your Writing

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[@jeyhey5320]

Great advice. A novel is not a screenplay. Why even bother writing one if you only try things that a movie could do better?

[@varckk]

Glad to see someone finally address the biggest issue I have while writing. I’ve been binging your content for the past few days. Great stuff 👍

[@epiphoney]

Comic books imitate movies too much these days as well.

[@canaisyoung3601]

But comic books are just as much of a visual medium as TV and movies. I kind of expect them to be this way...at least the mainstream comics. Independent and international (i.e., mangas) are probably a different story.

[@abhishekpandit2261]

Apart from the excellent content (as usual), I must compliment you on the stellar video editing. Best irony: you were providing tips on how to excel in writing without emulating other media BUT you more than delivered on the visual pizzazz. I salute you. 😃

[@Bookfox]

Aw, shucks. Appreciate the kind words!

[@Myfreetherapy]

I come for the info and stay for the muscles ;)

[@JuicyHamburger]

You are right on the mark with your section on internals. I feel like there are such an abundance of writing advice videos that stress the "show don't tell" philosophy so much that as a writer I feel guilty if I try to go into what my character is thinking. "You can't SAY how and why he's frustrated, you have to show him rubbing the bridge of his nose and looking down shaking his head and let the reader surmise the reason!" Not only does this showing get very tiring and repetitive, but whenever I break away from it I feel like I'm doing something wrong. Glad to hear (for once, really) that it is okay to spend some time exploring the character's thoughts in a few sentences or even a paragraph. One video I saw basically forbid any telling and said if I want to be a good writer that "99%" of my text should be showing, which, when I tried it, resulted in a very dry script, like it was just stage play directions.

[@missAlice1990]

Don't ever feel guilty about that because you're 100% right. The "show don't tell" rule is another thing taken from movies. Moives are visual, they are MEANT to show. Books are 100% telling in the technical sense, but of course the SDT rule still applies to some extent. It's more like getting into details vs. summarizing the events briefly. And it also refers to section 1 of the video - single speed pacing. In the book you detail exciting stuff and summarize boring stuff. So, please, don't follow the SDT rule but rather: *know WHEN to show and WHEN to tell*. Of course there's nothing wrong in naming emotions. But again, you have to know when you can do that. A girl misses the bus or is caught in the rain - you can certainly say she was angry and everyone will understand. But when she loses her loved one. Then you can never just "tell" how she feels because it's inconvincing. The words exist for a reason - to name emotions, so USE them. But there are things that are so traumatic that no human word can adequately describe it because they're too common and "domesticated", while the situations isn't. And THEN you need to find an uncommon way (a unique description) to convey the feeling. And the best piece of advice I know - don't 100% trust any writing advice, no matter who gives it, even Shakespeare himself. Read books to see how it's done, to acquire taste and "literary intuition", then use them to critically assess the usefulness and limitations of any advice you hear.

[@thewildelf]

That's another example of movie's influence. "Show don't tell" doesn't just mean visual. Anton Chevok (commonly considered the origin of the idea) used a visual example "Don't tell me the moon is shining, show it in a glint off glass." But he died before cinema was anything more than silly short silent clips. And it was a popular piece of advice for playwrights! You can absolutely say how and why he's frustrated. Especially though thoughts and actions. "His hands clenched so tight his nails dug into his palms" or "'I can't get anything right!' he thought" or even just "He fumed." Just don't take the boring way out: "He was frustrated." Never feel guilty for digging into saying "how" but avoid too much "why," it's too easy to get into boring exposition (aka telling). Keep showing us why with actions, dialog, thoughts, feelings, and all the senses. If its getting repetitive, break it up. Only show what's most important and let the rest tease the reader as a mystery to be revealed later. It's plenty to know the character is frustrated, if its not already obvious why, it could be an interesting detail that keeps us engaged wanting to find out.

[@StarlitSeafoam]

One of the great advantages of watching lots of Korean and Chinese dramas is that you often hear character's thoughts in voiceover. Though it is a bit confusing when you're watching a fantasy cdrama and you're not sure if the voiceover is two character's talking telepathically, or just their internal thoughts. 😂

[@Sisanf]

Great video man! I started to adapt my screenplays into books, and the challenge has been trying to leverage the book form. This stuff is super useful!

[@Bookfox]

You can do it!

[@TylerMatthewHarris]

I think this is fantastic advice , even for screenwriters

[@BackupChannel-nq6fg]

I might do that final exercise with Sam’s speech from LOTR

[@TheDeathApart]

So glad you have a KZbin channel! Just came from your website, it was so helpful! Thank you!

[@Bookfox]

You are so welcome!

[@RonaldLeeBunch]

I read a lot more now and watch less tv.

[@lolap9968]

Love these videos! Short, sweet, useful and original. New favourite channel!

