On the same thread as my previous article regarding fanfiction, I will be discussing how certain strains of media are equally important to the writing community as printed media is. Now, what would that entail? I will break it into three forms: Music, Television/ Movies, and performance.
The first aspect of this is music. Just like poetry, lyrics can help to shape an idea, or thought process involved in the writing process, or even the writing itself. Have you ever spent hours making a playlist to help you study, workout, or even just tie it to a favorite character? It is this portion of writing that can be crucial.
Look to "Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy" and the importance of music in the voice and style of the film. Without the iconic songs that were involved in this film, would the tone, and overall feeling of the movie be the same? Do we really want to find out? Overture, background, and soundtrack music are all just as important to a story as the story itself.
Moving on to television and film, let's start with the obvious. We see the story happening in front of us, as well as watch the different micro expressions that actors can give a character. In seeing a visual representation of what can be written, we gain new insights on what to write ourselves.
In a comparison between a television show and a movie, we get a study of length and size. In a film, we are given a condensed space, almost like flash fiction or a short story. In television, we get more of a long form study of a story and how it is taken on the journey of the longer plot.
Now for the third category, we get a slightly different take. This would be like a collaborative piece. With live performance, we get a mix of music, visual media, and even multiple ideas working to make a complete one. This is shown through audience reception of a joke, or in musical or acting mistakes. It's all about how the idea made, forged, and changed with each retelling of it.
With non print media, we can see different facets of writing as they come to be. We get the physical, the lyrical, and the written. With all these different minutia, we are able to bring all new experiences into our own writing, and hope to aid other writers the way that these ways have helped us.
