Writing Craft
Craft
Your writing craft is by far the most important thing you can focus on in this whole process. But everyone struggles with different parts of the craft. I would slowly go through these and only work on the aspects that you need help with. Otherwise this could take a lifetime.
Plotting and structure resources:
Let us look at an example.
There is a lot of debate about why DC has underperformed compared to Marvel. The argument that has resonated with me is the character arc. In DC the McGuffins and the big CGI moments outway the development of characters. They also don't maintain that character arc through the different films. While Marvel starts with character development and fits the action around them.
Here are some videos that explain it better than me.
Character Arcs are important in your writing and in films. Here are some videos that explain the character arc.
Showing not telling resources:
One of the hardest things to teach is how to Show not Tell in your writing. I thought I would demonstrate what everyone is talking about when they tell you to show not tell. I'm going to do this with short clips and ads as visual language is just as much story telling as writing and hopefully it will make it clearer.
First up let's look at some telling.
Pretty much if you feel like you are narrating your story you are telling. If you watch this without sound this scene doesn't make a lot of sense. When you look at your writing look for the bits that are like a narrator and take them out and ask yourself if what is left actually makes sense.
Let's look at another bad telling story.
The problem with this one is the story teller has a bigger script they are working from but only a little bit of the story gets to the page. It took me ages to figure this one out. First of all the woman is talking about the kid. His father died and because they didn't have insurance they lost the house and kid grew up thinking life pretty much sucked. He then meets a girl and because he doesn't want his family to end up like him he gets insurance so even if he is no longer the luckiest man at least his family would be lucky. A little dark TBH. I really think this was part of a longer ad as the tone changes in the narrators voice and what is left is a mess.
So when you are writing and you feel like you are rushing and a lot of things happen in a very short amount of time then you are most likely telling rather than showing. The sentence before and after should relate to what happened. If it doesn't start thinking why or putting in a paragraph break.
Okay, let's look at something that is all showing.
They tell you right at the start the story is about Kong getting out but this is done with dialogue that is embedded into the story. But then they go on to demonstrate all the times he gets out. As a viewer you start thinking, why keep the silly donkey if it keeps escaping? They throw in the kids saying something cute and your heart melts as you realise that he is doing all this for his kids. Then they get to the last part and you think he is going to build this Fort Knox and then they subvert expectations and another heart melt as you realise the reason he is wandering is because he is lonely.
You could watch this without sound and know exactly what was going on. They take the time to demonstrate the idea over and over again. They show the effect on the man rather than telling you he is exhausted and frustrated.
Telling often is condescending as it is explaining things when if you show you allow the reader to be part of your story.
But telling isn't always evil. There are times when you should tell as you want to jump time and get to the interesting stuff. Here is an example of how you can have telling and showing working together.
This is called imagine and I'm about to throw a curve ball. If the one who one is the one imagining all this how did she know about the nurse at the end? I actually think this is the nurse imagining the woman who she helped by plastering in her ticket. But it could be the other way. I like that the narrator is ambiguous. The woman adds in a little telling and then shows how it happened. Coming back to telling when she needs to jump time.
Look at your own writing and see if you can add more showing.
Point of view resources:
Grammarly guide to point of view
Dialogue resources:
The Room is considered the worst movie ever made. There is one aspect that annoys me and a mistake many people make when they are writing stories or creating movies and that is the chit chat.
When writing a scene should be concise. When you start a story you will have only so much currency with your audience. You can increase your currency with your audience if you give them a good premise and good writing. But every time you flub something you lose some currency with your audience. Nothing loses your currency with your audience faster than wasting their time.
Dialogue needs to communicate a lot of information in as few words as possible. So here are some things you should avoid when you are writing dialogue:
1. Greetings
2. Talking about things you can show
3. Exposition
4. Stories
5. Explaining things
6. Every day stuff
You can get away with some of this but be aware you only have a certain amount of currency and you don't want to squander it.
Before you write your dialogue brainstorm what elements you want to hit. Here is an example below.
They haven't seen each other in ages, they are in the same dorm room, intro personalities of the two characters, it is a new school.
So I could have them greeting each other and talking about their holidays and their new living arrangements etc. or I can do this.
The squeal was the first hint that Jasmine had seen me. She threw her school bag in the air and ran across the grass that clearly stated students were to stay off and wrapped her arms around me. She swung me around until I was a little dizzy. "Karla, look at you. You actually have a tan. Well, at least you are a little less pale. Florida must have treated you well."
I didn't explain that I had lied to her and instead of Florida I had been in a hospital ward for two months. The tan had come from my mandatory "walks" every day. Jasmine looped her arm through mine and asked, "You won't believe this but we are in the same dorm room. It must be fate." Or her father's influence. When you had a library named after you they went out of their way to make sure you were comfortable at a new school.
Swinging my arm she asked, "So did you meet any cute boys. You am I kidding, of course, you didn't meet cute boys and if you did you wouldn't have done anything about it. Let me tell you about this blonde I met. He was from Italy." She wobbled in a fake swoon as she effortlessly scooped up her bag from the sidewalk and guided me towards the dorm.
You can infer a lot and leave hints for things without telling us everything. The reader is smart enough to figure things out.
Here is an exercise you can do with your own writing. Highlight the dialogue and in another colour highlight action and in a third colour highlight thoughts, and emotions or explaining things. Once you have done this you can see if you can cut down on aspects and balance it out a little more.
Another way to get dialogue right is to act it out. Either pretend to be the different characters or enlist a friend to help you.