The Antisocial Socialist

So you’ve written a screenplay or a pilot for a television series or a book. It has a great plot and character development and superb dialogue…but it still sucks. This is probably because it doesn’t have anything in it that makes it worth watching or reading, like a stampede of flaming Rottweilers. You need to put something in it that is actually good. Fortunately, I have been compiling a list of really good things to put in books, movies, and TV shows, and I am sharing my secrets with the world because honestly, I want to see more of this stuff. I’m also using primarily cinematic examples because this whole entry was inspired by a discussion I had with rohmie about Hellboy. If you can figure out how many of these things showed up in that movie, you win the internet for the day.

Although I think my favourite genre of all might be titled Post-Apocalyptic Social Commentary With Zombies, these suggestions work for all sorts of stories. For instance, Libertarias has anarchists, Fascist and Nazi villains, occult moments, Gay! text, stuffy academics, different languages, and killer robots...and it's not even a sci-fi movie.

Actually, just kidding. It doesn't have killer robots. But it's still a great flick and you should watch it if you haven't seen it already.

Disclaimer the first: Just because you randomly stick something on this list in your work doesn’t guarantee that it’ll actually be good. Writing does count for something, and some of these things I’ve added just because they are so rarely done. (Example: “Islam as a theological or moral base” worked great in Pitch Black but not in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves because the latter movie pretty much sucked in every other way.)

Disclaimer the second: I liked From Dusk Till Dawn. All of them.



( and away we go, matey! )

Did I miss anything?