Friday, November 11, 2016

Writers in Different Places

   I loved to hear from the different writers. Every time I watch telenovelas, I think about how do people write the plot lines. For one, they do not have long periods of time to do so. They have to work within gravitating the people to the story as well not overriding the plot line with characters and what they have done throughout the story.
   I started to pick up watching La Reina de Sur as well the last few weeks. I realized that the way the writers on Thursday explained how they write the stories matched with the emotionally psychology of my brain. As the end of the shows have to have a cliffhanger to grab the audience, I experienced this heavily. I found myself watching 4-5 episodes of La Reina de Sur when I told myself I only would watch one. It finally got to the point where I would stop the show within 15 minutes of the show because I had to get it to a slower part of show — which there is not very many slow points throughout a telenovela.
    In chapter 5 of Dr. A's book, it talks about studying addiction. Though it mentions the "Cinderella love story" catches the people, there are all different types of Cinderella stories. The love story is essential that guides the story. During my experience with the telenovelas I've watched, when I lost interest was when the love story was not thriving. In La Reina de Sur,  the main characters lovers consistently died throughout the all time. When the lovers died and I had to wait for a new one to come along, I found myself not addicted or yearning for the story as much. I feel like the idea of the love an unrealistic love story drives the audience, but even more so, when you can compare yourself to the love story.  That's when the writer knows what it has to write about and though the basic Cinderella story is defaulted. The basic story is still there because it sells and starts the evolution of the addiction of the telenovela from looks to the story line.

7 comments:

  1. I totally agree with what you're saying and what Dr. A has always said about the love story being the real hook that keeps us involved in a story. It's so interesting to me how much I myself am into a story if there is a love story that I am rooting for or already emotionally invested in, and it seems like this is true worldwide.

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    1. I agree! You feel like you are invested into it and connected and a part of their journey as a couple. It makes it totally different. Especially as a female, I feel like it makes you want to follow the sweet fairy type.

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  2. Mary, I agree with your points regarding the addiction that telenovelas can cause for the audience. As the audience of telenovelas, we fall in love with the love story featured on the telenovela. Thanks to streaming websites like Netflix, my curiosity and eagerness to see what happens next and how it's going to happen causes me to binge watch four or five episodes, when the plan was to catch up on just one. You mention that you personally start to lose interest when the love story in a telenovela is not thriving. Though it also frustrates me to see the couples in my telenovelas separated, I often find that this is the time when I binge watch the most. I want to speed through the episodes that the protagonists are apart so that I can get to the episode where they are, again, happily thriving. My favorite episodes in a telenovela are the episodes where the couple reconciles because this means that, for at least the next few episodes, I can enjoy the love story that I have come to love myself.

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    1. For me, I feel as if I'm creeping through Netflix to see where the climax will happen when they are back together. That's one of the good and bad things about Netflix. I think one of the telenovelas I watched there was a total of three relationships between the protagonist. Each relationship, the love died between them and the plot twisted more. I don't like when the story line gets stagnant. Though I will say in the telenovelas, I've watched (3) thus far. Since there usually isn't as many shows as an American show, you don't lose interest in the show.

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  3. I think I'm going to attempt to play the devil's advocate here. The idea of addiction, in terms of consumption of telenovelas, is very interesting. One part of me says that the way we consume production nowadays by binge-watching is just the way the industry is changing with the audience. But another part of me is a little concerned by this attitude; I don't know if I'm alone in this feeling, but what I know about addiction in general is that it is about instant gratification with the feeling of wanting more afterwards. This may not be as dangerous in terms of watching telenovelas, but I still find it kind of concerning to feed into this mental and psychological process. And then of course there's this romanticization of the dramatic and heart-breaking love stories that you see in telenovelas like La Reina De Sur; is this a good thing or a bad thing?

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    1. Cory, gotta love devil's advocate :)

      I think we want that instant gratification, but we also want to know the results as you said and we want it now! That's a huge struggle I'm sure. I think we literally are not brainwashed but sucked into talking and thinking about the telenovela. We crave it. I'm not sure about you, but I would watching shows to fall asleep, and I'd watch 5 shows and it's 2 a.m. I did this for two weeks straight. It was unhealthy, but I wanted that gratification. I was chasing it.

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  4. Interesting conversation! I find it funny how many students in our class talked about having a binge-watching problem. They plot and themes in the telenovela really cater to different types of watchers. My telenovela,Celia, was a little bit more slow-paced and took time for character development. I didn't get a first kiss in the first episode, or second, or third, or fourth. Instead, it was more focused on the music and story in a non-fiction style, but with a little bit of the drama added. I didn't have much patience for the extra drama, so a less sensationalized telenovela was a good fit for me. Cheers!

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