Weekly blog

Lately I've been noticing just how important it is to portray something you are composing in a light that makes it appealing to your audience. Particularly in movies -- the build-up of horror, the climax of drama, the twist in suspense, the satisfaction in comedy. And in tv shows, the way a show is edited can truly attract or repel viewers. I watch "The Hills," for example, and I am the first to admit that it is a horrible show. The characters seem pointless and generally pretty boring; sometimes the plot is wildly dramatic yet resolutions seem absurdly difficult to attain. Other times, the plot is made out to be dramatic but at the end of the episode, the viewer feels slightly disappointed in the lack of substance. However, the show is so attractively presented, complete with catchy music, characters that you love to hate or hate to love, stylish clothing, and gorgeous shots of Los Angeles, that you want to tune in every week almost for the glamour of the show rather than the show itself.

Anyway, this relates to writing because when you write your opening line and continue through your introduction, you have to set up your piece in a way that sucks in whatever audience you are aiming to captivate. (Because I don't think anyone writes without the intention of influencing, informing, or at least entertaining the reader.) In my first short story, my group gave me a suggestion to enhance character development SO minor, at first I hesitated to accept that it would have such a major impact on setting up a brief but significant background on my mentally challenged main character's broken relationship with his "lost" father (how the father was lost was vague in my draft). Anyway, my classmates suggested that I simply mention one line regarding the main character's hesitation in setting up a place for his father at the dinner table - I know this makes no sense to the other half of the class, but it was a brief portrayal of a petty act that carried immense weight and meaning in the main character's development, and carried the reader along -- much like how the glossy depiction of random people's generally boring lives in an exciting city can be captivating to an audience.