Want to Be a Better Fiction Writer? Watch More Movies
A picture is worth a 1,000 words.
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“Tell us, Mr. Hogan, how watching movies will make a writer a better writer.”
“Stay with me now. Film is a visual art.”
“Okay.”
“The director or the filmmaker doesn’t want the actors standing around just talking.”
“I’ve seen lots of movies where the actors do a lot of talking.”
“Hum. Let’s approach this from a different angle. Have you ever seen the old silent film The Great Train Robbery?”
“We screened it in my Silent Film Class last semester at Pitt.”
“My alma mater. What did you think?”
“I was amazed that a story could be told without one line of dialogue. The copy we had didn’t even have inter-titles.”
“I don’t think the original had any, either. So, what can a writer learn about writing by watching film?”
“I see…A story can be told just as well through the actions of the characters as through their words.”
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June 17th, 2009 at 7:22 am
A good tip! Aristotelian…I’d like to incorporate it in my work even more.
June 17th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Joey:
One of the reasons I like Hemingway’s best work is because he projects character through a sequence of action. If a writer can do this and add it to dialogue the story is even more alive for the reader.