Tapping Keyboards - A Site for Musing on Writing by J.A. Waters
Waters' Artistry
Pacing is the number one thing that prevents me from connecting to a creative work. Too slow, my mind wanders or I get bored or I just don’t get engaged to the material fast enough to want to keep going. Too fast? It’s harder to understand. I have to be aggressively tuned in or I never get to the point where I care about the characters. Of course, maintaining a steady pace somewhere in the middle doesn’t work either. In that case, everything can blend together due to a lack of contrast. There’s gotta be a n
These last few years I’ve felt like most ‘popular’ media is too fast. Too much is introduced: there are too many plot lines, too many scene changes, and too many characters. Superhero movies are origin stories and universal conflict all at once. Adventures have people called to action before they even have breakfast. I don’t know these characters, but I am expected to yearn along with them for the journey or for the home they’ve lost. I was never even introduced to that home.
And when the pacing is that quick, it’s not even in media res–done right at least those stories gradually solidify the people and environment. Instead, these frenetic smash-cut extended trailers let details just pile on without any real connection. Every scene only brings more twists and turns and shocks and spasmic quips. This is all well and good for an experiment or a one-shot, but I’d prefer longer form work to have something cohesive connecting everything together. Instead, the connective tissue can be
Tapping Keyboards - A Site for Musing on Writing by J.A. Waters
Waters' Artistry