1 Movie that Taught Me How to Tell a Story

Inspiration can be everywhere: in music, in movies, in books… This month, we’re spotlighting inspiration in its many forms. Today, Tanya, nine-year Wrimo and author of White Noise , shares one movie that shaped her views on storytelling:

There was a movie I used to catch on Space on Sunday afternoons as a kid. Time Stranger would come on once every few weeks and I loved it. It’s about a woman in the future who is going to meet old colleagues when she gets into an accident, leading those colleagues to come together to save her life. It’s about a group of soldiers trapped in a small town in a desert that has decided that they must all die one by one. It’s about a little girl trying to survive poverty.

The movie was my first introduction to a lot of concepts: starting in medias res, multi-linear narratives, the slow reveal of information, and ambiguous endings. I’d seen them before, but it was the first time I really paid attention to them. 

I learned how to limit perspective and to keep a tighter grip on some of the secrets of a story until it was appropriate to reveal them. I started exploring how to tell a story out of order. I paid a lot more attention to the things I didn’t have to say, and my stories became a lot more engaging because of it.

Tanya Lisle is the author of White Noise and The Looking Glass Saga, as well as a nine-year veteran of NaNoWriMo (Username: sheakoshan). When she isn’t writing, she’s working on websites, marathoning some show that everyone has already seen, or looking up adorable pictures of bunnies.