i'll be real, i don't have anything to tell you today, except that i'm writing a superman fic for the new au i made up a few weeks ago, and i was able to get all of the krypton stuff into one chapter. how about that, greg cox?

if you want to read that thing, you can find it here. trigger warnings are on the post.

tips for novelization (and, by proxy, fic writing)

somehow, in the sea of things i have to do for school (do NOT talk to me abt nano pls) i've found the time today to think about adapting. now, i know nothing about adapting prose to film but i do know a thing about going the other way around (turns out fanfiction is good for something).

so, you want to adapt your favorite movie/tv show/video game into a novel/novella? great! but don't start writing just yet; you need a few things first.

1. find yourself a script. for the love of god, find yourself a script. please, oh please, do not go into this without a script of the movie, preferably the shooting script, if you can. this is soooo important. if you can't get a hold of that (which happens), look for transcriptions of the movie. both have their pros and cons depending on what exactly you're doing: if you want novelize the movie the way it is, transcripts are best because you won't accidentally write in deleted scenes, but for fic i've found that looking at scripts work better in some cases. for video games you most likely will have to use a transcript. do not try to write your novel by memory or just using the piece of media, it will not work. that being said,
2. have the piece of media on hand as well. this is important too, especially if you're just working from a shooting script. scenes get changed around all the time, and if you're doing a straight novelization you need to make sure your scenes are all in line in a general sense. if you're a visual writer, this is also good for building an aesthetic (if you're a visual writer like me, this is really important).
3. write an outline. this is one of the most important things for any book with more than one chapter. you neeeeeed to know how your story is going to go for at least a few chapters ahead of what you're doing. in original stories, i say you should plan at least five chapters ahead, but for this kind of thing you can go all the way. if you're wondering why you need to write an outline for this, something that is already structured, one good reason is because writing outlines is good for establishing povs, as well as when certain chapters will begin and end. the second reason is because of 
4. stitching. i've talked about this in the man of steel reviews plenty of times. stitching is when you put the scenes of the movie together to make up the book's chapters. it's soooo important to do this because if you don't the book will be choppy as hell and hard to keep up with (see my review of the first chapter or so of the tdkr novelization for more on that point). how much you have to do this will depend on who wrote the script, as well as what pov style you use; 3rd person omniscient requires more, while 1st person and 3rd person limited will require a bit less, still depending on the writer.
5. establish you narrative mode. another important thing for all books. the narrative mode you write in can affect the mood of the book. you have a lot of things to choose from (excepting 2nd person because that wouldn't make sense), especially in this day and age, because writers have been kind of bending the rules and creating a lot of new ways to write in 3rd person. each of the traditional modes will have their own limits; 1st person (hunger games style) and will require that your main character be in every single scene. on the other hand, both of these will give you a more personal relationship with the pov character. 3rd person omniscient (the prologue of the tdkr novelization style) will give you a lot more scope and access to character histories, but you can lose a connection to the characters by accident. traditional 3rd person limited (harry potter style) lets you choose just how limited you are at points, but it still can have the limitations of 1st person. non-traditional 3rd person -- i.e. more than one limited pov told in 3rd person (a song of ice and fire series style) -- gives you the connection with the characters as well as not making you choose one character, which is not always feasible. this is the style i tend to write in the most for my fics, as it gives me more freedom to limit on my own terms, but in the end you should choose a mode that fits your work.
6. if you're writing in 1st person or 3rd person limited, establish your pov character(s). like i mentioned, if you go with 1st person you need to choose a character who is present for every main event that happens in your media. the difficulty in doing this will vary depending on how many important characters the story has. for example: you could tell inception completely from the pov of dom cobb, because (and especially with this piece) the film focuses on him the most. the same goes for something like the film adaptation of scott pilgrim, any rpg and most military shooters (it's right in the name of one subgenre of them!). however, if you tried this with, say, the avengers, it wouldn't work at all, because that movie has six main characters! the same goes for most movies with ensemble casts, games where you switch between two or more characters, and most tv shows. don't switch to the pov of a char that isn't important to the plot in a major way (narrows eyes in the direction of greg cox).

you're finally ready to start! have fun adapting your thing!

happy writing friends!

the verdict on the man of steel novelization

okay i know i haven't been here in a while, but i gotta say some things.

this post was originally gonna be the review for chapters 10 and 11, but i CAN'T

do it anymore. the verdict mentioned in the title is that the man of steel novelization is unreadable.

maybe it's because after the day that i read chapters 10 and 11 i read the fault in  our stars, which is actually a good book, and awoken, which is a bad book that's still fun to read, but i can't make myself trudge through that elementary shit any more.

all that you missed was a short chapter where clark found out about this thing buried in ice, and then the chapter when we meet lois lane. it's just the same old shit as before, but with more annoying ***.
so, if you're like me and you don't want to watch man of steel, but want to know what happens, read the page on the DC comics wiki . It's probably better written, and it won't take as long.

idk what i'm gonna do here next, but whatever it is it'll happen after nanowrimo. happy early halloween and, if you're doing nano, good luck.

