Monday, November 23, 2009

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!

4 comments:

  1. I prefered Twilight (book) to new moon (book) but i really have to say i much prefered NM (movie) to TW (movie) - there seemed to be more going on and was better portrayed than TW movie (which i almost slept through).

    just my 2 cents - good advuce about writing though :)

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  2. Hey,
    In movies as in writing, everything is subjective. Go figure! :)
    Team Edward or Team Jacob? LOL

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  3. Hmm... I actually liked New Moon better than Twilight. Yet. I like the book Twilight better than New Moon. My point in liking NM better though is because of the acting of Kristen S. I thought her acting in Twi was really rather bad so, while I enjoyed the movie it did some work on me. Her acting greatly improved in NM.

    I'm also an action junkee - so those action scenes just rocked my world.

    New follower, stalking you now from Bookblogs on ning. Enjoyed myself reading through your blog. Welcome to blogging. Stop by sometime and visit. - Parajunkee

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  4. Thanks for the warm welcome Parajunkee. I thought New Moon did have good action scenes and my favorite part was when Edward fought the Voltari to protect Bella. I started reading a rather long book and I want to finish that before I sink my teeth into New Moon. I've heard people say they like Twilight the book better even if they prefer New Moon the movie, so I'm curious to see what side of the fence I'm going to fall on.

    I agree about Kristen S. She did a fine job in New Moon, but I like her acting in general anyway.

    I'm going to check out your blog now!
    June

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I enjoy reading what you have to say. Seriously!