[@Bookfox]

Glad you like them! Many more videos to come!

[@TaeKimFinancialTortoise]

Excellent!

[@Bookfox]

Thanks!

[@philipcalderon37]

Great advice thank you!

[@PaulRWorthington]

That was a really well-made video. Informative and entertaining.

[@freedomthroughspirit]

Your videos are SO fun and informative! I am a happy new subscriber.

[@Bookfox]

Welcome aboard!

[@tristanthornton735]

You said “Flowers from the Killer Moon.” Did you mean “Killers of the Flower Moon?” Anyway, great video! 5:13

[@oldguyinstanton]

Damn. Even more great advice.

[@Bookfox]

Thank you! Glad it helped.

[@alfredomaclaughlin1185]

Great video, snappy delivery! Loved the strong man fallacy, LOL

[@Bookfox]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@lindenstromberg6859]

The Dark Knight scenes are based on the key shot from Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious.

[@claduke]

Makes sense, because that specific scene is a good use of Hitchcock’s perspective of “never use an establishing shot ONLY to establish.”

[@aix83]

Where was this video 6 years ago when I needed to be told novels need interiority...

[@Wrenhollow-arts]

Oh sugar honey ice tea- he punched the straw man fallacy😂

[@muratisik6956]

Great video! What novel would you recommend that does the pacing in the story extremely well?

[@Bookfox]

Read "City of Thieves" by David Benioff.

[@muratisik6956]

@@Bookfox I didn't know Benioff was also a novelist. (As everybody I know him from Game of Thrones)

[@robertrdbrooks7658]

Got it! Don't depend on sight so much, consider other senses * Pace & progression. Light in the shade it's been called, where there's a fluctuation between speed and action & slow sensation. It's not always hard pounding heavy metal, or calm classical strumming. Use, all the tools in the toolbox. I can watch you all day! Thank You! I've learned so much already from your channel I stumbled on last week! Thank You! 👍💥

[@Bookfox]

So glad I could help!

[@ChristopherSzewczyk]

Do you have an opinion on reading books versus listening to audiobooks? I tend to read nonfiction but listen to fiction.

[@Bookfox]

Both are reading. Both are great.

[@TheGoddon]

Talked to a bunch of novelists who didn’t think they need to read books? Stop socialising with them TikTokers, dude.

[@Yombleflobber]

Timing is weird. I was reading back through one of my stories out loud and thought that I had a background character teleport. Turns out, I just hadn't made a scene FEEL like time had passed. A fairly significant amount of time. Enough that the background character could, feasibly, shower, go back downstairs, and start his reading exercises. So I went back and added a dream sequence that made it feel like the main character took longer than a two-second nap (which she did). Writing through this right now I think I could have just inserted what amounts to an establishing shot of the background character waking up the napping main character by stomping down the hall. Eh. Conveying the modulated flow of time is difficult, and takes a lot of practice. Immersion is such a delicate flower, and if you crank the blower handle too hard, the petals might fly right off instead of burning at a steady, satisfying pace. I agree with all of this video (and, as another commenter noted, very neat, clean video editing). To the overall advice to Read More Books I would add that sometimes I am really intimidated by well-written books. It isn't particularly often that I feel like I have a lot to add to them, as it were (and usually I just focus on my inadequacies). I have found that reading poorly-written books engages the more analytical side of my brain, and I sometimes think more positively about fixing those areas that are lacking in my own stories. Lois McMaster Bujold's Sharing Knife universe is half-finished. The main character is stagnant, there's a supreme race that is justifiably racist somehow, and the magic system feels made up on the fly. With the bones exposed, we have such thought-provoking ideas as: How might this scene be better written? How could this world be better presented so it doesn't feel like I went to a national park and it was literally just some rich guy's huge lawn with a pond or two thrown in? How can I integrate accents and idioms without it feeling hecka corny? Why is the main character painted as a strong female lead, but she's literally wrong about everything? And weak? Seriously, what is up with this book? Patrick Rothfuss describes music so I can feel the same reading a book as I do listening to an aria, and I have no idea how he does it, nor can I hope to achieve that level of prose. It's hard to get past this mindset. Also, I have to say I was more able to recognize the Better Version of some things after reading the Inferior Version. It pays to mix and match. Anyway. Long comment. Hopefully you get more Engagement, because I do think movies can have a detrimental effect, and it is refreshing to hear it articulated so well.

[@robertrdbrooks7658]

Question: What's the difference between (internals) and filler words, telling, flashbacks, and info dumping. I'd like to show, my reader's what's going on inside, however, I'd feel like I'd be committing a big, no-no. ☝️💥☝️

[@5Gburn]

I hope you took the opportunity to find these things out for yourself--because they are wildly, OBVIOUSLY different.

[@the7thseven873]

Hey! That’s the guy that hates movies! 🫵 😂