READING TO WRITE - Advanced Writer's Challenge

In the three part series last week, we delved into reading to write and tried to put a focus on watching movies for inspiration.  This week I'd like to introduce a writer's challenge to you new, budding and advanced writers.  

As I have posted in the Writer's Helping Writer's fb group, I have a dear friend who is an author.  We were having a discussion about his writing and why no one is buying his books, so I bought one and gave him a pretty hefty critique.  Am I the best writer in the world?  HELL NO, but I can sure tell when OTHER PEOPLE'S writing is bad (this magic doesn't work for my own writing for some reason).  Anyhoo, I started asking questions about what he's reading or using for examples and he tells me... "I don't read, I watch movies for inspiration".  I laughed, deep from the gut, until I realized he was serious.

We then commenced the discussion battle of the century... Do you have to read to write well?  My position, ABSOLUTELY - his the opposite.  Frustrated with my argument not coming out the way I wanted - which I now know I wanted to say that inspiration doesn't give you the tools to write well - I challenged him to a writing duel.  Muah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! 😜😜😈😈😜😜

Now I'm extending that same challenge to you!
 
Tools you'll need : Book to screen movies and their written counterparts... I have easy suggestions below (Youtube and library checkout)


Here are the terms:

Use a book to screen movie scene or clip (if you don't have one there are some great clips from YouTube below), watch the scene and write it as you think the author wrote it in the book.  

Just ONE scene... here are some clips of book to screen movies if you don't have any dvd's handy...

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 

•  Dobby the House Elf
•  Wreckless Flying

The Godfather

• Michael hashes out his plan to kill
• The wife goes boom 

The Silence Of The Lambs 

• Meeting Clariece
• Farva Beans and some Chianti

Silver Linings Playbook

• The Diner Scene
• The Medicinal Dinner Scene - Poor social skills

Or you can use any other you like... 

Now that you're done writing, you'll need the same book (ex: If I did my scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets I will also need the physical book to check my work). If you don't have any of these books or movies at home you should be able to find them at your local library.  

Now it's time for honesty with yourself.

Compare... your writing vs. the original author's writing.  

• Were you missing anything?  
• How was your grammar? 
• Did you leave out of the scene anything that was important to the scene without realizing it? 
• Did you add anything extra to the scene without realizing it?
• Does yours make sense when you read it aloud to yourself?
• Did you include the thoughts and feelings of the character/characters in the scene?  
• Did you include surroundings when important to the scene? Did the author?
• Did you portray the scene /characters accurately?  

Writing gives you a platform to express yourself in written form... but most of the time it doesn't come natural.  Even the best writers READ other people's work.  If they have found what works for that genre, as far as writing style, maybe it's a good idea to see HOW they fashioned their story in WRITTEN form.  Did you forget, their writing was SO GOOD, Hollywood made a movie out of it... usually doesn't happen the other way around.  

To recap:

In this challenge I've tasked you with writing a scene that was first written in a book and went to the big screen. Then asked you to compare your written scene with the original book's writing of the same scene.  I believe this is the first step in learning that inspiration does NOT equal skill. 

Seeing a movie and being inspired is a great thing that happens to a lot of us, but until we learn HOW to write, inspiration can only inspire.  CAN we write after being inspired?  Absolutely!  Will that writing be best seller material when we haven't read a thing that has to do with novels???  That remains to be seen, but in my opinion probably not?  If you're not a professional writer with tons of experience, stop trying to reinvent the wheel! Somehow your writing will be the best ever because you were inspired, MAKES NO SENSE.  You have to admit there is a learning curve even for the best authors out there today and reading is fundamental in learning what makes a good novel TICK.  

If you want to learn more on reading to write... Try my three part series: Reading to Write, Well here

As always thanks for taking the challenge! Until next time... Happy Writing!

Myka Aka Butta

XOXO