Did you ever read a book, or watch a movie, that didn’t seem to go anywhere?  Page after page, scene after scene, things happen, but the story doesn’t seem to have a point?

Bo and I recently rented Foxcatcher,  a movie that touted Five! Five Academy Award nominations! Briefly, it’s the story of John DuPont and his involvement with the Olympic Wrestling Team in the late 80′s.  The acting is superb (that’s probably what the nominations were for) but the screenplay and production is lacking. Bo gave up on it about halfway through.  His comment? “It  isn’t going anywhere.  Not holding my attention at all.  Sort of weird.”  I kept it a few days and finished watching it.  He was almost right, but there was a chilling ending that left me with more questions than answers. Not satisfactory.

With today’s movies concentrating more on technique than substance, maybe the producers intended to leave the viewers with questions. Maybe they meant us to have only a sketchy view of the story.  Or perhaps the writer didn’t know much more than the facts, so had no way of sharing what made the characters tick.  The few hints thrown didn’t quite give us full information, and left us wanting. The facts of the story are perturbing, and an in-depth study would be fascinating. In short, it could have been so much more…

All this made me think of other, similar movies and stories I’ve crossed paths with, and how I felt betrayed when I read, or watched, them -  as if the author didn’t want to be bothered with detail, so decided to publish the outline and let us fill in our own. I don’t want to be a spectator, seeing the coach talk to the players but not hearing the words. I don’t want to be flipping the next page, crying  “And…?  And…?” as I dig for understanding.

I want the STORY.  I want to know what’s under the surface of the characters…their dreams and failures, their ups and downs as they pursue their goals, and then I want a satisfactory ending, where I know they did or didn’t achieve them, and most importantly, why.  Don’t you?

Please consider us readers when you write your novel.  A satisfying read gives us people we can get to know, and places that we can be in. When the story ends, we want to feel as if we’ve made friends or enemies, and either lost them or that perhaps they might pop back into our lives at any moment.

Don’t leave us with the voice of Peggy Lee in the background, crooning “Is that all there is…?”

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3orhe_peggy-lee-is-that-all-there-is_music&start=1