December 2007 Archives

So in the last few days we've seen Sweeney Todd and the Golden Compass -- both adaptations of works designed for another medium.

My personal opinion? Sweeney Todd was wonderful and entertaining and totally at home on the screen. The Golden Compass was annoyingly reminiscent of the fourth Harry Potter installment -- short-shrift summary, like a visual cliff notes version of the original text.

Now, I've heard from folks who haven't read the book, saw the movie, and really enjoyed it, so perhaps some of my impressions comes from having seen the whole cloth the shortpants suit was cut from, but that's my impression -- they could have done better than they did. I was particularly annoyed by an unnecessary inclusion toward the end of the movie that actually introduced a fairly obvious plot hole that doesn't actually exist in the book it's based on. That's just sloppy.

Still: armored bears, Sam Elliot, and clockwork technology -- there's a lot to like in what you get. (Even with Nicole Kidman and her distracting plastic face getting in the way.)

Something that occurred to me regarding my writing a couple weeks ago: one of the things I'm 'encouraged' to do by those folks who are reading and giving feedback on my stories is to reduce the number times I switch the point of view during the story.

What I mean is this: we meet the main character. We hang out with them for awhile. Then there's a little side thing with another guy. Then back to the main character. Then back to second guy. Then main character. Then we meet a third guy...

... and that's Chapter One.

And I realized why I do that. It's entirely from running roleplaying games for so many years. I'm automatically cycling through all the main characters and trying to make sure that (a) I don't 'play' with just one character for too long and (b) everyone gets a turn.

It's generally a good thing in games. It doesn't translate well in fiction.

It does WORK, but you need to structure it very clearly. It took me three or four passes on Hidden Things before I started to feel like I really had a strong pattern established for when the Point of View switched away from Calliope... and, like most of the book, I'd already unconsciously established the pattern in the second two-thirds of the book, and simply needed to reverse-apply it to the first third. (Here's a hint: the camera only leaves her when she's asleep.)

I'm beginning to think that eighty percent of the work during revisions lies in looking at the good patterns that developed later into the book, and trying to apply all that good stuff to those first five chapters where you were flailing madly at the keyboard like some sort of fox hunt brush beater, hoping a feral story would flush out and make a break into open territory where it could be gunned down in a proper, civilized fashion.

Though, in talking to the locals, it doesn't sound as though I could have gotten into a showing anyway.

I am Legend opened this weekend to record-breaking attendance. This TOTALLY NON-HOLIDAY MOVIE was the highest-grossing December release of all time, and the biggest opening week movie for Will "Mister Fourth of July Blockbuster" Smith.

I read the book a few years ago and really believe it deserves to be listed as one of the great genre classics. I can't wait to see the movie next week when Kate gets into town.