man of steel chapter 9

remember how the last two chapters were good? yeah... no

okay, let me step back: this chap isn't terrible, but it is back to the same old shit, while managing to keep all the dumb stuff we got in the good chaps. i thought we were getting somewhere, but apparently not. let's get on with it

we come back to where we left off before the last flashback, with clark floating naked in the water with the whales. the whales are pushing him back toward the surface, and, for some reason, clark thinks they want him to keep going even though he might not want to. now, that's an optimistic way of thinking, but dude, they're whales -- they don't care about you, you were probably in the way or s/t. 

anyway, there is a nice use of clark's super abilities to show us that, a) he cares that people are okay and b) to tell us that we don't have to worry anymore either, things which, i've heard, were not expressed well in the film. it's ruined by the line where clark thinks 'i couldn't save everybody, but i made a difference'. like, way to show that you don't trust us to get the message of the story, author! thanks.

there's a thing that the author does a lot - especially here, but everywhere in the story - where the chars will have lines to themselves. this would be fine, and it happens in a lot of books, but they're not done well here. they draw attention to themselves instead of adding to the feeling of being in the character's head, and they happen so frequently it starting to feel like clark is breaking the fourth wall. in a good book, that could be used to the story's advantage, but this isn't a good book, so we're stuck.

there's also this thing where the author constantly reminds of things that we already know. he repeats himself a lot. i mentioned this a few times in the reviews of the krypton chapters as well, and i'm remembering why they were so exhausting. we know clark has super strength, you don't have to constantly tell us! it's superman for god sakes, no one going in to this has no idea what's going on!

in this chapter we have the resurgence of one of the important artifacts from the beginning of the book: that little black key thing! clark wears it around his neck ever since pa kent showed it to him (we'll get to that in a bit). it's not explained anymore but that's okay because none of our chars know what it is either.

we get another flashback, proving my point that, yes, they should have just put them all in one chapter. the only time i've ever separated flashback from each other was because i thought it would be too long, and even then the two chapters were right next to each other. this one was triggered by a bus passing by after clark got back on land. its when he was in middle school, and he saves the bus from sinking into the river. he goes home and some lady comes over and is like "you're son is an angel!!!' or s/t and we get that one part where pa kent tells clark that he has to keep it all a secret or bad stuff will happen. he shows clark the baby ship and the key and stuff. it didn't move me, honestly.

my main problem with this chap, though, is the number of *** that happen. the narrative changes to lana lang for a moment, which was unnecessary, and that one part is separated with the ***. this guy has a real aversion to writing transitions and it's just coming off to me as lazy. it's not hard at all! come on. the chapter ends after this flashback.

all i can say after this is uuuuuugh. back to the old exhaustion. there's a bar called the bearcat in the next chapter, so there's a ray of light. let's do some group prayer for this next one.

man of steel chapter 8

okay, we're gonna jump right into this b/c i can't think of anything funny to say uwu

we start right where the other chapter left off, but instead of being with the captain, we're in clark's head. finally! eight chapters in and we're in the main characters head. there are good descriptions of the scene peppered with weird and dumb shit, like the author constantly reminding us that clark isn't like other guys. the first half of this chapter is mostly clark running through the building and saving people.

there's a line near the middle of the chapter where the author says 'his vision shifted along the electromagnetic spectrum so that he could see through the steel walls...'. is that how that works? something about that doesn't make sense to me, but maybe it's because i know nothing about that. i'm also not used to reading or writing about characters that have x-ray vision.

clark does a hell of a job getting the guys out, even though he's set on fucking fire. i know he's superman, but he's set on fucking fire. cool as hell. there's also the part where he stops this big thing from falling over and crashing into a helicopter that's really cool too.

before i go on, though: 'copter? really? just say chopper.

after getting the thing out of the way he falls into the water with it, and there's a really nice part where it describes the polarity between the world above and below the water. the tone goes hella somber though, and it starts talking about how he just wants to disappear into the depths. and then the whales come. i like the idea of clark floating in the water with the whalesong a lot! that sounds beautiful, but for the whales to actually come along is a bit hokey. just a bit.

and then, ruining everything, is another flashback. i don't understand why this movie wasn't just presented chronologically. is nolan incapable of writing an origin story not told in flashback? it's especially annoying in this, where the writer insists on tacking them onto other chapters. this one's a bit better placed than the last, since the chapter ends when it ends, but still.

so in this flashback, we go back to when clark is in fourth grade, and he starts to get his x-ray vision. i actually like this one better than the last; it's really sad, and you get a good sense of how horrifying this was for clark back then, even around the author's usual tropes. it's heartbreaking to see clark get made fun of because the kids don't understand him, and see him go bolting out of the classroom because, to him, it's full of walking skeletons. i really feel bad for this kid!

there's that one part that's in the trailer where martha's telling him to imagine the island, and i was kind of taken out of the story when the island he imagined looked like krypton. how does he even remember that? but it doesn't really take away from the sadness of the scene, especially right before this, when he finally opens the door of the closet for his mom and he can see into her too. the chapter ends with clark asking 'what's wrong with me, mom?' and that's painful.

