A lot of people scoff at Science Fiction. They think it’s all spaceships and silly robots.[i] But writing Science Fiction can make you a better writer, because it encourages you to consider elements of your work that are more easily ignored when writing straight fiction or other genres. This article, which is adapted from an email I sent to the writing team developing next seasons productions for Little Wonder Radio Plays, describes three key reasons why you should try Science Fiction to become a better writer.
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Radio plays! Huzzah!
I love radio plays. My particular favourites are the Doctor Who plays by Big Finish[i] but the great joy of radio is freedom. Spaceships, talking donkey’s, amoeba who fall in love; you can write any sound that provokes the listener’s imagination. Rehearsal is light, you record it once, and once published it is available at the audience’s convenience. The perfect solution of an imprisoned stay-at-home parent looking to get work on its feet. Read on to hear a whole new play and learn what we’re doing next.
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Here’s a quote from a book I very much enjoyed:
“My bow is a rarity, crafted by my father along with a few others that I keep well hidden in the woods.” (The Hunger Games, Chapter 1)
How many bowyers is Katniss hiding in the woods?[i] Did she free them before the bad guys destroyed District 12 or are the poor buggers still there, stuck under a tree, waiting for rescue? And how many readers care that bad grammar riddles the book?
If Suzanne Collins can sell 17.5 million copies of The Hunger Games, do we need to study grammar at all?
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English is a subject/object structured language. A normal English sentence goes like this: Subject -> Action -> Object. But, because English is a wonderfully flexible language, we are allowed to re-order our sentences. We can hide both subject and object within subtle layers of meaning. So how do you choose your sentence structure? And why have years of academic writing left me struggling with my fiction edit?
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This article contains my submission for a screenwriting exercise from the Aaron Sorkin Screenplay Masterclass. The objective is to take a famous (public domain) short story and adapt it to the first ten pages of a screenplay. The story I chose from the list provided on the course was “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe.
I have tried to adapt the story so that a) Vincent Price could not possibly be envisaged playing a part and b) it wasn’t just another story about the protagonist fridging the only woman in the story and then experiencing a lot of man pain.[i] I’d really like to know if it worked out!
I have never written a screenplay before, so I’d appreciate feedback. Don’t feel you have to be nice or lie to spare my feelings, but do remember Bill and Ted’s maxim.[ii] Yeah. I’m dead nervous about sharing this. Here goes:
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