Books and Movies: The Difference, and How it Should Affect Your Writing

When you watch a movie, how often do you have discussions with your family about the overall message of the underlying worldviews presented? Often? Fantastic.

And how often do you deeply reflect on the morality presented in the main character's decisions that outlined how a non-christian can be so evil? Not so often? Hmmm, better work on that.

And how often do you have a fight with your brother about the antagonist's hair color? What? Never? Seriously? Wouldn't that be ridiculously hard to discover? Oh, right. Forgot.

Movies put everything in front of you on a screen so there can be no argument. Your mind knows exactly what the characters are supposed to look like. In a sense, like I said in my post about imagination, it "overwrites" your imagination. But with movies, you don't even have to use imagination. It's just there, without debate.

It's obvious what the difference is, but why should you care?

Because it should change the way you write your book. Or not, if you've already figured it out and write accordingly. But think about it this way: your book should have a lot of subtext. Meaning, you need to leave plenty to the imagination.

For example, I have a lot of characters in my book that I don't describe. I might eventually, but not in depth. Why? Because I don't need to. I'll put it in simple terms, and give an example: "he had blonde hair, that waved in the wind like so much wheat in a field on a windy, sunny day, and his blue eyes cut through the night with a radiance of dignity. His nose extended past the end of his face like a mountain, and his cheekbones were sharply contrasting upon the features that were visible in the shining moonlight."

Do I really need much more than just maybe a quick description of him? Like maybe this: "He was hoisted up to his feet and the Captain grabbed a fistful of his hair. 'Brown. Just like Tim.' One of the lads looked closer at him and noticed the scar running down his thin face." That is much better, because it leaves more to the imagination. But I could still potentially do better.

But you don't need some ridiculously poetic/serious description of every inch of his facial features. To the reader, it seems like you're just looking for filler. And here's the thing: if you describe their background and their personality, the reader will automatically assume a look to them.

People sometimes say "I don't judge a person at first glance." They're wrong. Everyone does, whether they like it or not. It's because what you look like is inexplicably tied to your personality. This is what separates the good actors from the great. The great actors know this. Sometimes unconsciously, but they know this. They know that a personality will always look a certain way, and behave a certain way. Good directors know this. The costumes and makeup the actors will wear will be linked to how they act, and what the character is like.

So when you write about how someone behaves, and what type of things they enjoy and think about, you've already given him a look.

For example, this right here would be a plenty fine description: "He was hearty and jolly, although sometimes mean-tempered. He had come from a poor family, but you would never guess from looking at him. Except that his natural face, the one that shone through on occasion and the one that was not quite so thin, had deep lines of sorrow written on it." That might be a little too poetic, but what kind of person do you envision? Do you really think that he needs more than that? Maybe hair color, hair style and MAYBE (I say this almost laughingly) eye color. Think about it this way.

What color are Iron Man's eyes? Loki's? The Hulk's? Sam Gamgee's?

If you know every single one of those, you are an exceptional "noticer." I can tell you how many of these people's eye colors I know: the same number as the amount of times I have walked up to someone and said "you know what, you look like the type of person I would punch in the face in the middle of a debate round." (That would be zero, just so we're on the same page here.)

Let's pick one. I pick Sam Gamgee. I hope you didn't remember his eye color. But how well do you have his image in your head? Pretty well, I imagine. And what color is his hair? Blonde, duh. Everyone knows that (if they've watched the movies). But that's not his defining aspect. If blonde hair is the only thing you remember him for, then you might as well have remembered Thor.

But what about his build? His body type? What he looks like below his head? How well do you think you could describe that part of his body? I'm not sure what your writing skills are like, but I can say that I can't really describe him very well. So I remember him from my memory and what his personality is. See that? His personality is important. Even more so for books.

To conclude, this doesn't just apply to characters; it applies to weapons, to gadgets, to buildings (unless a long description is absolutely necessary), and to pretty much any item. Leave things to the imagination. It will drastically increase the quality of your writing. I know, because I did it. I used to write horribly.

Use this to your advantage and slaughter the competition. Your characters can shine through, if only you don't care so much what they look like on the micro-scale.

Of course, some characters will need to be described physically. In fact, probably your main character does. And here's a little hint: some don't need to be described at all. They just need to appear, and you can cleverly work in bits and pieces of their personality and their physical appearance. That is, if you're good. And you probably are. I don't know many authors who couldn't do this.

Physical descriptions can add to the personality, and vice versa. Just don't spend too much time on the physical. Enough to identify, but not enough to picture as clearly as a person from a movie. Let their imagination do the work. That's one of the main benefits of books: they let you use your imagination! Don't deprive your reader of that joy. Think carefully about your character descriptions. If they're great, they will have the right amounts of both physical and personality descriptions. If they're not so great, they won't.

Make sure the character development focuses more on the personality. How you continue is equally important as how you start.

If you do your characters wrong, it could make your book just like too many other books: boring and unremarkable. You don't want that.

If you do your characters right, they will seem real. Your potential readers will love you for it.

Thank you for your time.