Are You Writing a Book or a Movie?
Writing a book requires a different approach than writing a movie. Each medium has different strengths, particularly with viewpoint. In his book on screenwriting, George Lucas briefly discusses the difference in approach between writing a movie or a book. Since this question lies at the heart of so many problems that I see with new […]
Dos and Don’ts for Writing Viewpoint Voice
Many readers and editors state that a strong voice immediately draws them into a story, and one of the most important voices will come from your viewpoint character. But even when you’ve developed their personality and voice, it can still be tricky to actually get them on the page. Here are nine dos and don’ts […]
Tightening Your Focus
Tell the story from that person’s point of view. This is especially true if you have multiple protagonists, because it means that you will need to characterize those people by showing just how differently they relate to the world. Seeing the word through their eyes and being immersed in how that character thinks and feels, requires tightening your focus.
Tightening Your Focus
When you’re writing a tale, it almost always turns out better if you get deep into the head of your protagonist and tell the story from that person’s point of view. This is especially true if you have multiple protagonists, because it means that you will need to characterize those people by showing just how […]
How to Write a Damned Good Scene, Part 2: Who Owns the Scene?
Many new authors will open a tale by telling us about their character: “Johnny Appleseed was a nice little kid with red hair and freckles.” They may want to tell us about how he loves to ride his bike around town and terrorize bluebirds and cats with his slingshot, how he loves his mom and […]
Handling Multiple Viewpoints
When you’re writing a novel, you will find that if you stick to only one point of view, it can be rather stifling. The problem becomes that your protagonist must always be doing something interesting—fighting the good fight, running from villains, solving crimes, falling in and out of love, and so on. Not only does […]
The Key to Making Your Book Better than the Movie
You’ve all experienced this: you went to a movie that was based on a book, and on the way out of the theater you heard the comments from others: “Oh, the book was soooo much better!” There are two reasons why this is almost always true: The book is far more immersive than the film. It allows […]
Are You Writing a Book, or a Movie?
As a novelist, you’re most likely to tell a story in a way that your audience will experience it. In other words, you will typically stick to one or two viewpoints for major characters. You’ll tell us how the story unfolds making sure to use all of the senses—sight, sound, smell, taste, feel—and you’ll also touch deeply on the internal thoughts and feelings of your character. By doing this, you can maximize the strengths of the novel as a storytelling medium.
Touching Your Audience Deeply through Viewpoint
My friend James Dashner has his movie The Scorch Trials out this week, and the audiences are loving it overall, but I suspect that if you listen in to the viewers as they come out of the theatre, you will hear the comment over and over, “The book was better.” I was just talking a […]