Lessons for Writers from New Moon, the movie

I spoke to several people today to get their opinion of New Moon. The sentiment was the same: it was good, but not as good as Twilight. They had no plans to go back for another viewing, though several of them saw Twilight multiple times. What's the difference? As I said on Sunday's post-it's the focus of the movie: Bella's inner angst and turmoil. It's hard to make those kinds of emotions exciting and attention grabbing on screen.

What can a writer learn from this? Something you've probably been warned about many times. Watch out for filling your pages with too much inner dialogue, the character's inner thoughts and ruminations. Yes, some of this is necessary, but you have to be careful not to drift into too much exposition. You don't want to tell the story via your characters thoughts. You want to allow your reader to experience the story dramatically at the same time the character is. Keep things as active and observable as possible. This keeps the story fresh, interesting and in present time-where the reader wants to be.
Toodles!