Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Random Writing Tips – Know your limitations

 

If you have difficulty writing rousing speeches – which is a skill few have – it’s probably best to not write a story that requires one.  I watched something recently – I won’t say what – but there was a point where the bad guys were winning and the good guys needed a big, motivating speech.  So the hero stepped up and, said some words.  The good guys got fired up and went on to win the day, but in the real world I sat there going, “What?” because after five seconds I had forgotten what they said.  This ultra-pivotal speech sounded like something a student would say at a high school graduation.  Not to dismiss outright the difficulties faced by youths, but hearing some eighteen year old talking about life’s hardships doesn’t resonate with someone who wakes up each morning wondering which random part of them will hurt today for an unknown reason. 

This big hero speech seemed like they wrote an outline of what they wanted the speech to be about, and they just never got around to writing it so they just read the outline.  And the characters in universe acted like it was a “We shall never surrender,” type of thing.  Which broke whatever immersion I had in the story.

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Image from Pixabay.


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