Writing/reading/watching — some links

What makes a good movie sequel?

If your characters are mocking your plot, it may be your subconscious telling you something.

“I suppose this is part of the problem with the “So THAT just happened!” / “The dragons can shoot lightning? The dragons can shoot lighting!” type dialogue. It very very easily veers from feeling like the characters remarking on the absurdity of the situation to the characters reacting like they…”

“A couple people so far have suggested that if a movie has flying aliens in it, the worldbuilding doesn’t need to make any sense. I’d argue that in a story with fantastic elements set in a “real-ish” world, making the world as credible as you can is what makes the fantastic parts more believable.”

Sharon E. Cathcart pushes back against the idea that reading in public is performative.

Gen Z rediscovers the library.

“While it may go unmourned by most of Netflix’s 230 million streamers, this amounts to a slow-motion murder of the greatest resource the early internet offered cinephile” A Guardian article that expresses my own feelings that we lost something when Netflix killed its DVD service.

I’m less nostalgic for the VCR era but I do agree the VCR/DVD store brought something to the table.

“That’s pretty much a major sign that you messed up by killing off the guy when you’re resorting to bringing back the original actor as the twin of the dead guy. In serialized fiction, be careful with any shocking moves done for solely for the sake of shocking people, you’ll find that you’ll often be cutting your own legs off with the move.”