Using Documentary For Inspiration
I am using a documentary as inspiration for a fiction story I am writing.
Some elements of fiction are stated Here and Here, although there's all kinds of stuff like archetypes etc.. Some of the elements of documentaries are Here:
My few questiosn are
1.I know their is no definate answer, but is thier an approach to finding the elements of a documentary that may be similiar to those elements that make up ficton and use them?
2.)Will the elements that make up fiction not be exactly the same as that in a documentary?
3.) Also, are the elements of documentaries ( given in the third link) not very useful as inspiration for a fiction story?
4.) You can use the what elements of fiction are stated black and white, use those that are infered by what's given black and white, use a little of both or use some of both and make up the rest that is not clearly stated or inferable... My fourth question is, is what order you use have benefits?
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I do not believe that you need to "incorporate the five elements I listed for documentaries" into your fiction. If you try, then you will produce a documentary (or at least, fiction about producing a documentary).
If your first decision is to switch the genre, then you cannot retain the features characteristic of the form that you are trying to move away from.
What you need to do is to look beyond the five elements of documentary to see the situation that is being reported and then extract the elements of fiction from it.
In some cases, you can use the documentary form as a guide. Look at the subjects of the "interviews" and decide which of them will be your characters. Decide which juxtapositions of characters are set up by the use of "cutaways" and use one or more of them to identify your underlying conflict.
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