How to Use Cinematic Tactics to Keep Your Novel 3D:
You’ve heard it a thousand times. “Show, don’t tell.” You’ve been frustrated with this phrase enough to slam your head against every good book you ever read. What are you doing wrong?
Re-think your approach to the world of fiction. Are you focusing too strenuously on any one part of the work? Maybe you’re looking too far ahead into the overall picture of your life goals. You want to use big words that evoke emotions for generations. You triple re-read that paragraph to make sure the words in a sentence alliterate. Language is your passion. Friend, it’s just like first love. You’re so high on the bells that you’ve been blindsided.
True beauty in fiction isn’t the writer’s choice of fancy words. …show more content…
If you keep yourself invisible in the prose, then your writing will come to 3-D Technicolor life. As the great Steven Spielberg once said: “you get to dream for a living”. Be simplistic, subconscious and vivid as your dreams and you won’t go wrong.
1. Use Chekhov’s Gun:
Perhaps you’ve already heard of this one? Inspired by the theater master Anton Chekhov, this principle calls you to take every unique “prop” that you have in a story and make it irreplaceable to the plot as a whole. If it doesn’t build your world in a way that is critical, cut it. You’re setting a stage not making a splatter painting.
2. Lighting …show more content…
Simply put, this is where the lights are focused on the subject, usually the character within the scene, from behind. Think back story=back lighting. Too much backstory in the scene, like overhead light glare, will blind the audience to the character. Too little will make the character obscure. Cast light with little glimpses of detail and cast shadow by withholding interesting tidbits. Make soft-blurring grays at the edges by partially revealing something. Add mystery. Make riddles only you can solve. World build so that you have a planet, but only show your reader a pebble.
3. Color:
Again, this is something physical you will have to abstract for your purposes. You’ll need to use words to evoke the stimulation of pigments. Think like a screen designer. What is the cinema using to “pretty” up their images? What kind of color schemes do they use depending on genre? Study this closely. It’s easier than busting out a camera man’s tech manual. Observe for yourself. Watch a movie and make note of the colors. In the X-Files, the lights were often turned low and the colors were dim grays, navy blues. This eludes to crime, the creeps, horror, or an undertone of dread. Now watch Grease. Funky off-tone pinks, purples, and reds. Evokes a sense of pop’s rebellious streak, fun and dance, yeah? Okay, look at film stills of 27 Dresses. See the same pastel pinks as I do? Just screams silly, girlish rom-com, doesn’t
You’ve heard it a thousand times. “Show, don’t tell.” You’ve been frustrated with this phrase enough to slam your head against every good book you ever read. What are you doing wrong?
Re-think your approach to the world of fiction. Are you focusing too strenuously on any one part of the work? Maybe you’re looking too far ahead into the overall picture of your life goals. You want to use big words that evoke emotions for generations. You triple re-read that paragraph to make sure the words in a sentence alliterate. Language is your passion. Friend, it’s just like first love. You’re so high on the bells that you’ve been blindsided.
True beauty in fiction isn’t the writer’s choice of fancy words. …show more content…
If you keep yourself invisible in the prose, then your writing will come to 3-D Technicolor life. As the great Steven Spielberg once said: “you get to dream for a living”. Be simplistic, subconscious and vivid as your dreams and you won’t go wrong.
1. Use Chekhov’s Gun:
Perhaps you’ve already heard of this one? Inspired by the theater master Anton Chekhov, this principle calls you to take every unique “prop” that you have in a story and make it irreplaceable to the plot as a whole. If it doesn’t build your world in a way that is critical, cut it. You’re setting a stage not making a splatter painting.
2. Lighting …show more content…
Simply put, this is where the lights are focused on the subject, usually the character within the scene, from behind. Think back story=back lighting. Too much backstory in the scene, like overhead light glare, will blind the audience to the character. Too little will make the character obscure. Cast light with little glimpses of detail and cast shadow by withholding interesting tidbits. Make soft-blurring grays at the edges by partially revealing something. Add mystery. Make riddles only you can solve. World build so that you have a planet, but only show your reader a pebble.
3. Color:
Again, this is something physical you will have to abstract for your purposes. You’ll need to use words to evoke the stimulation of pigments. Think like a screen designer. What is the cinema using to “pretty” up their images? What kind of color schemes do they use depending on genre? Study this closely. It’s easier than busting out a camera man’s tech manual. Observe for yourself. Watch a movie and make note of the colors. In the X-Files, the lights were often turned low and the colors were dim grays, navy blues. This eludes to crime, the creeps, horror, or an undertone of dread. Now watch Grease. Funky off-tone pinks, purples, and reds. Evokes a sense of pop’s rebellious streak, fun and dance, yeah? Okay, look at film stills of 27 Dresses. See the same pastel pinks as I do? Just screams silly, girlish rom-com, doesn’t