One of the things I hated about the movie UltraViolet (and believe me, there were many things) was the fact that the writers didn't bother to set up the story. They just kind of threw the viewers into this world, mid-action, without ever explaining the rules of the world. You were merely supposed to take it for granted that some super skinny vixen could dodge bullets fired from weapons that were mere feet away from her.
Oh, and people were for some reason terrified of catching this disease that would turn you into a super-sexy-bullet-dodging-vixen. And these ultra tough people were vampires, or something. Honestly, I went to sleep about an hour into the movie. Once they started being able to carry people in briefcases, I pretty much tuned out.
UltraViolet was, in a word, unbelievable. And let's be honest here, 95% of movies coming out of Hollywood showcase pretty fantastic scenarios not possible in this world. But they're still believable because they have rules that (thankfully) they let the viewers in on pretty early.
The Matrix, for example, could have easily gone the way of UltraViolet. It was a confusing tale, and yet you had the sense that it was supposed to be confusing. The viewer knew pretty early on that something was off, and this was okay. UltraViolet, on the other hand, seemed to want you to already know what was going on without ever explaining anything.
So it was unbelievable, and it failed.
Think about your own writing. Do you want your readers to accept something because that's just how things work in your world without ever introducing them to the rules of that world? If so, you might want to think about that. You need to ground your readers into some type of reality. It can't be all chaos. Even chaos (in a book or movie) needs to make sense. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was grounded in its own type of reality. You, as the reader, knew that nothing was as it seemed. You could rest assured in this fact and move forward knowing that things would continue to get "curiouser and curiouser."
Is there a book you've read recently that you just couldn't get into because of how unbelievable it was? What made it unbelievable? And how do you deal with that stuff in your own writing?
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By the way, I have some great news to share with you! ELEMENTAL is now on Goodreads!!!!! AND ELEMENTAL has its own fan page on Facebook!!!!
Please visit those sites today and click "like" and/or "to-read!"
And I'd really appreciate it if you guys could spread the word around to your friends on facebook and goodreads. Thanks!
