Did We Read the Same Source Material?

Ever go see a movie based on a book you really like and walk out thinking, "I'm sorry, did we read the same book?" Characters have disappeared or been created, entire story arcs were cut or doubled in size, moments of deep symbolic meaning or absolutely no meaning whatsoever materialized from nowhere while deeply meaningful moments vanished in a puff of smoke.

I think we've all been there. And, if you're like more, you tend to leave the theater in something of a huff. It's very rare that I leave a theater having seen a flick that made radical changes to the text where I didn't think, "You're not seriously claiming that was based on the book? You barely nodded to the original text!"

Because for me, there's a line between Based On, Inspired By, and Loosely Connected To (See How We Kept The Names the Same).

I'm not saying I've never seen it well done. The movie Stardust in 2007 got very free with Niel Gaiman's novel -- a book I liked quite a bit -- and when I saw many of the changes, I said, "Nice. I see why you did that." Because many of the adaptations were made as concessions to the medium rather than in total disregard for the original text.

On the other hand, Elton John's rock opera version of Aida is, to my mind, more Inspired By Verdi's original than actually based on it. They cut 3 of the acts, change most of Amneris's character arc, and rewrite a fair amount of Radames's backstory. But, you know, they kept the names the same. It's a nice reference, but, to me, almost a different play entirely.

Captain Film Major tends to come to the defense of adaptations. He says I expect them to bear too strong a resemblance to the book. Maybe I do. But that's because I have a very strict interpretation of the line between Based On and Inspired By. I think when you start getting jiggy with the plot, you're crossing over. He doesn't share that opinion.

For the first time, the project I'm working on was inspired by certain source material, and I chose to work closely with that material in the creation of the text. On the other hand, as the piece grew on its own, it moved away from the original source. I'd already changed most names, many motivations, a fair amount of characterization, and the ending. I think I've moved from Based On to Inspired By and, who knows, maybe even closer to Connected To (See How I Make All Those References). But that's just where the project wants to go.

How about you? Where do you draw the lines of Based On and Inspired By? Do you ever do Based On work? Inspired By?

Original Thought and Why It's Magic

I don't know why, but it seems that most shows I like watching air on USA. Either that, or the marathons of shows I like air on USA, which is good enough. As a result of this, I've seen my share of television show marathons on USA and more than my share of advertisements of marathons on USA. This has resulted in one opinion in my mind: I want to find the person who makes the marathon ads for USA and slap them. Why? They reuse the same stuff over and over again. The ads are just cannibalized material from the old ads.

(I'm probably the only person who gets this worked up about ads, but I'll judge the advertisement for anything, even a product I don't consume, so judging a marathon commercial is no stretch for me.)

When I say these ads are all the same, I mean that for any marathon of a specific show, it will use the same specific clips and make the same specific jokes. I can tell you which clip and/or joke per show too. (I should probably be more embarrassed about that for myself, but right now I'm channeling that into being frustrated about them. Moving on...)

This gets old.

It's the same with books. Now, I'm not talking about book trailer cliches, because I don't think people have been making book trailers long enough for their to be book trailer cliches, but in books in general, there's the same risk these marathon trailers run.

There are cliches in genres. That character that shows up in every book. That plot that shows up in every book. That object that shows up in every book. And they get old. Eventually, people familiar with the genre tend to roll their heads when these people/places/plots show up.

Not everyone will mind. People not familiar with the genre won't see the glaringly cliche quality of the idea in question. It'll see new to them. Just like, I'm sure, the people who never watch USA marathons won't recognize that clip as appearing in every ad, these people won't recognize that "plot twist" as occurring in every story. Whereas, if you watch a lot of marathons/ read a lot in that genre, you just think "Oh, cherry tomatoes, not that again."

New ideas are nice, because they keep things interesting, especially for the people who've been around the block before. When you write, you've got to accept that the people who'll probably buy your book are going to be people who read, and probably people who read a lot, probably in that genre, which means they'll have seen it all before, so they'll notice the cliches. (And, even if all the readers aren't huge fans of the genre enough to notice, an agent will probably have read enough books to see the repetitions and rehashes for what they are.)

