Can YouTube Make You a Better Writer?
So what’s YouTube good for? For me, it has become my music player. Pretty much any song I can think of is right there ready to be played, which is great for a guy like me who loves background music when I’m writing. For others, it’s the place to go to for countless videos of cats doing cute and goofy things. I’ve only ever watched one such video, and that was because I was writing a freelance article about it, and I was bored after a minute. But hey, to each their own.
What else is YouTube good for? How about helping you become a better writer.
What sort of videos can do this? No doubt there are lectures, presentations and interviews floating around YouTube featuring well-known authors talking about their craft. But those aren’t the videos I’m talking about. YouTube happens to be the home of some very entertaining and insightful movie review/critique shows. Yes, we are talking about two different mediums here, but one of the common themes these shows deal with is storytelling. What makes the plot succeed or fail? What causes a story to drag? What makes us not care about the characters?
One of the shows that does this exceptionally well is "The Nostalgia Critic." With a style ranging from sardonic to high energy to explosive ranting, the Nostalgia Critic (real name Doug Walker) has ripped apart pre-2000 movies and animated shows for the past several years. A great example of this is his review for "The Room," a laughably horrible drama produced by and starring Tommy Wiseau. It has been labeled in some circles as one of the worst movies ever! Or as the Critic calls it, an “anus of a performance.”
To go over every single aspect of bad storytelling in "The Room" would require this blog to be the length of a Tom Clancy novel. Besides, you can check it out in the link below. But one major flaw of the story the Critic brilliantly points out is the numerous scenes between the female lead, Lisa, and her mother. Every conversation revolves around Lisa saying she doesn't like her future husband, Johnny, while her mother expounds on what a wonderful man he is. At one point, the mother reveals she has breast cancer. So how does this impact the plot?
It doesn't! Lisa brushes it off with, “I’m sure you’ll be fine,” and it is never mentioned again. How many of us have learned that a friend or loved one has been diagnosed with cancer? There is always that combination of shock and fear. This was a great opportunity to see how Lisa deals with the emotional burden of falling out of love with Johnny while at the same time worrying about her mother’s declining health. Will she breakdown? Will something like this bring Lisa and Johnny back together? Who knows, because Tommy Wiseau ignored one of the basic tenants of good storytelling. Giving your characters numerous obstacles to try and overcome.
my link text
Another web series that does a great job pointing out faults and plot holes in stories/movies is "Everything Wrong With . . ." These episodes can spend ten to twenty minutes dissecting every error in big budget movies like "2012" or "Pacific Rim." Some of these errors are minor, but minor errors can be like mosquito bites. The more you have, the more annoying they become. One of the more helpful parts of "Everything Wrong With . . ." is nailing a major problems with some movies/stories, elements of the plot that just don’t make sense. A perfect example is in the episode featuring "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," where it is said that the Autobots are powered by Energon. In the movie prior, "Revenge of the Fallen," it was explained that Energon is created by blowing up suns. But as "Everything Wrong With . . ." points out, the Autobots haven’t done that for thousands of years, so how could they have enough Energon to continue living? Then we are shown a scene with the Matrix of Leadership, which, it is pointed out, was the key to activating the machine that destroyed suns to create Energon to keep the Autobots alive. But all it takes is the Matrix to bring Sentinel Prime back from the dead. So if the Matrix is the only thing needed to pump life back into a Transformer, and keep him among the living, why the hell do you have to blow up suns to make Energon?
Not only that, but couldn’t you find another way to create your energy source that doesn’t require the annihilation of an entire star system? For that matter, what did Transformers do to maintain their existence before they developed the technology that causes super novas?
