People Can't Write Plot Summaries Well
I was working on an article for Games Quarterly Magazine yesterday and needed a reminder of how the action unfolded in a couple of movies. The reader-submitted "plot summaries" you find on The Internet Movie Database, however, are anything but. In fact, it's downright amazing how frequently these summaries read like either marketing pitches (hint: a plot summary never ends with a question mark) or detailed descriptions of a set of characters and (sometimes also) a first act. News flash: a plot summary should summarize the plot.
I recall that it was very difficult for pretty much everyone in the MFA program to write loglines at the beginning. It's weird; people really do have difficulty seeing the forest for the trees.
Comments
Don't you wish the world could take a class with Nina Foch? Nothing like hearing an eighty year old broad use the C word.