Original storylines, characters, and conflicts keep things interesting for readers, especially those who've been around the block a time or twenty. Let's keep it fresh. :)

Do you often find yourself coming across plots/settings/characters/conflicts that you feel like you've seen and read before? How did it make you feel? Would you stop reading a book if it felt too cliched?

First Draft Happy

Okay, I have a confession to make. About a week or so ago, I was tired. Not body tired. Brain tired. Heart tired. All the spark had gone out of the writing for me, and I didn't know if I wanted to keep doing it anymore. I felt like the rewriting process was sapping my will to write. (Forgive the emo-sounding-ness there. I'm sleepy as I type this. That makes me sound emo sometimes.)

But, on Friday, I decided to shove all the other stuff that had been on the front burner onto a back burner. It could wait. I was going to bend to temptation and start writing something new. And I feel better. I feel great.

The creative juices are flowing again. I'm thinking again, feeling again, discovering new characters again, finding a new world again. It feels good to sit down with a story-problem again and figure it out instead of rooting through my notes to remember what the official answer is in accordance with the rest of the plot.

Yesterday, I sat down and sketched a rough family tree for four characters. Yesterday, I figured out that my MC didn't look anything like I'd originally thought she did. Yesterday, I got to call my villain a "total pretender to the throne" and know why that was an accurate description of him. I'm learning about my story again. I'm having fun with my story again.

To blatantly steal a line from Jack in the Shutterbox, something is right with my world and I'm loving it.

In the comments of my previous post, D.L. Hammons referred to my rough drafting right now as my happy place. I think that's the accurate. Because first drafts, I've found, always make me really happy.

Now, to blatantly steal a line from a Disney World ride that scared the living daylights out of me when the talking vulture automaton said it: Everyone has a happy place. Maybe this is yours.

Yep, this might be mine. What's yours?

Pulling the Pieces Together

You ever get the feeling where you're looking for something and you know it's there somewhere but you can't quite get your hands on it but instead keep grabbing a similar yet not quite right thing? (I know there were a lot of conjunctions in that sentence, but that was the only way I could really describe my thought process at the moment.)

It's sort of how I feel right now about ideas.

See, I know I don't have the right to be getting distracted by pretty ideas. I'm working on The Thief Book right now, and I need to focus on that and not loose focus. Especially not to toss that focus over onto some gossamer whisper and breath of an idea.

But that's what's toying with me right now, the whisp of an idea.

I don't know quite what set it off, but somehow my mind came to the conclusion that it could fit together these scraps of idea that I had lying around and turn them into a full idea. Seriously, I don't know what brought this on, but now my mental self is scavenging around my head for these bits and pieces that I know are in there somewhere. The only problem is, I haven't the foggiest where I left them.

I do, however, keep finding other scraps. Ones that are similar to the ones I want but not quite. It's like looking for a pair of black high heels. (Sorry, male readers, I'm about to embark on an analogy to something you've probably never experienced, though probably witnessed.) Most girls, I've discovered, own more than one pair of black high heels. And, lots of girls, I've discovered, own shoes that, to me, look a lot alike. (But that's probably because I'm not a shoe person.)

Anyway, when you're looking for a pair of black shoes and keep finding the wrong pair of black shoes, the close but no cigar sort of black shoes. It's a little frustrating, and it's a tad confusing, if you're uncovering a bunch of stuff you didn't know was also down there, or up there, or wherever you keep your shoes.

I'm reverting from the shoe analogy and the scraps of cloth analogy to the actual world. I'm still sort of kicking this idea around in my mind. I want to get it into something a little more cohesive and ... congealed is really the only word to describe this mental picture, but I doubt it's a pretty visual in anyone else's mind. Anyway, I'm trying to pull the whole deal together in my mind before I put it down in the newly formed Big Book of Ideas. (Okay, since it's newly formed, it's just the Average Sized -- okay Teeny Tiny -- Book of Ideas.)

