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illuminara — Why Writers Should Watch TV
Published: 2009-07-14 02:18:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 5863; Favourites: 160; Downloads: 59
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I’ve heard the argument that writers shouldn’t watch TV and movies because that will inundate them with all the cliché plots and characters out there and somehow brainwash them into not being able to create an original story.Me: *blank stare*
First of all, there is absolutely nothing new under the sun. Therefore, it is impossible to create something totally unique and original no matter how many bad movies you see. Furthermore, the more story lines that enter your brain, the more you realize just how “unique” or not your own story is.
Most importantly, an original story is not a new story. It is simply taking a common idea and combining it with other common ideas to create a new and fresh sequence of otherwise common ideas.
Think of stories like cookies. All the different types of cookies represent different types of genres and plots. Ingredients like chocolate chips and nuts represent characters, and what you put on top represents settings, and baking time represents plot twists and so forth.
Now akin creating a new story to creating a new chocolate chip cookie recipe.
To put it quite frankly, you can’t reinvent the cookie. It would be a crime to even attempt to reinvent the cookie. Likewise, you can’t reinvent the story. Trust me, you don’t want to try. It is impossible--and the leading cause of depression in the creative field.
Not to be discouraged. There are only about a hundred thousand recipes for chocolate chip cookies alone, and that hasn’t stopped anyone from creating even more. Each recipe is uniquely different because it uses slightly different amounts of the same ingredients--or occasionally adds in a few from a different cookie type. Therefore, you have a ton of variations of the exact same cookie, and yet each one tastes a bit different. Genius, right?
In the same way that people create “new” chocolate chip cookie recipes, authors use the same ingredient to create new stories. The trick is to arrange the ingredients in a way that is unique and will taste a bit different from all the other stories out there even though it uses the same exact components.
So pick your story type and stick to it. Don’t try to reinvent it. Here’s a shocker: genres exist solely because people like to read and watch the same things! Everyone has a favorite type of cookie, right? I don’t know about you, but I would feel violated if someone put oatmeal and raisins in chocolate chip cookies. The same goes for stories. My point being, don’t be afraid to repeat ideas. Repeating ideas is good. Fantasy stories sell because people like fantasy.
On the other hand, it’s nice to get a little variety within the chocolate chip cookie realm, such as chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, or crispy cookies, or chewy ones, or sometimes with a few peanut butter chips thrown in. Still, the integrity of the chocolate chip cookie remains.
Just like following a recipe when baking cookies, it is important to follow form when writing a story. Understand the rules of the genre and of the plot type you are writing and stick to them. If you break them, your story will burn, and nobody likes burnt cookies. The ratio is about the same as people who enjoy watching really lame movies. Obviously, though, you can’t follow a form if you don’t know its rules. If nothing else, movies and TV shows are absolutely terrific at following form. They are easy to analyze, so take the time to do so, and you’ll learn all there is to know about story forms.
The trick to “originality” is to give the illusion of creating a new form of exact same thing. Why do TV networks produce so many crime shows? They’re really all the same, but people think they’re unique because each uses a different brand of chocolate chip--they all have their own twist.
Writers should add to their pantry of ideas by going to the theater, paying their cable bill, subscribing to NetFlix, and earning evil looks from their local librarians. Inundating yourself with stories is like having cookie ingredients--and recipes--delivered straight to your brain. Some might leave a bad taste in your mouth, but others could fit perfectly into your next batch of story.
Just add chocolate.
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Comments: 93
*munches cookies*
Anyhow, glad you liked it and it helped your confidence!
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XD i have had oatmeal and raisin choco chip cookies. It was pretty gross. But i love this, so true <3
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lol oatmeal is good with raisins or chocolate chips, but not both. Glad you liked it!
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haha glad you put that out there! I'm an addicted fanfic writer, and like to write my own suck-ish original ideas. And it would always seem like someone had done something already that was similar to one of my ideas!It was a little discouraging. TT.TT This piece helped me realize:
"hey they might have made chocolate chip cookies too, but mine can be better!" 
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That's exactly right! And the thing is, people love chocolate chip cookies, and they're always going to want to eat more of them. That's the only explanation to why TV networks are STILL making more cop shows. XD
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XD and more versions of csi. (wait does that count as a cop show? 
haha and yahh unfortunately for my thunder thighs, i definitely always want more chocolate chip cookies!
