How Much Are Your Readers Willing To Forgive?

Many years ago, a friend of mine and I used to watch movies together, and after the movie was over we’d go somewhere to eat. Then, for the next hour or so, our conversation would center on all the plot holes that had occurred in the movie. Since our tastes tended more toward “action” movies, there were usually plenty of plot holes to discuss. 

In general, I can tolerate a fair number of plot holes—assuming the movie was reasonably entertaining, and I can forgive some pretty outrageous coincidences if it helps keep the movie moving along. I suspect most viewers feel the same way, although individual tolerances may vary. Besides, gaping plot holes are what keep sites like Cinema Sins so popular. What bothers me, though, is when writers force characters to do something illogical in order to drive the story in the direction they want it to go.

Take the final Hunger Games movie, for example. (If you haven’t seen it yet, be aware there are spoilers coming!) Even though the characters know that Peeta has been brainwashed to kill Katniss, the commander decides to send him out along with Katniss on a mission together. It makes so little sense, the writers didn’t even bother coming up with a semi-plausible reason. All the writers cared about was making sure the two of them were together on the screen for extended periods of time. 

What really bothered me, however, was how the writers’ desire to get the “games” back into The Hunger Games led to a groan-worthy plot device. When the Capitol is faced with an advancing army of rebels, President Snow announces that instead of devoting government resources into reinforcing his army with weapons appropriate for the situation, he decides that he will concentrate their remaining energies into building ridiculously complicated traps randomly placed throughout the city.

Now you don’t have to be a military genius to know this is a comically bad idea. Pouring all your resources into immovable, sophisticated traps that would only be effective against small groups of rebels (which Katniss just happens to be a part of) spread out over an area the size of a city is blatant stupidity. But the writers wanted Katniss and friends to have to fight through more traps (like in the earlier movies) and hoped we’d be so fascinated with the traps we wouldn’t notice the ridiculousness of the situation.

Why am I writing about this today? Because I recently finished a scene that I was pretty happy with, at least at first, but which now is bothering me since I realize the bad guys probably wouldn’t have acted the way I had them act. So now I’m caught in a quandary. I really like the way the scene plays out now, but I’m either going to have to make some significant changes or hope that my readers don’t notice the bad guy’s stupidity. Neither option appeals to me, so I’ve decided to put off the decision until my crit group reads the chapter. It’ll be interesting to see if they spot the problem.

What do you do when you realize you’ve got a plot hole in your WIP?

ChemistKen

Why Movies Make Me A Better Writer -- Sometimes

My family and I saw the final Hunger Games movie this weekend, and I’ll admit I was rather underwhelmed. It didn’t flow well, everything that happened was fairly predictable, many of the “surprises” were telegraphed so far in advance there wasn’t much surprise left, and I won’t even discuss the logic flaws. Cinema Sins is going to have a field day with this one. I haven’t read the book, so I have no idea if this was the book’s fault or the director’s, but in the end it didn’t really matter. We stuffed ourselves with popcorn and Raisinettes, we drank a week’s supply of high fructose corn syrup, and we entertained ourselves on the drive home with a discussion of the movie’s problems. All was good.

The real point of this post, however, is that whenever I drive home from a movie, my mind is usually running about 100 miles per hour. I’m thinking about how the movie followed story structure. I’m recalling all the clever bits of dialogue and how the director got by with so little words. And most of all, I’m thinking how I can use the experience to make my own stories better.

Going to movies always gets my writing juices going.

For about a half hour after a movie, all I want to do is rush back home and work on my story. If my family would let me, I’d bring my laptop to the theater and begin working on my manuscript as soon as the lights came back on. It’s the same feeling I get after a writer’s group meeting or a writer’s conference. The subtleties of writing suddenly make sense to me.

That is, until I sit down in front of the computer and run head first into that brick wall again. What the hell? Everything made so much sense when I was watching the damn movie, why can’t I tap into that frame of mind now? Arg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do movies affect you in the same way?

ChemistKen

Friday Links

In an attempt to force myself to post on a more regular basis, I’ve decided to try scheduling my posts. Every Wednesday I’ll post on the topic of writing and Fridays will be devoted to all things funny and quirky. Depending on how well this works, I may even add Mondays at a later date.

This Friday’s offering comes from www.howitshouldhaveended.com, an amusing site dedicated to rewriting the endings to well-known movies. Their latest entries take on the Hunger Games movie. The links, which I’ve included below, take you to the Youtube versions, although you can watch them on the original site too if you wish. Enjoy!

How the Hunger Games Should Have Ended

How the Hunger Games Should Have Ended - Bonus Feature

I Saw the Hunger Games Movie!

I saw Hunger Games this weekend with my wife and daughter. I had been looking forward to it for weeks, especially since my daughter had already seen the movie and liked it enough to want to go again.

I have to admit I came away feeling a little underwhelmed.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, but based on everything I’d heard about how well Suzanne Collins had nailed the characters and their emotions and the whole feel of the games (I haven’t read the book yet), I expected more from the movie. I don’t know. Perhaps the kind of things which made the book rock just didn’t translate well to a 2 hour movie.

The biggest problem for me was that the movie felt too linear to be considered a great film. Everything was just a little bit too predictable and by the numbers, or so it seemed to me. For example, every time Katniss got into trouble, “someone” or “something” would conveniently show up and help her out. And when that turned out to be a “someone,” it didn’t take long before someone else conveniently showed up to kill that helpful person - just so Katniss wouldn’t have to do it herself. After a while, there didn't seem to be any suspense left. 

Still, I enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind watching kids killing each other.

Anyone else have opinions about the movie?
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BTW, I’m proud to announce my daughter raised over $2000 in April to donate to the The Water Project, an international organization dedicated to providing water to undeveloped regions. The money will be used to build a well in Kenya.