I watch a lot of movies. Not a good or a bad trait… just a trait of mine. Many of the movies I love are torn apart by critics and snarked at by my family. But I go to see these movies for my own emotional reaction to them. I can sit back and just enjoy. No heavy thought involved.
Then there are the movies which really do make me think. They evoke an entirely different emotional reaction to me. One such movie was Inception. There were a lot of things I took away from this movie. For one, the ending in another film would have left me feeling cheated with no closure but instead, like I think the character was feeling, it simply didn’t matter anymore. Another was the world building. Watching them create these dreams with everything they wanted… from the real world or a complete fantasy… was fascinating for me.
Isn’t this similar to what we do as writers? We create worlds… landscapes for our characters to play in. Some of us get really detailed in descriptions of the worlds while others keep it bare bones. A piece of advice from the movie given to the new dream architect went something along the lines of only putting in enough detail to make the dream seem real then let the dreamer fill in the blanks. This struck a chord with me as I am always struggling over how much detail to include. The landscapes in my imagination aren’t always so complete either but it doesn’t hinder my enjoyment of the characters or action. Why would it hinder the story I’m writing?
This applies to the characters too. Another struggle I have is in character physical detail. Unlike the landscape, my characters are always very vivid in my imagination. But I don’t always pay attention to those physical details. Why not? Because they really do not impact the story itself. For example, one character in By The Pen is Triston. He feels so real to me but the only physical trait which really stands out, and is mentioned a couple of times in the story draft, is his eyes. To someone who knows him they are a reflection of what he thinks and feels. To someone who doesn’t know him they are unreadable unless he wants the person to know what’s inside. One of my beta readers referred to his personality as refined. That made me smile. I would have said Triston was controlled.
So his eyes are important but is the rest of his physical description? He has to be capable of doing his job which can be very physical at times. Does being in charge reflect into his description? Those aspects come from my mental image but would that image be the same one a reader would associate with these important aspects of his personality? I don’t think so. So what is more important… that the reader see him exactly as I do or that they see him reflecting the important personality traits?
It’s something I am trying to keep in mind as I edit this story and write others.
SK
Then there are the movies which really do make me think. They evoke an entirely different emotional reaction to me. One such movie was Inception. There were a lot of things I took away from this movie. For one, the ending in another film would have left me feeling cheated with no closure but instead, like I think the character was feeling, it simply didn’t matter anymore. Another was the world building. Watching them create these dreams with everything they wanted… from the real world or a complete fantasy… was fascinating for me.
Isn’t this similar to what we do as writers? We create worlds… landscapes for our characters to play in. Some of us get really detailed in descriptions of the worlds while others keep it bare bones. A piece of advice from the movie given to the new dream architect went something along the lines of only putting in enough detail to make the dream seem real then let the dreamer fill in the blanks. This struck a chord with me as I am always struggling over how much detail to include. The landscapes in my imagination aren’t always so complete either but it doesn’t hinder my enjoyment of the characters or action. Why would it hinder the story I’m writing?
This applies to the characters too. Another struggle I have is in character physical detail. Unlike the landscape, my characters are always very vivid in my imagination. But I don’t always pay attention to those physical details. Why not? Because they really do not impact the story itself. For example, one character in By The Pen is Triston. He feels so real to me but the only physical trait which really stands out, and is mentioned a couple of times in the story draft, is his eyes. To someone who knows him they are a reflection of what he thinks and feels. To someone who doesn’t know him they are unreadable unless he wants the person to know what’s inside. One of my beta readers referred to his personality as refined. That made me smile. I would have said Triston was controlled.
So his eyes are important but is the rest of his physical description? He has to be capable of doing his job which can be very physical at times. Does being in charge reflect into his description? Those aspects come from my mental image but would that image be the same one a reader would associate with these important aspects of his personality? I don’t think so. So what is more important… that the reader see him exactly as I do or that they see him reflecting the important personality traits?
It’s something I am trying to keep in mind as I edit this story and write others.
SK
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