We're starting to see the TV and movie generation hit the writers and readers of today. They've been raised on big explosions, blood and gore, and near non-stop action. The idea of tiny actions building up to a big consequence is a foreign idea to them because they rarely, if ever have seen it on the big screen. For them, horror and suspense without death and mayhem is neither horrific nor suspenseful. A story no longer has a rhythm in its tension, but one extraordinary event after another at breakneck speed. The impact on writing is a skewing of perceptions on what goes into the conflict of a story and what makes a character an active participant in the plot, and, perhaps, what it means for a sequence of events to actually BE a story.

This does not mean that movies and TV shows are bad, or that the techniques used to make them good for their target audiences are bad. I may be particular about my movies, but I do enjoy them. However, many of the techniques used in movies and TV are meant for visual story telling alone. They don't work well when used in the written word. Unfortunately, much of today's population is raised on TV and movies, and less are reading. This has been a gradual but definite change over the years, and it is influencing the way future writers perceive what a story is.

Like Ursela LeGuin, I believe a story is "a narrative of events (external or psychological) which moves through time or implies the passage of time, and which involves change." That change can be an actual change in the character or his situation, or a character's attempt at change. Characters must grapple with some kind of conflict, but the way they do so doesn't need to huge or dramatic -- they just need to try to get what they want. Sometimes this requires little actions -- pretending to drink from the poisoned cup instead of throwing the cup to the floor. Both are ways of avoiding the poison, one is just a less dramatic way of doing so. Less dramatic action does not equal passive. Passiveness is allowing the events to happen and making no effort to avoid them.

Action is a window into the character's soul, the circumstances surrounding the conflict, and the plot itself. The struggle to overcome the obstacles in our lives don't usually require dramatic overtures or flashy explosions. If TV and movies are to be believed, we see cars blow up every day. Most of us, however, probably have yet to see just one go up in a fireball. I know I haven't and I'm in my 40s. Even the most extra-ordinary of circumstances often only need the smallest of actions to be dealt with. Fiction is supposed to be grounded in this reality, even when based in the unreal. Making your fiction larger than life doesn’t mean taking life out of it entirely. Fiction, in all its forms -- even the least literary genre, is supposed to be a reflection of life, not an overdose of Hollywood flash. We as writers must keep the distinction in mind and avoid confusing good fiction with a Hollywood movie. Flashy special effects are for the big screen, not the printed page.