How to Watch TV Like a Novelist Part Two: Questioning the Plot

All right, so last time we talked about characters. Today, let’s discuss plot. Here are some questions to ask yourself when watching TV to inform your own writing:

1) Why did they choose to end the scene there? (And where do you think they are going to pick up when the commercial starts?)

This is what you should wonder when the show skips to commercial, or at the end of the show. Did the scene end at a cliffhanger? Do you still feel interested enough to keep watching, or could you turn off the TV/stop watching the show and not care what happens next? Thinking about the answers to these questions can help you figure out where to end your scenes and chapters.

2) Subplots– do they add to the main plot or detract from it?

Sometimes if the main storyline is too dramatic, TV show writers will add in scenes designed to be lighter in mood or funny to keep us from wanting to turn off the TV. Other times however, side plots just seem to get in the way of what’s going on. Examine your own writing and make sure your subplots are important in some way.

3) Overarching storylines–Where are they going with this?

It’s very difficult to watch a TV show that doesn’t have some underlying story that connects the threads of the episodes. Shows that have some underlying story to them (like Monk’s wife’s death, or the central mystery of the island in Lost) keep us interested. But when they lose sight of the central story, it’s easier for us to stop caring about missing episodes. Likewise, when you’re writing, try not to lose track of where you’re going with the story, otherwise, your readers will get bored.

Next time: Details, details.

#writing #writingtips #abc #tipsfromtv #lost #monk #usa

Book Review: The Game by Diana Wynne Jones

The Game by Diana Wynne Jones

(spoiler alert) I picked this book up at the library when I was there looking for something else completely. I’ve been wanting to read one of Jones’s books and the description on the cover about magic and mythology really sucked me in. I love a good fantasy novel.

At first glance, the idea seems a genuinely good one: what would happen if the constellations came to life as real people? I imagine this book is meant to appeal to the Percy Jackson set (I still haven’t read those books). But in practice, the book was difficult to follow and slightly..well…boring (is there a nicer way of saying this?).

Diana Wynne Jones is obviously a masterful writer. One sentence is still memorable to me after closing the book: “Martya was a big strong girl with hair like the white silk fringes on Grandma’s parlour furniture–soft, straight hair that was always swirling across her round pink face.” Lovely. But memorable images and interesting characters are not enough for a good book–what is missing for me is a solid plot.

I’ve summed up the premise in the story in one sentence, but it actually takes quite a while of reading to get there. She starts out introducing an incredibly cute main character and her rambunctious, colorful family, but then when the actual driving conflict is introduced…it all becomes a winding mess. “The game” itself is strange and a little too ethereal to really get a good sense of what is going on. It almost reads as a giant inside joke that is hard to follow for everyone else.

I have heard lots of good things about Jones’s other books (including Howl’s Moving Castle, the movie of which I liked a lot), so I am hardly going to stop reading her writing, but I think perhaps this novel would appeal more to her fans rather than someone reading her books for the first time.

#bookreview #dianawynnejones #thegame #howlsmovingcastle #movies #YA

Book Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfield

I borrowed this book from the library because I couldn’t wait for the friend I was going to borrow it from to get back from Australia. I was about to say I’m glad I did, but because it ended with a cliffhanger, I kind of wish I’d waited :) Now I have to wait to borrow the rest of the books in the series..

Anyway, the book is about a young girl named Tally who is living in a post-apocalyptic future where everyone gets major reconstructive surgery to look “pretty” as soon as they turn 16. But of course things don’t turn out the way she hopes and she has to decide whether to betray her friend and get the operation she wants or to stay “ugly” forever.

This book has it all: romance, adventure, plot twists, and unforgettable characters. My only problem with it though was that I didn’t like the premise as much as I thought I would. I felt that the whole being a “Pretty” versus being an “Ugly” thing was more heavy-handed and moralizing than I would have liked. And I got more than a little annoyed at just the repetition of the words “Uglies” and “Pretties”. Everything in the world seemed to carry one of these names and it became quite wearing. I also disliked one of the reveals that we learn halfway through the book.***

But once I got past that, the book really did take hold. I really love how the author isn’t afraid to be mean to his main character (something I’m trying to do in my own writing). Bad things happen to her and some of them are her own fault, and this serves to really suck you in to the story just to find out how (or if) Tally gets out of trouble.

I really hope my friend gets back from Australia soon so I can borrow the rest of the series…

***major spoiler alert**** okay, so the Pretties turn out to have damage done to their brains as part of the operation! What?! To me this reads as: it’s better to be ugly because pretty people are stupid. Oh, unless you have a “thinking” job like surgeon or police officer. Sigh. This was just one step too far for me, though I think the author just meant it to be a stronger motivation behind not wanting to get the operation.

#bookreview #ecodystopia #scottwesterfield #dystopia #uglies #YA #scifi