Does learning story structure ruin watching movies?
Hot take: learning is good.
In my group Write Your Feature! class this week, one of the writers said that she had watched The Wild Robot and actively noticed the story structure for the first time. She said that before she took the class, she was worried that learning how movies work would make her enjoy them less but she actually found the opposite to be true. Understanding what the story is doing helped her be more engaged with the characters and their journey. It felt good!
I hear this all the time!
I want to put this myth that learning how movies and TV shows work ruins the magic of them to bed for good.
Learning how things work makes you love them more, not less.
It makes you appreciate them more when they’re done well.
It gives you a language to express why you’re disappointed when they’re lacking.
Hot take: I think learning is good.
Who enjoys being in an art museum more: The person just looking at the pretty pictures or the person who knows the thought and care that went into every brushstroke? The first is going to get bored and go spend $26 on a sandwich in the cafe while the other sits and marvels at one painting for 5 hours.
Does this also imply that not understanding how narratives are crafted makes you an easier to manipulate cog in a vicious capitalist society and that understanding and creating art is in essence an act of rebellion because tyranny fears truth and art is essentially truth distilled? Who can say...
This myth also applies to writing movies and TV shows. Writers are worried that understanding how stories work will remove the magic of creative discovery in writing. They fear that the happy accidents will be stamped out by the clinical, methodical regimen of story structure.
I understand this fear too.
It’s also bullshit, but I understand it.
You don’t hear bakers say, “I don’t want to know how the ingredients go together...it ruins the magic of what happens in the oven.”
Having a creative process aids discovery.
When I hear writers resist having a process, I’m reminded of my favorite bell hooks quote:
“[M]any of us are more comfortable with the notion that love can mean anything to anybody precisely because when we define it with precision and clarity it brings us face to face with our lacks – with terrible alienation.”
Does this also imply that creating art is an act of love and thus, that people who understand how to create art are able to love more deeply than people who don’t? That would be an insane thing to think, let alone write in a blog post.
I agree that too strict of adherence to any story structure is bad. Story structure comes from us telling stories, not the other way around. I’m not even talking about story structure in a Hero’s Journey sort of way. I mean simply having a process of unpacking and understanding your ideas. Maybe that means outlining. Maybe that means simply understanding what questions you should be asking yourself right now.
You’re making an excuse under the guise of calling yourself an artist but really what’s happening is that you’re resisting developing a process because developing a process means facing the things that you struggle with understanding. Having a process doesn’t mean that you won’t have creative discoveries. Having a process gives you the ability to focus your creative energy instead of just spraying it everywhere.
I’m reminded of my favorite Nick Cannon movie: Drumline.
He’s a naturally-gifted drummer but he doesn’t know how to read music. Is he able to get by? For a little bit. But if he wants the drumline to win the drumline competition...um...he has to...learn music to...drumline better. The bell hooks quote was better.
My point is, you want to be a writer? You should learn to use the tools that writers use. You’ll enjoy writing and watching and talking about movies and TV more once you do.