How to WATCH like a WRITER

[@BookFurnace]

How did your writerholic demon react to this video?

[@dominikstarck5340]

My demon was like "So you're watching KZbin to procastinate now? Good. How about some more YT? This way you'll never finish your day's writing schedule." But hey, I enjoyed the video and I consider watching films or TV as part of the job. Same with reading. It just... Sometimes it just feels wrong.

[@romantikhonov3967]

I am not a writer, but the tips are great anyway! Especially, learning from mistakes - I did something like at the most boring classes in my university. It really helps to convert boredom or hate to curiosity and even joy :)

[@bencowles2105]

excellent tips. I actually try to schedule time for writing. I started by setting aside two hours a week just to write. Now I write for two to four hours a day. and yes, when I need inspiration, I like to listen to music or watch movies. sometimes it is good also make time to read and learn from other authors. by observing not just the story but how the story unfolds. I am glad I found your channel. you just got one more subscriber.

[@BookFurnace]

Thank you for your kind feedback! and welcome to the furnace :)

[@jamesbramwell6547]

Thanks for this. We writers need to write regularly, but not necessarily daily. Trying to write in the evening after a hard day at work might not be achievable, but maybe writing once a week on your day off. Or on the train into work, might be achievable. This was a great video. Watching TV like this could be very useful for me. Watching bad TV is also very encouraging, because at least I'm left thinking that I could do better than that!

[@schokistange]

Since i am suffering from an eye condition atm (among other problems), your last words hit hard. Thanks for your content.

[@BookFurnace]

Thank you for your feedback! Sending you my kind wishes. I hope your conditions improve or, at least, get more manageable!

[@ellasarax]

this was recommended - never seen your channel before - and I loved it! interesting tips and well paced. keep it up! :)

[@BookFurnace]

Thank you for your kind feedback, it means a lot to me :)

[@tiredman4540]

Nice to come to not just a writer's channel but an SF writer's channel - will be following your tips from now on!

[@BookFurnace]

Welcome to the furnace :) I made a discord server also, I hope that it might grow into a community of scifi readers and writers discord.gg/CF4fjSY2Ef Just one note - I am still an unpublished author, so don't forget to take my advice/tips with a grain of salt, haha :)

[@stews9]

Using the water was a direct mirror image of Charlton Heston using the soap and shower in SOYLENT GREEN, itself rooted in MAKE ROOM, MAKE ROOM by Harry Harrison.

[@BookFurnace]

Thank you, I didn't know that! By an interesting coincidence, I'd planned to watch Soylent Green for the first time, together with my friend, on the day before I made this video, but we had to postpone.

[@damunzy]

I just posted that but decided to delete and post here instead "I just realized that the shower scene might be a homage to the movie Soylent Green (1973). In that movie the main actor, who is also a cop, ran out of water midshower that morning and ends up taking a shower at a crime scene!"

[@johnjapuntich3306]

I catch myself doing this all the time...Great video!

[@JDMorose]

You're going to get a quick following. Your tips are useful, and your analysis is sharp. Keep going!

[@BookFurnace]

From your lips to God's ears, haha :) Thank you very much for your kind words, I will keep going indeed! :)

[@igorwriter702]

Great tips :)

[@BookFurnace]

Thank you :)

[@williamgiovinazzo8523]

While I understand, and in a lot of ways agree with what you are saying, the best source of writers to learn their craft is to READ. Too many people LISTEN to books and watch movies, then go off an want to be a writer. To be a good writer, you need to read. Rather than relax in front of the tube, sit with a good book.

[@BookFurnace]

I think it's hard to beat reading, but I'd like to defend listening, especially if done with full attention and increases the total number of books read. I.e. it might be better to carefully listen to 2 books than to read 1.

