June 9, 2025
Do you find it is harder to not unpack a plot in a movie, predicting what will happen, now that you write your own stories?
I no longer watch TV.
Well, not on a regular basis. And I don’t follow any shows. I gave it up years ago, when I was working full time and taking college courses in the evening. There was no time to keep track of television programs. Besides, I hated commercials. I spent more time picking them apart than paying attention to what they were selling, irritating the heck out of my husband.
Back them I was critiquing their use of devices like the obvious minority representation. There had to be an African American, a Hispanic, and a woman. Or twisting a stereotypical representation of a woman to a man. So, instead of a dumb housewife, you had a clueless guy. Don’t forget the nerdy, glasses-wearing, blond kid with a bad haircut.
Of course, that bled into critiquing the shows themselves for similar infractions.
And man, there were a lot of them. Which led to critiquing for plot holes. (this was before I started writing my own fiction. Great training, eh?) When I began to analyze the first few minutes to figure out how the story would end, it destroyed the experience. The last show I sat through was when Longmire was still on a “regular” channel, not Netflix. And I only stuck with it because I’d enjoyed the books. (I read the first ones before the show started.) Still, I’d pick at the changes that had been made to the stories to make them fit television.
Shoot, I’ve found myself judging the performance of weather forecasters.
Especially on overdone storm predictions. I realize they are working for the ratings, but seriously, not every storm needs to be seen as an end of the world event.
But I do the same thing to many books I read. (Especially romances.) I once had someone complain they didn’t know who the villain was in a book I wrote by the end of the first chapter. I took that as a win rather than the criticism it was meant to be.
What do I do instead? I’d love to claim that I spend the time reading, but no, I spend too much time in front of a computer screen. Writing, on social media, sometimes mindlessly scrolling through various sites. It’s a bad habit and too easy to fall into.
How about other authors? Do they attempt to decipher the plots of T.V. shows while they are watching them? Check out their posts by following the below links.
And, as always, please stay safe until the next time.
June 9, 2025
Do you find it is harder to not unpack a plot in a movie, predicting what will happen, now that you write your own stories?