Friday, December 9, 2022

My craft talk last night

"What We Can Learn about Writing from Reality TV"

Great editing. Amazing curation. We don’t see everything (bathroom breaks and such), nor do we have to unless it’s germane to the story. Comes off as fast and furious in reality shows, bur doesn’t necessarily need to. It just needs to be there in some strong structural form.

 

Repeated takes until it works. I realized this just yesterday when I was watching Hell’s Kitchen and they showed Gordon saying the same thing twice in different ways. Obviously they had done more than one take. Similarly, you will do way more than one take as you produce your work, whether it’s a short story, poem, novel-length work, or whatever.

 

You’re the director. It’s your job to orchestrate narrative structure as well as blocking and choreography so that we understand what’s going on here. Let your directorial muscle lapse and you’ll see it in sloppy writing.

 

Memorable personalities. You don’t go on a reality show if you’re bland. Likewise, bland characters are boring.

 

Tension. These people want things. They’re willing to go to great lengths to get them. How does this affect the interpersonal and community dynamic? The more tension the better!

 

Location has a purpose. These people are put there for a reason. That reason plays into  who they are and what they are willing to do to get what they want.


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