These are the sort of issues you need to hash out if you want your story to be believable to the reader.
my link text
There are a host of other web series that point out problems with storytelling in irreverent, snarky and even snobbish ways. They include:
"Cinema Snob," a.k.a Brad Jones, who delivers commentary on well-known films like "Friday the 13th" and "Nightmare on Elm Street," as well as movies beyond the realm of obscure like "Fun in Balloon Land" and "Weasels Rip My Flesh" in a pretentious, sharp-witted manner.
my link text
"Brandon’s Cult Movie Reviews," starring Brandon Tenold. This Canadian Master of Snark spends his time ripping apart B-grade, even down to F-grade, sci-fi movies from the Godzilla franchise to "Turkish Batman". And lord help you if you made a movie like "Starcrash" or "Bigfoot" that features characters walking or driving to their destination for long periods of time, with absolutely nothing happening! Brandon will just throw a fit on how this brings the movie/story to a screeching halt.
my link text
"Honest Trailers": A condensed version of "Everything Wrong With . . ."
my link text
"Atop the Fourth Wall," starring Linkara, a.k.a Lewis Lovhaug. Instead of movies, he specializes in reviewing bad comic books. Not only does he do a very good job of showing the numerous reasons why stories like "All Star Batman and Robin" and "Justice League: Cry for Justice" fail, but sometimes he even goes into the scientific inaccuracies in comics. One of my favorites is the review of "Superman: Distant Fires," an “Elseworld” tale where Earth is devastated by a nuclear war, which somehow destabilizes its molten core and, several years later, causes the world to blow up. Linkara points out the Earth’s crust is so thick that even detonating every nuke in existence would not affect the molten core, let alone blow up the entire world.
And don’t even get me started on how the hell nuclear explosions would nullify the powers of every superhuman on Earth, let alone make the Joker sane. Science fiction or not, the story still has to make sense to the reader.
my link text
Catch a few episodes, take down some notes, and you can eliminate any plot holes or other elements of your story that may not make sense. Plus, you’ll get some great laughs out of these web shows.
Warning: Many of these web series contain adult language and graphic violence. If this bothers you, don’t watch it. If you do watch it and are bothered by it, do not complain to me, because I did warn you.
John J. Rust is a radio sportscaster in Arizona, a freelance writer, and author of the sci-fi novels “Sea Raptor” and “Dark Wings,” as well as the baseball book “The Best Phillies Team Ever.” All three books are available on Amazon.
What else is YouTube good for? How about helping you become a better writer.
What sort of videos can do this? No doubt there are lectures, presentations and interviews floating around YouTube featuring well-known authors talking about their craft. But those aren’t the videos I’m talking about. YouTube happens to be the home of some very entertaining and insightful movie review/critique shows. Yes, we are talking about two different mediums here, but one of the common themes these shows deal with is storytelling. What makes the plot succeed or fail? What causes a story to drag? What makes us not care about the characters?
One of the shows that does this exceptionally well is "The Nostalgia Critic." With a style ranging from sardonic to high energy to explosive ranting, the Nostalgia Critic (real name Doug Walker) has ripped apart pre-2000 movies and animated shows for the past several years. A great example of this is his review for "The Room," a laughably horrible drama produced by and starring Tommy Wiseau. It has been labeled in some circles as one of the worst movies ever! Or as the Critic calls it, an “anus of a performance.”
To go over every single aspect of bad storytelling in "The Room" would require this blog to be the length of a Tom Clancy novel. Besides, you can check it out in the link below. But one major flaw of the story the Critic brilliantly points out is the numerous scenes between the female lead, Lisa, and her mother. Every conversation revolves around Lisa saying she doesn't like her future husband, Johnny, while her mother expounds on what a wonderful man he is. At one point, the mother reveals she has breast cancer. So how does this impact the plot?
