What Marathon-Viewing Taught Me About Writing Story

In my last post I promised I would tell you what I learned about writing story from marathon viewing television and film series on Netflix during my recent convalescence. 

Before this I was a marathon viewing virgin. 

Creative Commons Photo by Flickr Member Espensorvik
(from http://www.flickr.com/photos/28478778@N05/5728487477/sizes/m/in/photolist-9JcZKt-bMputB-9JcZak-dCAyJg-eAKZSS-bm57U4-9WHT9f-7GCcyC-edyAVW-b3gjyr-avdHgo-8fUsUH-8bEHKJ-efUu2g-dwYo3z-dwYoug-drGF9A-drGvQB-dLrfTA-7RZPfQ-bxJ5r8-9NAMPR-8w3ARY-7HAr2J-7HAoZ7-dRoLCE/)

To be candid, I've been known to read a book through to the end even if I had to stay up all night to do it. Trust me, there are books and book series engaging enough to make me do that.  Book series have kept me engrossed for days and weeks at a time, depending on how many books there are in the series. 

While convalescing I was zonked on pain meds and found it difficult to concentrate well enough to write anything intelligible. My eyes wouldn't focus well enough to read. So I thought, why not?

I was surprised by what the experience taught me about writing.


Marathon viewing is a very different experience from watching a series via one episode per week. When watching episodes back-to-back they begin to blend together into a whole that is experienced in a condensed manner--a bit like reading a book in one or two sittings, or especially an entire series of books in immediate succession. 

Basic Example of a Plot Diagram
(from http://365coffeeshopnapkins.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html)

I noticed some things I don't remember paying much attention to when engrossed in individual episodes. 

For example, have you noticed how television writers always make sure that crisis plot points of one kind or another occur just at commercial break time? (That's how they keep you coming back after the commercial.) 

There is always a turn-around, an important question left hanging, something horrible happens to the protagonist.... And notice how these crises plot points become gradually more critical and build the tension to a crescendo until the last commercial break. When the episode returns, the crises is resolved, all the sub-plots are tied up and we have (you guessed it) resolution. The accompanying diagram is a simple illustration of this--commonly called a narrative arc or story arc.

Did I mention sub-plots? That's another thing I noticed. Each weekly episode has a main plot and at least one to three sub-plots. (That's all the busy stuff going on with other characters, or with the protagonist--the stories within the story that complicate the main story and add tension and often act as obstacles to the protagonist getting what she/he wants but can also help the protagonist in the end.) 

Most television episodes (except very seamed shows like LOST and 24--which often cannot be understood without information from prior episodes) are like short stories in themselves. They have a complete story arc and can stand alone, without being part of a series of episodes, yet are enhanced by other episodes and enhance other episodes of which they are a part in a series. When strung together with other stories/episodes into a series, these episodes create a whole that tell an additional story, one that could not be told without each of the individual stories/episodes or parts. 

When you consider an entire set of episodes together (which you will do if you take the time to marathon view a series), you notice the series also has a story arc. Each episode (which has its own story arc) moves the story further through this main or overarching narrative arc, sometimes advancing the story, sometimes acting as background or complication or just speeding or slowing the movement of the story. 

Several episodes in a row may act together to tone down the emotional intensity thereby reducing tension, or to increase the emotional intensity by increasing tension. In addition, they are used to develop our knowledge of various characters in the story and  to add color to the story. Thus, besides creating or reducing tension and moving us through the overarching narrative arc, episodes in themselves can and often do act as sub-plots to the main plot of a series. 

Sharon Darrow, in her blog post titled "Literary Tension at the Level of Language" refers to what novelist and memoirist Kim Barnes says about literary tension in an interview in the March/April 2013 issue of THE WRITER'S CHRONICLE. In her post Darrow says, "What keeps the reader engaged and reading is the suspense that the reader feels as a result of this pressure that Barnes calls the 'archetypal tension of inherent dichotomies,' the conflict among and between opposing forces, ideas, beliefs, desires, and even in the interplay of sounds and silence....Tension, that balance of opposing forces stretched to breaking point, is essential to whatever we write. So often my own writing and that of my students lacks this sense of pressure. Sure, there may be interesting characters, potentially exciting or dire events and actions, or a lively voice, but so often the characters don't come alive through their actions and the events don't resonate because they fail to ignite response in either the characters or the readers." Darrow explains that to ignite this response, "...I have to spend a good deal of time in revision working out syntax, pacing, tone, rhythms, silences and white space, both in poetry and in prose. I have to reconstruct the voice I 'hear' for it to work on the page."

In good story, whether written or performed or digitally created, there is this movement, much like a dance, that takes us on a journey. We start at one place. We move through varying complications that increase or release tension, and it is partly this that keeps us engaged in the journey. Eventually we come to a place where tension is resolved, questions are answered, 'loose ends are tied up' (happily or not), and our journey is at an end.

In film, this is accomplished using cinematic techniques as well as capitalizing on actors' abilities to express dichotomies present in or only suggested by the script, by using verbal and non-verbal cues. In addition, the pacing within and among (as in the case of series) episodes acts as this balance between "sounds and silence," of which Barnes speaks.

This has much in common with the trend of writing short stories and stringing them together to create a book. Some authors do it better than others, meaning when you've finished the book you feel that each story contributed to a particular and overarching narrative arc, even if by a somewhat circuitous route. 

Television series such as LOST and 24, with tightly seamed episodes, have more in common with the chapters of novels than with short stories in books that have an overarching story arc (I call them 'short-story books'--as opposed to books that are collections of short stories that do not create an overarching story arc, even if they have a common theme). In LOST and 24, and shows like them, each episode can only be completely understood in context with others--they do not stand alone--just as novel chapters cannot stand alone as short stories.


I used to consider marathon viewing a time waster. But like everything else that's good or educating, you have to try it to like it. 

So the next time your teen is plopped in front of the television for hours and days at a time, don't be so quick to force him to do something else. Instead, ruin the experience for him by pointing out and discussing the elements of good story writing that he is experiencing by marathon viewing. I'm quite sure he'll thank you for it...someday.

What has been your experience with marathon viewing of television or movie series? If you are a writer, what has it taught you about writing story?


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How to Get Back to a Daily Writing Habit After a Break: Writing PT
How Historically Accurate Should Historical Fiction Be?
Researching the Historical Novel: Advice for Next Semester's Novel Writers
Is Technology Causing Us to Lose the Personal Touch? 
Why "Copper" is Addictive and Instructive by Cathy Day