Tuesday, 3 April 2012

Write It Again, Sam.

There's so many different pieces of advice that come from writers, to writers. Most of the 'how to' books will tell you that writing has rules which must be obeyed, it appears that most of these ever so helpful 'how to' books will quite readily ignore literary classics which ignore every rule in the how to book and are still talked about in English Lit classes throughout the world.

One of the main "this is how you must write" orders from 'experts' is to write about what you know.

Some writers take this literally at face value, write about people and places and events that they're familiar with. I have been told today that I should write about my work place and make it an observational comedy because of everything that goes on. It got me thinking about what the meaning of "write what you know" actually is.

In my opinion, write what you know goes deeper than situations, it's about characters and interactions. At its heart the Lord Of The Rings trilogy is less about Orcs, Elves and Dwarfs, and more about family and relationships. Twilight is about being the outsider and finding your place among similar peers (the other films don't have the same focus and as a result suffer IMHO)

So, I suppose in essence what I'm saying is that I believe the only thing that a writer should remember is focus. To plus my own works, they work best when looking at relationships, Byron's relationship with Slate and Sam drive the highlights of Hour Of Portland, several episodes of Star Rabbit Tracks focus on people finding or losing friends and loved ones.

Take a closer look at ForeverTogether, find the relationship. It's so subtle and yet so integral that you could miss it altogether, but without it the whole thing would fall apart, it would be empty and hollow........




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