The Biggest Genre-Specific Mistakes Writers Make

Posted on October 13, 2011 in General Screenwriting, Story | No Comments

Writing inside a genre means you will have specific requirements for feel and characterization. Carson Reeves explores the biggest systematic mistakes writers make writing in their genre:

Part I

… Number one mistake I see in period pieces is writers getting lost in their work. We’re cutting to a king in France and a peasant in Russia and a little known uprising in Austria and dozens of years pass and the old characters die and new characters are born and blah blahblahblah blah blah blah. Jumping around to 15 different characters in 18 different countries for 2 and a half hours isn’t going to entertain a reader. It’s going to frustrate them. Instead, find the focus in your period piece. Make the main character’s journey clear.

— The Story Department | Read The Full Article

Part II

…Back in the heyday of Westerns, the world moved much slower. People had more patience, more time. That’s not the case anymore in this information-overload Twitter-centric multitasking world.

So you have to update the way you approach the genre. By far, the biggest problem I see in Westerns is that they move too slow. So speed things up a little bit. Develop your characters faster, get to your story sooner, add a few more twists and turns to keep the audience interested.

— The Story Department | Read The Full Article