By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I can be a pretty annoying person to watch television or movies with. Maybe most writers are. Plot holes and plot devices trip me up in bad stories and I’m too analytical of what works in good stories. This may be why I don’t get a lot of invitations to hang out and watch TV with members of my family.
Regardless of my general unpopularity as a movie-watching companion, my husband and I were watching the movie Lucy on Amazon Prime last weekend. It was, actually, a good film and one of the few genres that overlap enough so that my husband and I can both enjoy it. But there was one part (okay, probably three parts, actually. But I won’t give spoilers) where my husband said, “But why are they doing that? That wouldn’t happen—there would be cops all over the place.” And I said, maybe a bit impatiently, “Because it has to happen. For the story.” And I quickly explained why.
Once I pointed out the strings and the puppet master, we were both watching the movie from a different perspective.
It’s those types of moments when I’m reading a book or watching TV or movies that I try to avoid as a writer. Continue reading