It doesn't! Lisa brushes it off with, “I’m sure you’ll be fine,” and it is never mentioned again. How many of us have learned that a friend or loved one has been diagnosed with cancer? There is always that combination of shock and fear. This was a great opportunity to see how Lisa deals with the emotional burden of falling out of love with Johnny while at the same time worrying about her mother’s declining health. Will she breakdown? Will something like this bring Lisa and Johnny back together? Who knows, because Tommy Wiseau ignored one of the basic tenants of good storytelling. Giving your characters numerous obstacles to try and overcome.
my link text
Another web series that does a great job pointing out faults and plot holes in stories/movies is "Everything Wrong With . . ." These episodes can spend ten to twenty minutes dissecting every error in big budget movies like "2012" or "Pacific Rim." Some of these errors are minor, but minor errors can be like mosquito bites. The more you have, the more annoying they become. One of the more helpful parts of "Everything Wrong With . . ." is nailing a major problems with some movies/stories, elements of the plot that just don’t make sense. A perfect example is in the episode featuring "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," where it is said that the Autobots are powered by Energon. In the movie prior, "Revenge of the Fallen," it was explained that Energon is created by blowing up suns. But as "Everything Wrong With . . ." points out, the Autobots haven’t done that for thousands of years, so how could they have enough Energon to continue living? Then we are shown a scene with the Matrix of Leadership, which, it is pointed out, was the key to activating the machine that destroyed suns to create Energon to keep the Autobots alive. But all it takes is the Matrix to bring Sentinel Prime back from the dead. So if the Matrix is the only thing needed to pump life back into a Transformer, and keep him among the living, why the hell do you have to blow up suns to make Energon?
Not only that, but couldn’t you find another way to create your energy source that doesn’t require the annihilation of an entire star system? For that matter, what did Transformers do to maintain their existence before they developed the technology that causes super novas?
These are the sort of issues you need to hash out if you want your story to be believable to the reader.
my link text
There are a host of other web series that point out problems with storytelling in irreverent, snarky and even snobbish ways. They include:
"Cinema Snob," a.k.a Brad Jones, who delivers commentary on well-known films like "Friday the 13th" and "Nightmare on Elm Street," as well as movies beyond the realm of obscure like "Fun in Balloon Land" and "Weasels Rip My Flesh" in a pretentious, sharp-witted manner.
my link text
"Brandon’s Cult Movie Reviews," starring Brandon Tenold. This Canadian Master of Snark spends his time ripping apart B-grade, even down to F-grade, sci-fi movies from the Godzilla franchise to "Turkish Batman". And lord help you if you made a movie like "Starcrash" or "Bigfoot" that features characters walking or driving to their destination for long periods of time, with absolutely nothing happening! Brandon will just throw a fit on how this brings the movie/story to a screeching halt.
my link text
"Honest Trailers": A condensed version of "Everything Wrong With . . ."
my link text
"Atop the Fourth Wall," starring Linkara, a.k.a Lewis Lovhaug. Instead of movies, he specializes in reviewing bad comic books. Not only does he do a very good job of showing the numerous reasons why stories like "All Star Batman and Robin" and "Justice League: Cry for Justice" fail, but sometimes he even goes into the scientific inaccuracies in comics. One of my favorites is the review of "Superman: Distant Fires," an “Elseworld” tale where Earth is devastated by a nuclear war, which somehow destabilizes its molten core and, several years later, causes the world to blow up. Linkara points out the Earth’s crust is so thick that even detonating every nuke in existence would not affect the molten core, let alone blow up the entire world.
And don’t even get me started on how the hell nuclear explosions would nullify the powers of every superhuman on Earth, let alone make the Joker sane. Science fiction or not, the story still has to make sense to the reader.
my link text
Catch a few episodes, take down some notes, and you can eliminate any plot holes or other elements of your story that may not make sense. Plus, you’ll get some great laughs out of these web shows.
Warning: Many of these web series contain adult language and graphic violence. If this bothers you, don’t watch it. If you do watch it and are bothered by it, do not complain to me, because I did warn you.
John J. Rust is a radio sportscaster in Arizona, a freelance writer, and author of the sci-fi novels “Sea Raptor” and “Dark Wings,” as well as the baseball book “The Best Phillies Team Ever.” All three books are available on Amazon.
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