[@williamgiovinazzo8523]

@@BookFurnace I am not an opponent of listening to books. It is a good tool to hear how others tell stories. It is a good thing. However, it is critical that if a person is going to put words on paper, that they eyes-on-paper read. When you read, you get a sense of punctuation, paragraph structure, and paragraphing. These are things that cannot be communicated with a voice. You need to understand these things if you are going to write. It is also much easier to take notes and refer back to a book. This is something I do frequently with non-fiction. However, it really isn't a case of either/or. As I said, I do both. I read books in the evening. During the day, when I am in the car and walking, I listen. Both a good tools.

[@futurestoryteller]

There are so many "Read like a Writer" videos out there, reading, in general has unfortunately been one of my biggest problems since I reached adulthood. But I have NEVER had this problem. Some of my best ideas for scenes come from thinking about the best alternatives to ones I've seen. I'll give two examples, one is a relatively minor spoiler for the show "Dexter," and the other is a major spoiler for the movie "Bad Times at the El Royale" In one "Dexter" scene a vigilante is trying to exact fatal justice against the man who tried to murder her. However, he gets the upper hand, and she ends up in the trunk of his car. As it turns out he's pretty famous and while stopped on the road outside a gas station a nearby witness hears her banging and screaming inside the trunk, and tries to get a good look at the driver's face, so he speeds off. It immediately struck me that the smartest thing the murderer could do in this situation is drive to someplace slightly out of the way and set her free. He already knows she tried to kill him, that she wants to, _feels the need to,_ because of what he did to her. Even if she wanted to, she can't prove that he tried to kill her anyway. If he's pulled over while she's in the trunk her story will be the *only* explanation worth entertaining. What would the cops do if they pull over this famous guy, because someone said "I heard a woman in the trunk" only to discover no indication that anyobody was ever in there? Even if she goes to the cops, what's she going to say? The idea that he would let her go would sound so far-fetched that another witness will mean very little, and she'd have to tell them everything, including that she tried to kill him. So they might entertain the idea that she is exercising a vendetta, just not the one she claims to be. Plus, from his perspective, she'll want another shot at him. Letting her go would give her that opportunity, and free him up to keep an eye on her, maybe even manufacture a self-defense argument once she finally swings back around to it. Once you go through it all, it almost seems like the *only* thing he could do is let her go. So what do you think he does? No (more) spoilers. This style of thinking, if you want to call it that, is similar to the "Justified." There's a scene of a man tied to a chair about to be tortured, when the Feds arrive he claims the man who tied him up, and himself, were just playing bondage games, because he doesn't want to be a snitch, and because he's safe for now either way, since even if they left him there it would be too dangerous for the kidnapper to kill or even torture him. Of course the cops don't believe him, but what are they going to do about it if the victim says he's not a victim? In "Bad Times at the El Royale" Jeff Bridges plays a character who tells the skeptical protagonist he's suffering from dementia, he's dressed as a priest but he's actually an old bank robber. To truncate (or mostly skip over, really) a very convoluted story, at the end he and that same woman he confided in are rescued by a very guilt ridden young war veteran who consequently asks the "priest" to say a prayer for him as he lay dying. The theif hesitates but the woman gives him a _look._ So he does it. Even though the building is burning down around them. And I _couldn't _*_believe_* that *_that_* scene didn't end with him asking her as they left. "Wait. Am I really a priest?" "Yes, you are, let's go." "Because I used to be a bank robber you know?" "I know, you told me." Maybe some people would have found that "jokey" but it actually really fits with the themes the scene itself was trying to get across, and it's a crazy missed opportunity. It's not even the only idea I got from watching that movie, it's just the one I'm least likely to use because of its peculiar specificity.

[@Styerson]

Ahahaha, I m struggling with the 4th advice too, my wife hates le because of that, but its sooo hard not to say anything xD

[@frankula540]

okay dracula

[@anikdasdigital]

Wow, your videos are amazing. I really like it. Can I talk with you?

[@BookFurnace]

Thabk you. And sure, you can join our discord and reach out to me there:)

[@anikdasdigital]

@@BookFurnace Thanks