Eight

Okay, so now we’re knee deep into the start of the year, and I really hope we’re getting better at keeping those creative juices flowing. There are a lot of things to distract us in life, but we have to keep going. It’s the law of the Divine. Rani Divine, that is.

Horrible joke.

Anyway…

Watch Fictional Television

Bet you didn't see that one coming! Most people tell me that television is the enemy of good writing, that it spoils everything on a very deep level and turns everything into the same drivel. But I don't think they're right. 

There’s a lot that we can learn about what people are looking for in a good book, by knowing what they’re looking for in a good show. At least, I’ve found it to be a good gauge for what people are looking for. If you disagree for yourself, so be it, but you’re a creative so I’m not sure you count anyway.

Back on track: Remember that these days, people like serials.

Don’t know what a serial is? Allow me to explain.

Remember how in older shows, like Star Trek or MacGyver, a whole story was contained to one short episode. At most, the plot extended to three episodes, and that was usually reserved for season finales or openers. These days, we don’t do that anymore. We do serials. That’s where the storyline, the plot, is continuous throughout a season, or throughout a show. I’ll use Stargate as an example, because I know that one. Seasons 1-8 of Stargate are not serial. You can pick out any one episode and watch it, without having to know too much about what’s going on in the background. But if you watch an episode from the middle of season 9, you might get confused. There’s a new villain, and things change with that villain from episode to episode. The show was now a serial. 

People don’t want their stories contained to a single episode anymore, generally, but they do like the episodic nature of story.

We can use that, we writers.

Try writing your stories in an episodic nature. Think of your chapters as episodes of a television show, where they each have to have an arc, a plot, but they should all center around the same story (so your chapters are your episodes, and your novel is your season). And if you’re not sure how to do that, well then, you’re just going to have to watch more television.

Oh, darn. ;-)

But really, that’s what we can learn from fiction—and that's just the beginning, if you think about it. Fictional television is also a great place to find some new ideas. There’ve been a lot of very out-there stories going on on telie lately, and it’s our job as writers to sift through them and find some usable material (because many of those shows were very obviously not usable).

That, my friends, is a good reason to go watch some TV. 

See? I just gave you an excuse to be a couch potato sometimes. You're welcome. 

[love]

{Rani D.}