How do you pull your ideas together? Do you ever have a problem trying to find an idea you have a while ago? What's your though process like?

Ideas Are Shiny

That's how I see it. Ideas are shiny. Really shiny. I could be sitting in a room of tinfoil reflecting sunlight, and ideas would win out 9 times in 10. I don't know where ideas come from or what they're made up of exactly, but whoever makes ideas must put in a lot of glitter.

Now, I say this, because I recently became rather distracted by an idea and wondered off from where I was meant to be going. What can I say, it was a seriously pretty looking idea. Too bad this was one of those times when I really needed to get a specific something done and not wander away.

Moving on...

I feel reasonably sure that I am not the only person who gets distracted by shiny ideas. Because, well, I'm not that special or hyper-distractable.

This sometimes happens to me in my writing. In the previous draft of my WIP, Charlotte (happy, happy MC) was supposed to be meeting Alberto (Close friend). Instead, she went off on a trip under the bridge to hang out with Luca & Co. (Other friends). A nice shiny idea that came with some interesting characters. Too bad that following the shiny took me so far from where I needed to go that it would take thousands of words to resurface on the path Charlotte needed to be on and to manage the related complications. So, it would seem, following the shiny doesn't always work.

However, sometimes, it's nice. One time with this WIP, I followed the shiny from Anna-Maria (a.k.a. the porcupine) to a minor invasion of her privacy (because, well, those things happen) to her boyfriend and her fabulous little subplot that I now really enjoy. The Shiny, it would seem, can sometimes lead us down some very interesting paths.

I guess what I'm advocating is giving the shiny its fair chance. It might lead to the witch's house of candy and cake, or it might lead to the big rock candy mountain. The shiny might be a risky bulb of light leading off into the marshes of death, or it could be that light at the end of the tunnel leading some place really awesome. Give the shiny its fair chance. Think about where it wants to lead you. It might be somewhere you want to go.

How do you feel about the Shiny? Do you get distracted by it sometimes? Where has it lead you in the past?

To Read On or Not to Read On

Yesterday, in the comments, Genie of the Shell remarked on the importance of both good story and good writing.

This reminded me of a book I recently finished (name to be withheld, sorry. Maybe, one of these days, I'll write about a book whose name I feel okay mentioning. Maybe). At first, the writing didn't grab me, so I didn't pick up the book. However, every time I returned to the bookstore, I'd find myself thinking about that book and looking at it some more. Eventually, I folded. I bought it.

It turned out, the writing never grabbed me. When people asked me how the book was going, I told them, "B/B+. Almost all the points for a good idea."

The only thing the book really had in it's favor was the unique and interesting idea (which, by the by, they misrepresented on the coverflap, which I hate, but that's a story for another time). I kept going for the sake of the idea, but the writing wasn't fabulous, in my opinion.

This isn't the first time I've stuck out mediocre writing for a good plot or idea, and I know I'm not the only person who does that sort of thing.

What does this mean? It means we need good ideas!

Okay, you're all rolling your eyes and saying, "Umm... No duh, we already knew that." But, what I mean is that, though editing is important and story craft is really important, the story and the idea are super important. Maybe even more important. Because, unless you've got an original and interesting idea, there's really no point in crafting it to perfection. It'll feel trite whether it's perfect or not.

I've done this myself. My first novel was ridiculously trite. I didn't bring anything new or original to it. And it took me a good long time to realize that polish that baby all I might, edit the words until they were perfect, it wouldn't change the fact that I was writing a story we'd all seen a million times and not adding to it anything we hadn't seen before.

Ideas are essential to good stories.

Which do you find essential, good writing or good story? If one element is slack, can the other make up for it? Do you sometimes read books with bad or mediocre writing for the sake of a good idea or plot? Will bad writing make you chuck a book away even if the story is good?