so, another good chapter! the content and emotion won out over the holes the author tends to fall into. the arrangement got to me too, but i'm able to look around it one more time. if this happens next chapter i'm done, though. either way, this kind of gives me hope, because maybe i won't have to trudge through the rest of this like i did the first six chapters.

man of steel chapter 7

WE'RE FINALLY TO THE MODERN DAY GUYS!!!! can u believe it? i can't. let's jump right in.

so we begin on a ship called the Debbie Sue in the middle of the Bering Sea. we're in the pov of the captain of the ship as he looks over the deck from the wheelhouse, which is a convenient way to justify all of the paragraphs about what crabbing is like up near the arctic circle. they're actually pretty well written too. the narrator takes particular pains to mention how dangerous it is, which is a good lead in to the part where he mentions that everyone is an experienced veteran, except for one.

that's right, everyone, baby is all grown up!! and he's a cast member on the deadliest catch, apparently!!! yay!!!

the captain is worried because the 'greenhorn' kid (that word is used, like, six times) is, well, green, and this trip is particularly dangerous. clark is just winding up ropes out of the way of the big business though, so he's okay. OR IS HE??? because he almost gets smashed by a falling cage. some guy pushes him out of the way, though.

the captain is confused because, after almost dying, clark just goes back to his lines. completely reasonable. he wonders why he signed clark on in the first place, seeing as dude never talks and knows nothing. that captain wonders where he came from anyway.

and then there's a flashback.

we rewind to 1981, when martha and johnathan kent take baby to the doctor because he hasn't stopped crying since they found him in baby ship. the doctor says it's colic, and tries to do a routine check up, but when he puts one of the machines into baby's ear and clark fucking shrieks and breaks every glass surface on the street.

now, i like this flashback, because it's a good preview into the problems of adopting an alien, but why is it here, in the middle of another chapter?? that's not how you do flashbacks!! flashbacks should be relegated to their own chapters (see batman begins for the way to do this right).

after some ***, which are used correctly this time, we're back on the ship. it's getting late, but the ship still has a quota to fill so they gotta work it. the captain gets a radio that there's an oil rig on fire and they have to stop anyway to go help. the scene as they approach the rig is written well; i especially like the description of fireballs blooming from the upper levels. the captain tells clark to get his binoculars, but when he turns around he's gone. !!!!

so, it seems like what we have here is the best written chapter so far! the arrangement is a bit off, but still, good writing! if there is one thing to come out of the flashback, it's that it forced the author to use the *** properly. hopefully the next one will go this well.

man of steel 4, 5, and 6

in today's episode i'm doing three chapters because i want to get this krypton shit over and done with. i'm gonna do things a little bit differently today, and keep the recap short, since i'm doing three whole chapters.

so, chapter 4:

jor and kelex go into battle and try to fight off zod's men. they do good for a while until a) jor gets trapped under some debris, and b) a whole ship full of dudes lands and unloads in the time it takes for him to get out. kelex does another badass move and suicide bombs them with plasma guns to buy the baby more time. even so, zod actually gets into the house and sees what they're doing and that they had a baby naturally and he's fucking pissed so he kills jor but he can't stop baby!! and they're all caught just as baby leaves the planet's atmosphere.

chapter 5:

the whole chapter is just zod and his folks getting arrested and sentenced to a bajillion years in the phantom zone. he screams at lara that he's gonna find the baby when he gets out and stuff. nothing else really happens this chapter is really short.

chapter 6:

we're with lara as krypton comes to an end, just like jor said it would, of course. the whole chapter is just her floating around despondently before she goes out onto the porch to watch the world end. the very last part, though, is baby ship entering our solar system and landing on earth.

so, things!:

• chapter 4 goes through three perspective changes before it ends (jor, then lara, and zod) and that's interesting, mostly because we've been stuck with jor for most of this, but weird because we're only with lara for a tiny bit.
• we finally got a stake that hindered jor!!! why did it take that fucking long???!!!
• there's more of the zod/jor friendship in this, and we got to see lara from zod's pov, which was really interesting, brief objectification aside. he actually, like, cares about her! like, when he realizes that jor and lara had a baby, like, the original way he's terrified that jor raped her or s/t. and, like, that gives very little credit to lara's free will and mind, but it does show that he's worried about her well being to some description, which is a good way to humanize the villain.
• speaking  of that, it's been six chapters, and the only character i was really interested in was zod. that's a damn shame, because, if you recall, we've been following jor since chapter 1. that's not good!!
• WE'RE FINALLY GETTING TO SUPERMAN NEXT CHAPTER. seriously, the civil war and stuff on krypton is interesting in concept, and i'd be lying if i said that i wasn't invested in the jor/zod relationship, but god dammit that went on way to long. how the hell did they manage to take something that should have been prologue and stretch it out to six chapters??? i'm so glad this is over.

so, the next time we see each other, we're finally getting to modern day, and the part of the book i read in the bookstore that one time. hopefully the rest of the book won;t be as exhausting as this, but i won't hold my breath.

edit: just in case you were wondering, the codex still isn't explained. :/