Texting, Email, Mobiles

Kinski

This may sound like a strange thing to complain about, but does anyone else dislike reading about characters texting or sending emails? I've noticed that it's a very popular plot device in soap operas; without even needing to watch them often, anytime I happen to see a few minutes of one there always seems to be a scene in which a character either: a) reads a text, or b) recieves a mobile phone call, looks at the caller ID, and presses the disconnect button. Now, I generally think, when it comes to visual storytelling that soap operas are an excellent place to see exactly how not to do things (their popularity is truly baffling to me). As far as I can tell, it's very rare to see a character in a movie recieve a text or read an email; it's visually boring - both on the screen and in real life - so the filmmakers just avoid it. But how do people feel about it in novels? If I'm writing a piece, I like to try and take the whole 'camera-eye' approach and try to capture what's going on for the reader in a way which will summon up an image of the events in their mind. As such, I want it to be visually interesting. Someone reading texts or emails off a screen just seems incredibly dull. How do other wannabe writers deal with this aspect of our world?

smcgiff

I think it's a sure fire way of dating your writing. No matter how you write or describe it it's likely to be out of sync with how it's described in later years.

However, how a person types or creates their text could be an interesting way of describing a character. Aggressive, practiced, awkward, nervous etc.

EileenG

It's a plot device, just the same as Darcy's letter to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice. If this was a modern book, he would have sent it by e-mail instead.

Notice how in the soaps, they only get texts and calls that are relevant to the plot, nothing about how the blood bank is expecting you on Tuesday or how you need to top by by €20 to keep getting free internet.

One difference that mobiles etc make to modern stories is that you can't assume that secrets will stay secret. Once one person knows something, there's a good chance the other characters will get a call, text, e-mail, or tweet about it.

You can make it work for you, to build tension, so everything your hero makes a phone call, the bad guys can pinpoint his location.

Kinski

smcgiff wrote: »

I think it's a sure fire way of dating your writing. No matter how you write or describe it it's likely to be out of sync with how it's described in later years.

I don't think that's such a problem; after all, everything dates. Though it could become a problem if a novel was composed over a long period and things changed in the meantime. Anachronisms are potentially more of an issue; if one were to set a story in, say, 2002, then it would be necessary to be very careful about the sorts of electronic communications the characters have access to.

EileenG wrote: »

It's a plot device, just the same as Darcy's letter to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice. If this was a modern book, he would have sent it by e-mail instead.

I'm sure somebody somewhere must already have written the contemporary equivalent of the epistolary novel, composed entirely of emails, texts and tweets. Richardson's Pamela might actually have been a little more interesting if she'd had an iPhone to hand and could tweet about her experiences! @Pamela: "Tried to rape me again, fended him off. Purity intact #chastebutnotcaught"

Notice how in the soaps, they only get texts and calls that are relevant to the plot, nothing about how the blood bank is expecting you on Tuesday or how you need to top by by €20 to keep getting free internet.

Of course, but my point was that it's not a particularly compelling device for a visual narrative form to employ. As I said, movies tend to avoid it. Look at the examples of films and TV shows which can't help but show characters using computers because they are integral to the plot: we're all familiar with the onscreen equivalent of a progress bar, which is always oversized and silly looking, or the depictions of whiz-kids hacking computer networks via ludicrous 3d virtual reality environments. Even The Social Network at times struggled with this problem: at one point a character, for no good reason at all, writes a piece of code on his dormroom window, presumably because they needed something more visually interesting than him just typing it out on the damn keyboard. Given the manner in which soaps are made, it doesn't surprise me to see them becoming heavily reliant on such a convenient/lazy and unimaginative method of advancing the story.

You are probably correct when it comes to prose fiction, though; I guess it shouldn't be seen as any different from Darcy's letter.

damselnat

Mobiles, texts, emails etc are all part of modern life, so unless you're writing something set 15+ years ago or in certain parts of the world, or perhaps as a reflection on your character/s I can't see how you could avoid them...well, I can, but it's not terribly convincing...I've read things where people check texts, take phone calls etc and I can say some have been stilting plot devices, and some have worked. If you're clever, and if you're good, I think they can work very much in your favour. I mean this more about mobiles as they're a more ubiquitous part of modern life than emails, but applies to both. As poster above has said they can be a reflection on the character or a plot device, and I suppose they will date a piece, but I don't really see what the great problem with that is, most novels are set in a particular time and if you're setting it in the contemporary first world then welcome to the modern way...

