Cinematic Writing

I sometimes wonder just how much writers from my era have been influenced by the visual media of entertainment we’ve experienced. How do I imagine things differently because of my childhood watching television and movies? What have the improvements in special affects done for my ability to visualize things I have not seen? How does my pacing, plotting, and description reflect my background and my exposure to media?

I look at a chapter like this one, and it feels extremely cinematic to me. Not that I’m some great master of the cinematic form, but rather that I’m so familiar with that media—as are many of us—that I am drawn to it instinctively.

The quick flashes from viewpoint to viewpoint—TenSoon, Breeze, Elend—showing what was going on, followed by a quick cut of Vin mid-action . . . it just feels right to me to do it this way.

“Government is far too inefficient to provide a suitable income.”

In Breeze’s scene, we have another reference back to book one as he mentions telling Kelsier that he didn’t want to rule. That’s not 100% accurate—Breeze was actually talking to Yeden or Vin, I think. However, he did go on a diatribe about not wanting to rule or be in charge, since leading countries seemed like a bad way to make money. However, I can’t find this scene now, so I can’t point out exactly where it is.

Vin Draws In All the Mist

Here we finally have Vin suck in the mists and use them to fuel her Allomancy completely. I began building this plot arc way back in book one, which ends with Vin drawing upon the mists to fight the Lord Ruler. It took me all the way until here to make good on that, though I still don’t even explain how or why she was able to do it. Eventually I’d like to be able to do that, but we’ll see. It’s bigger than this trilogy. I have to leave some secrets for later.

I do want to mention that this scene of Vin blasting Kredik Shaw to pieces was quite fulfilling to write for some reason. It feels like the end of a series to me, with familiar places being torn down and old expectations being dismantled.