If You Want to Write, Watch as Well

by Ethan Gross

If you want to write, read a lot. It’s good advice, generally speaking, and very common. If you’ve ever taken a writing course or looked up writing advice online, you’ve almost certainly been given this tidbit. Most of my peers come from writing and literature backgrounds; they’re the kind of people who read all the time. Having come from a background studying film and TV, I had only read every so often, and even then it was usually for high school English class. As time went on, I focused more and more on creative writing, and I found myself being given this same piece of advice over and over again.

It makes sense to engage with the type of art you want to produce (to write a novel, read novels), but the common advice lacks nuance; few artists only study a single medium. Ellie Wash covers this in her op-ed “Writing is One Big Genre Soup.” I feel she really nails how art tends to bleed through genres during the creative process. To run with her ideas, I would say mediums often have a similar relationship to one another.

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​The same way poetry may bleed into prose, writing may bleed into illustration to breathe new life into a concept. I spent a lot of my time working in visual mediums, namely video games, TV, and movies. This carries over into my writing, namely as a Managing Editor for and contributor to Halftone magazine. Because of this, I have always felt like I was working with a handicap as a writer, but I’ve come to realize that in terms of structuring stories, characters, and creating imagery, it’s a more level playing field than I thought.

In her article “Why Writers Should Watch Cartoons,” Laura Kincaid argues that the cartoons many watched as kids and teens are still well-written and hold value for people of all ages. She brings up how writers for shows like Adventure Time and Avatar: The Last Airbender win awards and seek to explore lots of themes that could be considered mature. They use the accessibility of cartoons to introduce a wider audience to interesting ideas and explore those ideas in a way that traditional live-action shows can’t.

While I agree with Kincaid, I would like to take this idea a step further: TV and film in general should be considered just as valid as literature when studying writing. Each medium bears a necessity to construct interesting stories full of characters that we want people to get invested in, and they are a masterclass in imagery. While traditional writing can and does hold very evocative images, and reading can help you figure out how to describe things concisely, being able to see something for yourself and figure out how you’d describe it to someone is going to strengthen your writing by magnitudes. The same way that artists often practice drawing/painting what they see out in the world, writers could stand to more often observe scenes and actions and break down how they’d describe them.

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Imagine some iconic movie scenes: The cup of water vibrating from closing footfalls in Jurassic Park, Rose asking Jack to paint her in Titanic, Indy running from the boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark. How would you describe these scenes? What would you focus on and what would you leave out?

​There’s also the fact that many shows and films are highly regarded as masterworks that win awards and shape our culture through references and inspirations. How many people have quoted The Terminator? How many artists have been inspired by the Star Wars films? For how many years have audiences sung the praises of shows like Breaking Bad and Star Trek: The Next Generation? Should students of the writing arts neglect these works just because they’re meant to be watched and not read? Audiobooks have become a massive market. Are they any less worthy of examination because you’re having the story read to you? I think expanding our intake as storytellers can only aid in honing our craft.

For example, Breaking Bad was hailed for its character writing by many viewers. So let’s take Walter White, the chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin. How does he go from one to the other? His need to fund cancer treatment is what helps start him on the path, but what keeps him there? What keeps him working in such a dangerous job? Ego, greed, power, all these things play a part. Watching Bryan Cranston’s actions in a given scene can usually give you an idea of what is going through Walt’s head without the need for a narrator. You can observe how both the writing and the actor are providing characterization, both in individual scenes as well as throughout a narrative arc. I’m not the only one who has noticed this, and I won’t be the last. These characters and stories are written keenly. The Center for Fiction even covered this exact example in Martha Southgate’s article “How Walter White Can Make You A Better Writer,” because there is something to be learned by looking at all stories critically. Southgate breaks down the writing techniques that make the opening scene of the premier episode so compelling, from the introduction of several major players to the absurd situation that makes us ask: how did we get here? Of course, writing a novel is not the same as making a TV show or film. Written works need to rely purely on description, unable to use audio or actor performances to inform particular moments.

In addition, a lot of films and shows are based on books. Aside from the famous adage of “the book is better than the movie,” there’s a path that each story follows in being adapted for the screen (and in some rare cases, being adapted for the page), and studying that path is valuable knowledge. Taking notes on how plot points are interpreted and condensed when moving from page to screen can be a great exercise. I remember the first time I saw a film adaptation after having read the book and mentally noting all the differences (if you’re curious, it was Ready Player One.) I didn’t come away from the film thinking about which was better, I came away thinking about how each one approached the major plot points and scenes. They’re different versions of the same story, built to accommodate their different mediums. If you ever find yourself in this familiar situation, I urge you to put thoughts of “who did it better” aside and focus on what each does to move the story and characters forward.

I think students and writers should be free to experience storytelling through any medium they can. Whatever holds their attention, whatever they enjoy the most. We’ll always have lessons on fundamentals, and we should still study written works, but broadening our horizons can only stand to produce a larger variety of work if nothing else. A lot of projects I find myself writing take at least a little bit of their inspiration from the media I love, from the Indiana Jones movies to the various works of Studio Ghibli. That doesn’t make me any more special than those who draw inspiration from classical literature, memoirs, or poetry. It’s just another avenue for exploring the art of telling memorable stories.

So, if I may make a recommendation to you, go watch one of your favorites. A show, a movie, a cartoon, or a play. Think about how the scenes are constructed and watch how the actors portray their characters. Take some of the scenes and think about how you’d go about writing a description of them, how you’d translate the visuals into words in a concise manner. Think about how the story moves and how it falters. Consider if you’d do anything differently. You don’t need to write a thesis, just jot some notes down. I think you’ll find there’s more going on than we’re traditionally led to believe.

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