I think it's all in how it's done. It's probably not best to "show" a text or email (or, god forbid, a facebook chat), but characters mentioning such things in conversation, for example, would be believable and less awkward. I do think they work best as a reflection of character, the sullen teen sitting in the corner texting, someone ignoring a call. It all depends on they way it's done IMO. I think where you "see" the text/email it's less convincing, but it being mentioned lends a contemporary and more believable element to the story. At the moment I'm writing a story, and it's a first person narrative from the POV of a fourteen year old boy. Because of his age there's lots of technology in his life, and subsequently in the story, but I do avoid what you're saying about such messages being "shown" like you tend to see in soaps, but a mention of his mate texting him to come over or them rocking up to a party they were invited to on FB works in the context of the story, and it is part of their lives, I can't say I know any fourteen year olds who aren't practically attached to their mobile phones...Sure it'll probably date it to the late 00s/10s, but it is set in 2010, so I don't have a problem with that personally. Done right, I think technology can work, whether it's part of the plot, the character, or just a realistic part of contemporary life, but done badly it can be cringeworthy, stultifying and a bit try hard (the one I'm most scared of!:pac: )

EileenG

Meg Cabot in The Boy Next Door, wrote the entire thing in texts and e-mails and phone calls, and honestly, after about three pages, you forget you are not watching the action from the front seat. As a device, it can work extremely well, letting you get into the heads off all the characters without head hopping.

pops

I find it very strange that all the major works of 'literature' especially those nominated for literary prizes seem to be set in history where there are no problems re. electronic devices etc. Surely a level of realism and a reflection of everyday life isn't a bad thing?

EileenG

If your novel is set in the present, it has to reflect the life of your characters, and that means mobile phones, texts, e-mails etc. Would you believe a novel about an Irish teenager who didn't have a mobile? Me neither.

I'm writing a historical now, and the lack of technology makes plotting a lot easier. Characters have to tell each other things in person or by sending a note, they can't just phone up, so there is more opportunity for secrets and misunderstanding.

FewFew

Meh, you're telling a story, use whatever device comes naturally in the situation. I'd find reading a facebook chat in a book just as stimulating as reading a line of dialogue.

What'll date ya like a mofo is specifics. Remember when it was all WAP? Floppy disks? Mini-discs? All pretty commonly found tech at one point, but disappeared just a few years ago. I had to go back on a story, one of those chip away at it novels, because a major plot point hinged on a now rarely used technology. Think the novel was only sitting around for five years, but now the science behind it is less than solid and it may need to be scrrrrapped.

Also, modern writing is a pain in the ass because you have to come up with a reason why someone doesn't know something. Google at the touch of a button, GPS and portable comms... damn.

iguana

Fewcifur wrote: »

What'll date ya like a mofo is specifics. Remember when it was all WAP? Floppy disks? Mini-discs? All pretty commonly found tech at one point, but disappeared just a few years ago. I had to go back on a story, one of those chip away at it novels, because a major plot point hinged on a now rarely used technology. Think the novel was only sitting around for five years, but now the science behind it is less than solid and it may need to be scrrrrapped.

Why not just set the novel in that time period? Specifically state that it's the year 2000, for example, and add a few cultural and topical references to give it a feel of that year. I prefer a book to be dated, I like feeling that it's of it's time, it makes me feel more immersed in what's going on. I absolutely hate contemporary books where the writer has tried to make it timeless. It doesn't work, technology moves too fast and the reader ends up wondering why characters don't do something a normal person in that situation would. Or political situations change in ways that were unimaginable a year previously, eg September 11th 2001 and the subsequent wars and changes to public attitudes. A book written in 1998, that isn't very clearly set in 1998 would have read as extremely dated by 2002.

But if it had been very much set in 1998 and characters mentioned the closeness of the millenium, the US embassy bombings and the reactions of president Bill Clinton, the signing of the Belfast agreement or the Swiss Air disaster, or if they sang along to Cher's Believe or Celene Dion's My Heart Will Go On while swooning over Leo, then by 2002 it would be a clear period piece and the reader would never wonder why the hero doesn't just call his girlfriend's mobile when he can't make their date because you'd be aware that they weren't so ubiquitous.

kinski wrote:

it's very rare to see a character in a movie recieve a text or read an email;

No it's not, it happens all the time in movies from the last 10 years. Perhaps it's just never stood out to you as much as it's just not jarring because it's what normal people do in certain situations.