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lol I'm not sure. I've never watched CSI. I don't really like cop shows except for a few good ones like Life and Castle.
Dang it, now I want a cookie!
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Oh yes! Exactly how I feel. I thought before 'how could I come up with something everyone would read' and the light went off....by writing it with my voice and putting my own spin on it. Right now I'm stuck in a fan fiction rut and haven't written much in the way of original stuff but one of my many fans told me if you just set up a new world then use all that material you've come up with for the fan fics, you'd have it made.
Well almost right. Dreaming up a new world without accidentally using the copyrighted fan fic will be tough and would it be worth it? What do you think?
Love the article/guide by the way. Thanks for the interesting food analogy.
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Yeah, that's pretty much true. Fan fiction is a great way to get started into original fiction. Basically, it gives you something to work with as you gradually develop your own style and characters and plot.
There's nothing wrong with creating a world and using material from the fan fiction if you're just doing it for fun. It would be a great experience, and you'd learn a lot, so definitely do it if you want to. However, if you tried published afterward, someone would probably notice. Getting published isn't the point of writing, though, so do whatever sounds fun to you.
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I neverthought of iot that way before, but... My God, you're right! To think that I've missed this key component to the psychological analysis of the creative brain is so naive and obsene! I mean... I'M FAVIN' THIS CHIZ!!!
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lol I'm glad you liked it.
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I think it's also important that you concentrate on what you have to say. C.S. Lewis said the reason for writing The Chronicles of Narnia was because that was the best way of getting across the idea that he wanted to convey in his essay "On Three Ways of Writing for Children" (which I think is one of the absolute best guides to answering the question of why a writer writes no matter what genre they write in).
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Have you heard of the website 'TV tropes and idioms'? I recoment checking it out if you haven't, it's pretty cool stuff. (It's also a good way to waste time while pretending to be productive 
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Yeah, I've head of it and bookmarked the page, but I haven't really looked at it yet. I shall have to do that sometime!
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The minute you put cookies in the text, you got me hooked!
I like how you explain that true originality does not exist now. But when its done right with a combo of ingredients, its fresh and the new rave.
And I agree that writers should watch movies, TV, read books, and all that good stuff. It really depends on how you present the similarities that makes it a little different.
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lol!
Indeed. The more stories you read/see, the more you'll know as a writer, not to mention the market research that will help you sell your story when and if you get to that point.
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I like your comparison between cookies and stories. It makes you're essay intresting
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Okay, in my case it's "The Vampire Lestat".
My work has almost the same premise detail--that vampires are revealed to the world. However, I don't think my idea is quite the same when I read the book written by Anne Rice.
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Yeah, a lot of times totally unconnected people will get similar ideas at the exact same time. It's kind of weird and a bit creepy, but it happens. The ideas are never exactly the same, though, because individual people have unique experiences and perspectives that show through in what they write.
Anyhow, good luck with your story!
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Thanks!
Yeah, that whole idea-is-almost-the-same thing is creepy but usually, every person has a different interpretation of it, right?
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Yeah, exactly. 
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I'm just totally confused about it...
But thank you anyway.
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Haha, I'm hungry for cookies now. XD
In all seriousness, I completely agree with this. I've heard a lot of people say that reading or watching movies while I'm working on a story will give me writer's block... But I find it's easier for me to write if I take some time off to read a book or watch TV. It gives me a chance to see things in characters that I may have never thought of, and new things that would be interesting to add to a plot. It gives me a chance to analyze new things and to come back to a story with a new perspective. That's usually how I get over writer's block.
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I want a cookie, too . . .
But yeah, that's exactly the way I see it. Couldn't have said it better myself!
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"The best stories don’t fit in a box, but the good ones do." -- *happy sigh*
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Hehe, I'm particularly proud of that line.
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This is *extremely* true. And the cookie analogy is excellent.
Also, I love how most authors say you can learn from bad writing more easily than good writing... but if you insert television/movies into that equation--*gasp*! Apparently, the basics of good characters/plots/etc. change once you switch from the written word to the spoken.
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lol thanks!
The funny thing about a bad movie is that you can see exactly why it stinks. That's why I think analyzing them is such a good idea. It's a lot easier than trying to analyze a 400+ page novel.
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I KNOW. When it sucks, it's right there in your face. Some bad books are only bad because of their subtext, but movies are almost never that subtle. (Also, watching a movie is much faster than reading a book. You can just be like, "See this sexist subtext? Don't do that!")
