Thread: Structuring a novel - Just look at a DVD booklet...

This might sound an odd, uncoventional approach - but, if it works, why not give it a go? When I was younger I struggled (not to say I don't now at times) at structuring a work...where to start, what goes into each chapter, how many chapters etc etc?

Then, one night, I remember picking up a DVD to watch - I was bored and I decided that I wouldn't try and write that night, because I felt I was "forcing it", and that felt terrible. So, I opened up the DVD case and inside there was a list of chapters - some even had chapter names - of the movie I was going to watch (I can't remember what the movie was).

My point is, get a film, any film - preferably something that's in the genre your planned work is supposed to be - and use the chapters of that DVD, and note what occurs in each of the chapters.

You might think: well, a movie is completely different to a book - for a start, a book has more depth... Of course, this is very true. But essentially a movie is a moving book. I'm not saying it'll give you a blueprint, or a road map to the end of a novel, but it'll give you enough to feed off. Even if your DVD doesn't have a leaflet/booklet with listed chapters, you can usually tell on the DVD player's display the chapter you're on, or better still, go on scene selection. Ask yourself constant questions about these scene/chapter selections: What's happening, what's the significance, doe something occur in this early scene (however small) that'll be important in a later chapter, what characters are involved, is it laying foundations of the plot, or is laying red-herrings...?

I found that it helped me when I studied the scenes and kick-started my imagination of what occurs where, when and how. And, as I'm sure many people can appreciate and associate with this feeling, when I write I don't see words go through my head I see something like a movie being played - A DVD - that I can skip back and forth in my mind...

Food for thought.

Can't you do the same thing with a book? Just find a book in the genre you're writing and either write your own chapter summaries or go to Cliffnotes/Sparknotes.com and use their chapter summaries as a reference.

Yes, of course - you can do it that way too. But my point is, movies are like a "visual summary", and I think, when you see something visual, then some people can absorb it better than doing it with a book. It was just something I did, and I found it easier than going through a book and doing the same technique. Everyone is different though, I just thought I'd share the thought and what I did when I was younger.

But my point is, movies are like a "visual summary", and I think, when you see something visual, then some people can absorb it better than doing it with a book.

This is true. If it works for you, go for it. But I think it would be more beneficial writing wise to do it with a book so you gain more knowledge of how a book is written as appose to a movie. Then again, some novels take a movie approach when it comes to conflict and action. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

I think you've got a great point. The thing that makes a great book is the detail. This level of detail can't be translated onto the screen, so a movie is like a narrative summary that keeps all the excitement. It's also a two-hour exercise, making it easy to do and digest. I think studying movies is a great way to further study narrative in general, as long as it's good movies.

Great advice, and definitely something I've done in the past!

I fully agree that outlining chapters through the use of similar works either books or movies can be a great help in getting the basic map of a story out of your head and started on paper.

Another exercise that I use, related to movies, that has helped me with descriptive writing, is to watch a movie without the sound and then write about the movie... Perhaps one scene specifically, or even a summary of the whole thing etc... I sometimes do this as a way to practice writing what I see through images played out silently like they do in my mind when I am thinking of a story to write. Since the imagination creates a series of images and visuals just like a movie, I figure by practicing my writing descriptions of a movie that has no sound I can improve my ability to translate my mental "movies" into the descriptive text that becomes my stories. It used to be very difficult for me to write what I thought because I would skip so much of the details simply because I "saw" them in my mind so how could others not see what I saw...

I use movies because then I can have someone else who saw the movie read what I wrote and tell me if they can identify the movie just from my description of what was happening etc. If they can then I have done a good enough job of describing what I see to pass on the visuals they recognize. That seems to help me in passing on the visuals I used to skip over when bringing my story out of my head onto the page.

Anyway... I thought I would share the idea here to see if others might benefit or even if perhaps others do this as well, since I have not yet met anyone who does it. Oh and it seems to be the best practice when you use a movie you do not know the dialog to.

Any exercise that manages to develop your creative part of Uncle Ned is fine. It depends on what makes your gears work better - visual, audio or text. For example, if you feel that your story could develop more effectively if it were a movie, just imagine it that way, choose actors for your characters and imagine it, use the DVD chapter thingy. Use music for inspiration if your ears are more in tune with your gray cells.