{"id":746,"date":"2017-03-26T00:15:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T06:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interestingauthors.com\/blog\/?p=746"},"modified":"2017-10-24T15:13:58","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T21:13:58","slug":"how-much-is-enough-of-a-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/how-much-is-enough-of-a-story\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much is \u201cEnough\u201d of a Story?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone involved in any part of writing, viewing or reading needs to consider this question. Just how much of a story is \u201cenough?\u201d This topic came up because of various books I\u2019ve read and movies I\u2019ve seen. The definition of \u201cenough\u201d seems to shrink in size faster than candy bars. We seem to have become a culture of doing less than the minimum just to get paid.<\/p>\n

Since there is a much higher probability you have seen the same movies and television shows rather than read the same books we will discuss those. In the world of movies and television we have two trends going on.<\/p>\n

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  1. Season ending cliff hanger trying to force networks to buy another season, but they don\u2019t.<\/li>\n
  2. Add tons of filler to split what would be one good movie into 2-3 bad movies.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    We will start with “Rush<\/a>.” Tom Ellis is a gifted actor who plays the devil may care role quite well. This show had lots going for it, not to mention it was quite the mirror on the upper 1% of society. Season ends with Rush stoned and about to be arrested for murder among other crimes. Show was never heard from again. We know it will never be heard from again because Tom Ellis is playing Lucifer Morningstar on the show “Lucifer<\/a>.” Make no mistake, “Lucifer” is a great show doing a wonderful parody of the human condition spinning in just enough biblical storyline to offend most devout followers of any religion. The concept of Lucifer retiring from Hell and where he would retire to has boundless storyline possibilities. Hint, he didn\u2019t go to New Jersey.<\/p>\n

    Given Network management\u2019s penchant for killing off any show which doesn\u2019t generate runaway numbers in its first few weeks I\u2019m certain you can all provide lists of shows killed off before they had a chance to find an audience. If you are looking for one you never saw but is well worth watching you should binge watch \u201cShark<\/a>\u201d sometime.<\/p>\n

    Movie studios have taken a different approach. They add tons of filler splitting what would be one good movie into multiple bad movies. Why? As a general rule the box office, rental and DVD sales for 2 bad movies tops the revenue from one good movie which doesn\u2019t achieve block-buster status. I\u2019ve complained many times about \u201cMockingjay: Part 1<\/a>\u201d but we as movie watchers have also been screwed by \u201cThe Unexpected Journey<\/a>\u201d as well. First off, the original animated show<\/a> I saw on television as a child was great. We didn\u2019t really need a version with actors. We definitely didn\u2019t need 3 installments of it!<\/p>\n

    To those of you reading this who write stuff learn this:<\/p>\n