30 Days of Writing and Editing Tips – Day 17 Mentor Movie and the usefulness of prologues (sometimes)
I posted about how valuable mentor texts are for my writing here, and will do more, but I also wanted to post about mentor movies. There are certain movies that have taught me so much about storytelling, and when I’m in a slump, I rewatch one or more of them.
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Apollo 13 is one of them. The movie is an adaptation from a book by Jim Lovell, one of the astronauts on the mission. William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert did the screenplay. The film tells the story of the mission that nearly cost the lives of the astronauts, when an explosion onboard depletes the oxygen supply. The mission becomes one to figure out how to get the astronauts back to Earth before their air runs out.
Most of us aren’t going to write stories so dramatic, but there are takeaways from watching it that have helped me in my stories.
First, the opening. I hate to get into debates about prologues, because the people who hate them will not budge, but here’s my view: It depends on the story! I’ve used them in two of my books, and will probably do so again. If you need something that really sets up the tone of the story or foreshadows what is going to happen, prologues are an excellent way to do that.
The opening of Apollo 13 is a prologue, a sequence using actual news footage and images of the horrific fire on Apollo 1 when the astronauts were rehearsing the launch procedures. All three astronauts died. It works in the movie because it immediately reminds viewers of how dangerous it is to be an astronaut, even when they aren’t actually in space. Even if we didn’t already know the plot of the movie, we know something bad is coming, and that in a suspense/thriller story is important. That tiny trickle of dread will only grow stronger as the story progresses.
The next scene is a party at one of the astronaut’s houses where they are all gathered to watch the moon landing of Apollo. This is an inspired bit of storytelling. It shows the astronauts’ ordinary world, making them seem like real people, and manages to impart a lot of information along the way. I suspect there was some debate over putting this scene first. I’m sure there was a push to set it at NASA because that would be the cool setting, but it would have made most readers feel removed from the main characters.
I’m a big fan of chapters starting in the character’s ordinary world, and then using some event to let the reader know something big is going to happen soon. This happens in Apollo 13 when we see Marilyn Lovell, Jim’s wife, talks about how nervous Neil Armstrong’s wife must be. There is also a mention that of the astronauts’ main concern – they are afraid future missions will be cancelled due to budget cuts before they get to go. This is a useful technique of dramatic irony. The viewer (or reader) knows something much worse than this is going to happen. It’s like you wish you could get into the story and warn the character.
I could go on and on about some of the latter parts of the movie and what works so well, but I think I’ll save that for a later post. I encourage everyone to take a look at this movie-I didn’t even realize exactly how broad of an appeal it had was until the time my daughter came into the room when I was watching it-she must have been about ten and not really interested in many adult movies-and she sat down and watched it all the way through, enthralled.
Happy watching !
