4 ms·
The idea that an author would just sit down and write a novel starting from the first line seems alien. Like a film not getting made because the director obsess
by Tycho 5y ago
The idea that an author would just sit down and write a novel starting from the first line seems alien. Like a film not getting made because the director obsesses over the opening shot. Seems like a detail that should fall into place only once much of the groundwork has been laid.
- samkater 5y agoRelated to your point, George C Scott apparently didn’t want to film the opening scene of “Patton” because he thought the movie wouldn’t live up to the scene. It really gets at the heart of what the whole movie is about and I can’t imagine it without that opening. Apparently they filmed it at the end of filming. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patton_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patton_(film) (The opening scene under “production” - sorry on a mobile device)
- bluGill 5y agoSerial fiction has always been a thing. Most novels 150 years ago were written for magazines. Only in the past century did the write a novel as a complete book really take off. Even then though, authors often wrote trilogies where you wrote a third at a time. (publishers like this because people hooked on the first book at the library or discount store would buy the second and third at full price when it came out). Now in the web world a lot of great authors have figured out that patron and doing a chapter a week (or some schedule) is the most profitable way to write.
- cableshaft 5y agoAmazon is getting in on the serialization game as well. Kindle Vella is about to be launched. Writers can release stories a chapter at a time, and charge a fee for each one after the first few chapters, which are free. My wife has been writing in preparation for it, already has three chapters written and intends to have at least six when she launches. I've helped her come up with some ideas for it, and been her sounding board. I was intending to write for it myself but I haven't quite landed on an idea I think could work in serialized form and I feel compelled to write yet.