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I watch tv and movies with a notebook ready and waiting for inspiration.
I also think it’s a good place to study dialogue. Of course there are differences (with TV information is almost always conveyed externally and in writing it’s more internal), but it helps to listen to conversations and how people speak out loud (while moving a story along) more than reading alone.
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Hehe, that's a good idea! I usually just watch it and write down my thoughts later. Out of curiosity, what TV shows/movies do you get a lot of inspiration from?
Very true. I've learned a lot about dialogue from watching TV and movies, mainly that you can never have too little of it. 
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Inspiration? Um… MASH, Firefly, Sports Night, Castle, Leverage – those are the first to come to mind. I’m noticing the reoccurring theme that all these shows contain an element of humor. Apparently I like the funny.
As far as movies go I’m having trouble settling on any at the moment, but I love a good commentary. There’s a theory that I’m a little sick in the head.
And I totally agree about the magic a good actor can put into spoken words. So, what shows do you find inspiration in?
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Haha, I've actually never seen any of those shows, though I want to see Firefly sometime. Castle looks interesting. I shall see if I can get season one from the library. I think all TV shows need a good (and intelligent!) sense of humor, as long as they aren't purposefully trying to be funny non-stop. That gets lame fast.
Commentaries? As in non-fiction stuff? I'm not sure that I've seen any of those, unless documentaries count. 
As for TV shows, my all time favorites are Burn Notice, The Pretender (which played back in the late 90s), Avatar--The Last Airbender, and I've recently started watching Life, which I like a lot so far. I guess, more than anything, I get inspiration from the characters.
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I started watching Castle because of Firefly actually – it’s the same actor playing the main character for both. When I sat down for the first episode of Castle and realized that he was playing a writer I was hooked.
I didn’t explain the commentaries very well, I meant like the dvd special feature commentaries for movies and shows. If I’m lucky and it’s a good one the writer or director will talk about how they conceived the story and brought it to life.
And all the shows you mentioned are ones that I’ve enjoyed (I totally remember The Pretender).
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Hehe, yeah, actors that span shows are awesome. I don't think I've seen a TV show about a writer . . . that's got to be interesting.
Ah! I like them, too, sometimes, but I usually find them rather dry. My sister always listens to them all, so I just let her tell me about the good parts.
lol The Pretender is quite a strange one (which is why I like it), and I thought the actors were exceptional. They really sold the whole story. I'm so sad it was never finished . . . so many loose ends!
Anyhow, I could go on about TV shows for a very long time.
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I love this! You explain your ideas very well!
I totally agree!
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Thanks! Glad you liked it.
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Well said. Good stories come from good mixing of ingredients and offering something fresh in the mix. Staying just in the books just makes literature stale.
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This is very true. It's something I've realized, but.. I never really had the time to actually put it into an extended metaphor like that. I'm glad someone decided to write this down because I'm almost sick of people telling me they have a story that no one has ever heard of before. Especially because, when I read it later, I realize that, in some way or another, I've heard it before. It doesn't even have to be a story. It could actually be a real-life experience that I've had.
Personally, I think this says not just a lot about writers, but about people in general and their experiences. People all go through similar experiences. They might not be exactly the same down to the minute detail, but they are similar enough to come to the conclusion that people, essentially, are both different and the same. We all have our slight variations, like with cookies. So, I guess this metaphor could also be applied to life in general...? xD
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I'd say so. We're all different, yet the same. We have common interests and experiences, which is what binds us together in relationships and friendships and even online communities.
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Exactly. People seem to be scared of the wrong thing when it comes to things like originality. If someone decides to claim your story as their own, well, come up with another story. Obviously if you came up with a story that you think is that good, you can come up with another one. If you can't, then obviously the other story wasn't that good. And, even then, people will eventually be able to tell that the thief didn't actually write that story because their other stories will flow different or have a different narrative tone.
Eh, I could probably come up with a pretty long rant on people's paranoia when it comes to their written works. Well, actually, it goes for all forms of art. People may be good at copying style, but there's usually a lot of small things they overlook... and I think I'm ranting again xD
Glad to find someone who shares a couple of my thoughts on originality. We actually had a talk about this last year in my senior English class. Most of the time, it's not the plot that makes people want to read your story. Its how well-written it is and how the characters interact with one another. It's nice to see that it's not just my opinion mixed with my teacher's.
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