This evening, I finished watching ABC’s TV series Lost. Yeah, I’m behind the times. I watched the series when it was originally on up to the first episode of season 4 and then I decided I didn’t care anymore. Flash forward to this year, and I meet a new friend (now, my future roommate) who is obsessed with the show and convinces me to start watching again. So I watched the whole series in about three months.
As much as I’d love to talk about the crazy ending and all my thoughts on it, I won’t in case there is anyone else out there who didn’t see it when it aired. I had the ending of Shutter Island spoiled for me, and it killed it. I won’t do that for Lost. But, the ending did teach me something that I can transfer over to my novel, and tell you about without spoiling everything.
For those of you who don’t want Lost, there are many, many characters on this show. Throughout the six series we not only get real-time action of the show but also flashbacks about people’s past. The cast was huge, some characters only lasting a few seasons, and yet having intricate background stories. But in the end of things, the show was really only about one person, one journey, one man’s story. Sure, you learned a lot about all the other characters and their stories were important, but the ending tells it like it is: one man matters more than all the others, at least in view of the show’s story.
My novel, so I’m hoping, is going to be the same way. I have four main characters, four points of view that jump around a bit randomly. They’re all important characters, all important events, all meaningful to the story. But one character needs to be the center focus. Of course, I knew one character needed to be the center focus before all this, but watching it happen on the show makes it a lot easier for me to consider doing it in my own novel. I felt just as attached to the “minor” characters as I did the lead character. I feel satisfied with who was most important, whose story it was because it was well crafted. It started and ended with the most important person. I know not only what I need to do (focus on a single character) but how to make it work. You know, if you can transfer TV show logic to writing.
I’m going to hope I can. Have any of you found technical or otherwise inspiration from TV shows, movies, anything else?
The Ink Ribbon Writer 