Is reading important for an aspiring writer? Page 4

Quote: Jennie @ September 3 2013, 6:50 PM BST

https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/24416/

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Hmmm...I refer to myself in the third person on my profile as well...didn't put much thought into it.

Anyway, yes this is in general a nice forum. Most forums are full of people being rude to one another and I'm glad we only get a smidge of passive aggressiveness here and there. Aren't writers nice, eh?

But on what Jaicee is talking about - and I will ignore his typing difficulties - it is important to use grammar correctly if you're going to send something in, especially if there is someone on the other end who is used to reading/editing/proofreading etc. I do quite a lot of that myself (not for comedy, for other stuff) and it has made me unbelievably pedantic. So you should probably assume you're dealing with arseholes like me.

I haven't noticed that many problems on here, though, to be honest. Not the kind that I find annoying anyway. And I don't think it matters on a forum. I usually assume people have typed stuff up quickly and would give it a once through before they sent it anywhere.

On reading - yeah, it's good to read, but does it improve your comedy script writing? Not as much as watching TV in my opinion. Novels and television scripts use very different techniques to tell a story.

Reading and writing are some how interrelated, you can't avoid reading if you are good writer. I'm a good reader but lack writing skills, after taking the help from writing tutor also my writing is not upto mark which is very frustrating for me. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

What particular bit of writing do you struggle with?

Quote: sglen @ September 29 2013, 5:39 PM BST

Novels and television scripts use very different techniques to tell a story.

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Not really.

Quote: Marc P @ October 11 2013, 8:27 AM BST

Not really.

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I bow to your greater experience but they are very different technically aren't they?

No. Lol.

In what way do you think they are different?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ohio-man-still-legally-dead-despite-reappearing-040824872.html#HckgV76

I want your dog. He/she is too impossibly cute. Are you sure you don't fancy giving it to me? I'd buy a little doggie handbag and we'd go everywhere together.

On the subject at hand, surely novels and scripts employ different techniques to tell stories due to the 'inner monologue' freedom of a novel. But the construction of the story itself is pretty similar.

Unless of course you are Lynda La Plante, in which case you abuse the privilege. Listenied to one of her audio books yesterday. Fail to understand why she is so successful:

1. Her police heroine is dull and prissy and boring. Give the woman a flaw!

2. She cannot leave a single emotion unsaid! "Anna said: ''Gosh Really?' Anna was surprised that Trevor had chosen to tell her this."

I GOT THAT. BY THE FACT SHE CHOSE TO THE WORD 'GOSH'! WHICH IS AS SWEARY AS ANNA GETS, BECAUSE SHE IS SO GOODY GOODY. YOU DON'T NEED TO EXPLAIN THE SUBTEXT BEHIND DARNED SENTENCE. ARRRGHHHHH.

Time for my medication.

Quote: Marc P @ October 11 2013, 10:32 AM BST

No. Lol.

In what way do you think they are different?

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As an un published writer I am guessing a bit here but-

Apart from the obvious formatting and layout issues associated with a script and the need to state the place and time for each scene, there is the pacing. You can take time in a novel to introduce story and character whereas this has to be done in the first 60 seconds in a script (the inciting incident?) - preferably involving a car crash and a burning building about to collapse onto a bus full of orphans. OK I exaggerate, they don't have to be orphans, special needs kids will do just as well.

But surely you get the luxury of time to expand outwardly scene, or inwardly character in a novel, in a way you just couldn't in a 60min TV drama Script.

You can also use a narrative voice in a novel which you just can't in most scripts, unless of course it is the Studio cut of Blade Runner.

Again, I think you might have been successful in both fields so I could be making an idiot of myself but hey ho.

Quote: Jennie @ October 11 2013, 12:37 PM BST

I want your dog. He/she is too impossibly cute. Are you sure you don't fancy giving it to me? I'd buy a little doggie handbag and we'd go everywhere together.

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She. Monti with an i.

Quote: playfull @ October 11 2013, 3:32 PM BST

As an un published writer I am guessing a bit here but-

Apart from the obvious formatting and layout issues associated with a script and the need to state the place and time for each scene, there is the pacing. You can take time in a novel to introduce story and character whereas this has to be done in the first 60 seconds in a script (the inciting incident?) - preferably involving a car crash and a burning building about to collapse onto a bus full of orphans. OK I exaggerate, they don't have to be orphans, special needs kids will do just as well.

But surely you get the luxury of time to expand outwardly scene, or inwardly character in a novel, in a way you just couldn't in a 60min TV drama Script.

You can also use a narrative voice in a novel which you just can't in most scripts, unless of course it is the Studio cut of Blade Runner.

Again, I think you might have been successful in both fields so I could be making an idiot of myself but hey ho.

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It's the story we are talking about. Same rules apply. Yes it is a different FORMAT... but same rules of narrative apply. A script should be cut down to the bone but the novel should still have the bone. Narrative draws the reader in and keeps him and her wanting to turn the page as much in a script as a novel. The finished item is different with a Teleplay but the rules of narrative should apply I think in both. I am talking mainstream mainly if I may repeat the word main in the same sentence.

Quote: Marc P @ October 11 2013, 3:38 PM BST

She. Monti with an i.

It's the story we are talking about. Same rules apply. Yes it is a different FORMAT... but same rules of narrative apply. A script should be cut down to the bone but the novel should still have the bone. Narrative draws the reader in and keeps him and her wanting to turn the page as much in a script as a novel. The finished item is different with a Teleplay but the rules of narrative should apply I think in both. I am talking mainstream mainly if I may repeat the word main in the same sentence.

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I agree an engaging narrative and fleshed out characters are common or even essential to both, but surely the extra time allowed in a novel gives the opportunity to map a landscape or examine motives and relationships in a level of detail that goes way beyond anything you could achieve in a script or screenplay?

I think I read on here somewhere that you are a published author. Would you mind telling me a title or two of something you have written? If I am going to stalk you I might as well do it properly!

Marc writes about murdered prostitutes. It 's autobiographical.

One murdered prostitute in sven books and this is how I get to be known!! Ok maybe more than one. No murdered prostitutes in 'Private London' mind!

Quote: Marc P @ October 11 2013, 9:42 PM BST

One murdered prostitutes bits spread across sven books and this is how I get to be known!! Ok maybe more than one. No murdered prostitutes in 'Private London' mind!

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That's just so stingy

Quote: sootyj @ October 11 2013, 9:52 PM BST

That's just so stingy

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Murdered by bees?

Quote: Marc P @ October 11 2013, 9:42 PM BST

One murdered prostitute in sven books and this is how I get to be known!!

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I know..you kill and mutilate one hooker and all of a sudden it's all anyone can talk about.

To answer your question Playfull, this is the one I've read:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Evidence-Mark-Pearson/dp/0099515776

I enjoyed it. Although it feels quite stalkery because reading a book feels a little bit like looking into an author's soul.

I am willing to put money on the fact that Marc was raised a Catholic. I wouldn't know that if I hadn't read his book.