You have a valid point about youngin's being overly protective. In my generation the Disney movies "Snow White" and Pinocchio were very scary for children. Yet here I am well adjusted with only minor twitches and episodes of wanting to rip off all my clothes and run down Wilshire Blvd. It seems we have lost the ability to distinguish what is truly important. Good stuff. Take care.
When I first started writing for publication, my writing coach said exactly what you observed - the character intros and "get-to-know-you" chapters simply aren't accepted by publishers. Chop off those chapters, put the protagonists in immediate jeopardy and insert the character development within the action sequences. I did what I was told, and at least for a while got my foot on the first rung.
I have to say, in passing, that I've seen just enough of the teen slash and gash movies that I know why the Geico (I think it was) commercial is so funny. That's about as far as I got with this genre.
I like slasher movies too… I have a long history with horror. But even the classics like Friday the 13th and Halloween spent significant time with their characters before the slashing began
I must be one of the few Americans who never saw the movie. I'm not a fan of any kind of horror movies, mostly because the thrills are too often pretty fake. I don't like roller coasters, either.
But I did enjoy this article.
And I was 10 or 11 the first time I saw Dracula late at night, on tv, in a darkened room, along with my twin cousins. Scared all three of us, and we loved it. That was nearly 50 years ago.
Too many horror movies since then seem to me to require dumb kids doing dumb things and getting scares that are the equivalent of scary music followed by having a cat thrown at them out of a closet. Just my view. -- Lets go into the basement with only one door and hide. The monster will never find us there. --
But I totally agree that the proper stories and movies and books can help prepare children for the real scary moments of life. Overly-protective parents are hurting their children.
I once had one come to my office over the grades of their junior college student. That kid is probably crippled for life.
They don’t make them like they used to that’s for damn sure.
Your Excellency,
You have a valid point about youngin's being overly protective. In my generation the Disney movies "Snow White" and Pinocchio were very scary for children. Yet here I am well adjusted with only minor twitches and episodes of wanting to rip off all my clothes and run down Wilshire Blvd. It seems we have lost the ability to distinguish what is truly important. Good stuff. Take care.
When I first started writing for publication, my writing coach said exactly what you observed - the character intros and "get-to-know-you" chapters simply aren't accepted by publishers. Chop off those chapters, put the protagonists in immediate jeopardy and insert the character development within the action sequences. I did what I was told, and at least for a while got my foot on the first rung.
I have to say, in passing, that I've seen just enough of the teen slash and gash movies that I know why the Geico (I think it was) commercial is so funny. That's about as far as I got with this genre.
I like slasher movies too… I have a long history with horror. But even the classics like Friday the 13th and Halloween spent significant time with their characters before the slashing began
I must be one of the few Americans who never saw the movie. I'm not a fan of any kind of horror movies, mostly because the thrills are too often pretty fake. I don't like roller coasters, either.
But I did enjoy this article.
And I was 10 or 11 the first time I saw Dracula late at night, on tv, in a darkened room, along with my twin cousins. Scared all three of us, and we loved it. That was nearly 50 years ago.
Too many horror movies since then seem to me to require dumb kids doing dumb things and getting scares that are the equivalent of scary music followed by having a cat thrown at them out of a closet. Just my view. -- Lets go into the basement with only one door and hide. The monster will never find us there. --
But I totally agree that the proper stories and movies and books can help prepare children for the real scary moments of life. Overly-protective parents are hurting their children.
I once had one come to my office over the grades of their junior college student. That kid is probably crippled for life.