Sep 16
10 Writing Tips I Learned From Watching Soaps
Posted by: admin in On Writing, Rogues On TV Comments Off- Having your characters keep secrets should never work out like they want it to. When they finally reveal or are forced to reveal their Big Secret, unexpected and unwanted results should follow.
- Killing off your characters doesn’t have to be permanent. But if they are brought back, don’t gloss over how they got back. Have a rock solid explanation or leave them dead.
- Setting up complex family relationships can really increase the drama or stretch the reader/viewer’s imagination too far. Everyone related means everyone has a stake in the outcome when one of your characters is in trouble. Everyone related shouldn’t be the entire population of a town including that stranger that just moved in last week and is Grandma’s long lost love child.
- Death bed confessions should only be made by the truly dying. Putting your main character in a hospital bed and then having everyone gather around for a chat is boring and predictable. Use these kinds of scenes very sparingly.
- Having brothers or comrades-in-arms in love with the same woman creates tension. Having that woman sleeping around with both brothers creates a slut.
- Lack of research cannot be disguised by a lot of action.
- Two people repetitively talking about their secrets or problems for hours at a time is boring. Throwing a third person into the room who doesn’t know what is going on or is the object of the problem creates delicious tension.
- Everyone, no matter how awful their lives are, has time for a holiday or a moment with the family.
- Bad boy characters are especially appealing to the feminine audience. Keeping their motives a mystery and their looks to-die-for is always a crowd pleaser.
- Ending on a cliffhanger is a good thing. Everyone comes back for more. Ending on the same cliffhanger over and over is not.
