Writer Sanctum
Writer's Haven => Quill and Feather Pub [Public] => Topic started by: VisitasKeat on December 20, 2019, 12:30:24 AM
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Watching movies or reading novels - which is more helpful?
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Watching movies or reading novels - which is more helpful?
Are you asking which is more helpful in learning how to do rapid world building?
I'd say reading novels. Movies can be useful for some things, and a lot of the structure of modern novels is influenced by movies and TV, but they are ultimately different art forms.
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Novels are best to see how you layer in the worldbuilding bit by bit rather than info-dumping everything to do with it before the reader gets to plot. You can see where it works with pacing, how it affects character perception and interaction etc.
In saying this, though, films are good at establishing worlds within the first 5 minutes, so you could technically see how they set it up, but this is mostly visual--we can see whether it's the future or the past based on what's on screen, and you don't get that in a novel.
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Visuals often use troubling shorthand--for instance, the subservient women tending the flowers in the Black Panther movie despite the active roles of higher ranking women. Was this indicative of the basic Wakanda culture? Or was this laziness and bias by the filmmakers? Would Wakanda seem to have a different culture if the flowers had been tended by old men?
You didn't notice that in the movie? I did. I am sensitive to the position of women in every culture, real or make believe.
In a book, every person's role would be intentional, even if it's a cliche such as the Scottish housekeeper in too many old Harlequin romances. Who "the usual suspects" are makes a difference in your world building.