thinking like a director

This mini-series (or rather, brief duet of posts – Part One is here)  had its inspiration in a post back in April in which I suggested using the idea of blocking a stage production as a way of approaching outlining a book project. A few people indicated an interest in me pursuing this idea further, and well, I tried. Somewhere along the way, the idea morphed into using concepts from film to enhance the writing process. I’ve come to believe that there are many similarities between directing a film (which I admit I’ve never done – my directing has been confined to choirs) and writing a book. The director takes a story, and through characters, use of location and set, revealing or hiding key elements of the action, camera angles, close-ups and wide shots, makes the story come to life. The writer does much the same thing, albeit without the use of a camera. How? Let’s take a seat in that director’s chair and see if we can find out. Quiet on the set…