Monday, April 18, 2011

This generation

I went and saw Scream 4 over the weekend. Now I'm a huge fan of the series, so far in that I actually have posters of the 3 first films somewhere in my closet. If I wasn't married probably hanging up...

Anyway I really enjoyed the movie, particularly the way that it handled this younger generation. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still not too old, but I'm talking about the Young adult market of today. The kids that are living high school (That glorious time...).

The reason that this matters is because they really showed how kids now days are media savvy, they don't read as much, they watch television, go to movies, play on facebook, play video games, almost a dozen other things that don't involve picking up a book and reading it.

So it got me thinking, now that writers have to compete with so much different interests, what do they bring that will draw the audience away from all of the flashy things. People don't have time to waste on things that don't interest them. I think I have the answer, well at least in my mind. I would love to hear what you have to say in the comments.

I think the writers have to work harder than they did before to grab the audience. That's why the first chapter, first page, first paragraph, heck even the first line is so important. You have to show the reader who has other things to waste their time with that you can keep them entertained. Not only that, but you have to keep reinventing yourself throughout the book to keep them hooked. One wrong step and uh oh the reader is going to go play some facebook game.

I think this is also why writers have to be involved in social media, because kids now can relate to it and if you can create a bond through the media you can get them interested to at least give it a shot. What you do with that shot is up to you, but it better live up to the readers expectation.

So what do you think? Am I way off base? Or do I have some clue what I'm talking about? I would love to hear what you think.

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