Putting It All Together
How to Get Your Story Started
or
Organizing This Frickin' Mess
by Jim Butcher
**************************
So you've got a great idea for a story. You've got some good characters, some
good plot, maybe a great scene or two in mind. You're ready to plunge in!
If only you could figure out WHERE to plunge in.
Be wise and listen to me, young padawan writer: get a few things organized
first. It'll save you enormous headaches in the long run. I'm going to share
what I do before I start a novel wit
or
Organizing This Frickin' Mess
by Jim Butcher
**************************
So you've got a great idea for a story. You've got some good characters, some
good plot, maybe a great scene or two in mind. You're ready to plunge in!
If only you could figure out WHERE to plunge in.
Be wise and listen to me, young padawan writer: get a few things organized
first. It'll save you enormous headaches in the long run. I'm going to share
what I do before I start a novel wit
date
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message 1:
by
Britt
(new)
Feb 08, 2010 05:14AM
DAMN SYFY FOR STOPPING THE DRESDEN FILES!!!! THE VERY BEST SHOW ON TV EVER!!!!!!! A PETITION NEEDS TO BE STARTED!
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Nynia wrote: "DAMN SYFY FOR STOPPING THE DRESDEN FILES!!!! THE VERY BEST SHOW ON TV EVER!!!!!!! A PETITION NEEDS TO BE STARTED!"Eh.. well, if you're a fan of the books, you can't be all that pleased with how badly they translated the character, setting and stories into the TV show. If you've only ever seen the TV show, check out the books. You're in for a treat. They're easily 100 times better than the TV show.
Just to point out some of the weirdness that put me off enjoying the show...
1. Instead of Harry being a grouchy solitary wizard who lives with no electricity and no hot water in the dank basement of an old boarding house decorated with star wars posters and mismatched second-hand furniture, in the first episode we have Harry waking up next to a beautiful woman he casually brought home for the night to his lovely, well lit, stylishly decorated pad.
2. Instead of Bob the Skull being a lascivious non-corporeal spirit of intellect who lives in a skull, we have some weird blonde english guy in fancy clothes.
3. Instead of the infamous Blue Beetle, his faithful multicolored, banged up car, he drives a boring Jeep. (Although for some reason in a later episode, we see they actually made the Blue Beetle and it has a cameo in a mechanics shop.)
3. Karrin Murphy, no longer irish, short, blonde, and cheerleader cute, we have a latin, tallish brunette.
4. Suzan Rodriguez, no longer a latin, tallish brunette, we have irish, short, blonde, and cheerleader cute.
5. Instead of a rune carved staff, we have a hockey stick. Did someone read the Dresden Files and actually say to themselves, "you know what Harry is missing? Some quirky character traits."
6. Morgan, instead of a grizzled centuries old veteran with an iron gray beard and long hair, carrying a medieval long sword, we get a neat, beardless, well dressed, african-american gentleman... with a medieval long sword.
7. etc.. etc..
I don't know, it's been a few years since I saw the series, so that's all that comes to mind at the moment. I can't imagine the train of logic that would make someone think that any of these changes improved the story. Wasn't there even something in the TV show about Harry and Bianca having a history? Argh!
That list is a good start as to why the series failed so miserably.Bianca and Harry sleeping together... there aren't words enough to describe how stupid and wrong that was. Had to call it quits during the second episode. I'm holding out hope that one day there will be a faithful TV series adaptation. As for the actual topic... I don't have a creative bone in my body, well, when it comes to working stories at least.
WTF! Just finished changes, and am besides myself at the ending. Harry was about to bang Murphy, finally, and he ends up a sieve slipping under cold water. grrr!
I've been watching the show on netflix, and I agree they really got each and everyone of the character sketches wrong. Still, if one weren't familiar with the actual stories, they might consider it a decent addition to the supernatural entertainment genre. Too bad the writers seem to have deliberately spent the majority of their effort on alienating fans of the book series.
not to mention the fact of...hello? TECHNOLOGY!!!! no computer shorts out when he gets near it that i could see.
CHANGES is the best one yet! Wow Red Court Gone. To bad the Codex series is over. That was great too. Looking forward to the Dresden Files RPG. Not that Ill play it but IM too big a fan to not want to own everything dresden lol.
After devouring the books I agree with what you said Nynia... but don't knock the hockey stick, I loved that in the show! I was sad to see it was not part of Jim's vision in the books. And yes, I was introduced to Harry via SciFi and now I'm hooked on the books. That is one thing the they did do right with the TV show... they grabbed a bunch of new fans and there is nothing wrong with that.
People, please don't post spoilers here. D: I did not need to know that the Red Court is gone in a future book.
I liked them both. The books are great and so was the show. A book never translates well to picture. Besides, Shows and movies are always loosely based on the books; opening up a little creative freedom for the shows writers.Adam Santo
Hey Marisella!!! thanks for the plot spoiler!!! Some people may have not yet read the books and you've strayed off topic from the intent of the original post!! Shame on you!!
If you try not to compare the books to the series, it is not a bad series. Oh, it has its flaws, but it was kind of fun.The whole Bob thing was probably the biggest disappointment for me, making him so human, but that might just be that TV viewers might not be so well-equipped to cope with talking skulls; there was also something odd about watching an American actor doing an English accent as he talked to an English actor doing an American accent.
I prefer the books, I must say, but I still would have liked to see more of the TV series.
In order for this book series to really get a decent TV adaptation, it would have to be on HBO or something. To really get the feel of the story, it needs a place where it can have unrestricted freedom (or as close as it gets with TV). Sort of like True Blood, I think. SyFy was not the place for this series at all. Though I wish TV adaptations would stop pointlessly changing things, especially things that worked so well in the books, like characters and settings.
