Writer's Guild: Going from action to personalities.

Original Content | 06/22/2025 | By Laz A. Mataz

[Lazamataz]

Hello everyone!

I recently released my very first science-fiction, political-thriller novel on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. I've been told that the work seems to embody the writing style of a Tom Clancy or a Michael Crichton, blended with an Isaac Asimov. While this is high praise, indeed, I want to go to the next level.

Enter an analysis of a very quiet, very low-action scene in the first season of Game of Thrones. That analysis is here.

The analysis is stellar. The writing is stellar. The analysis talks about how:

• Robert Baratheon was not a lecherous drunkard, but actually a very shrewd man.
• He longed for a woman who died long ago, and his wife, Cersi, has been worn down by the fact that Robert truly loved someone else.
• It's also shown that Robert loved the IDEA of this woman, not who she truly was. This is something all of us to can relate to.
• The acting is also amazing. Cersi shows hurt and disappointment with facial gestures, swallows, and so on.
• This scene shows a incredible moment, when two jaded people finally drop their guards and are genuine and real with one another.
• This scene also wraps up decades of hurt into seven mere minutes.

The character development is incredible, and the dialog is so good that you can feel the feelings of these characters and you can understand their subsequent motivations with a small, quiet scene.

THIS is what I aspire to capture in my writing. My story telling is very good. My technical accuracy is decent. And I've found that I have a good skill in weaving various threads together and presenting it as a coherent and engaging work.

What I *don't* yet have skills in this arena -- the arena of character development -- and I intend to master it in my second novel.

As the narrator and analyst in the video says, "The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself." I may disagree with this a little, but it is more right than wrong.

Happy writing, my fellow authors!

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TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: freerepublic; guild; literature; writing

[Lazamataz]

An amazing analysis of a quiet Game of Thrones scene that has me thinking how I can greatly increase my writing skills (for my second novel, that is).

[Mathews]

Ping me!!!!

[Lazamataz]

You are added!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Your characters do not have to be nice, although some redeeming qualities are often appreciated, they do not even have to be realistic, they MUST be interesting.

Oh, and grumpy and sarcastic does not equal "morally gray".

[webheart]

Game of Thrones had such promise. I got hold of the first 3 seasons at about the time the fourth season came out. I subscribed to HBO and watched religiously all the way to the end. In the final season, Beniof and Weiss decided that they wanted to wrap it up and so they quickly they together the ending so they could get on to a different project. It doesn’t help that James Martin didn’t finish the books. First they killed john snow and then revived his corpse. Then they put denerys and john snow into bed together despite the fact that she was his aunt. They made Denerys into a genocidal maniac and told us that it was because she went crazy. They killed all of the wolves and the head of the white walkers and then had cersi die in a rock pile. I was so insulted by that wrapping up that I canceled HBO and I swear never to subscribe to HBO again and if I watch any of their shows it will be second hand.

[Lazamataz]

Well, sir or ma’am, I respectfully submit: The topic of this post really isn’t a discussion of the merits or the disappointments of the GoT series... it is much more that a single scene is isolated and analyzed to show stellar character development. Robert Baratheon doesn’t even last past season one, but his character is someone you get to truly know from this one scene.

This is the sort of writing I aspire to. I have certain aspects of writing well-mastered in my first novel. I want to get better.

[Lazamataz]

Your characters do not have to be nice, although some redeeming qualities are often appreciated, they do not even have to be realistic, they MUST be interesting.

I agree. Yet I urge you to review the video. It's only 9 minutes and really makes an aspiring writer think. It certainly inspired me.

[captnemo1]

Hello wordsmith

[gundog]

“Action is character.” - F. Scott somebody....

[cgbg]

Many writers follow the ancient template that Joseph Campbell outlined as the hero’s journey:

—The lead character is a nobody in the town where they live.
—They set out on a grand adventure to distant lands.
—They have terrible trials and tribulations.
—They overcome those challenges and survive.
—They return home as a wise hero.

If you look you will see this all over the place.

[captnemo1]

Since days of Odious. there are only 7 stories all else are retelling of the same

[unlearner]

Would that be this?

https://www.amazon.com/Dimensions-Essence-Laz-Mataz-ebook/dp/B0FDR3NQBB/

Unfortunately, in the modern world, book and movie sales are most often determined by marketing efforts rather than the quality of the content.

Having said that, good luck to you. And congratulations on completing it. That is an accomplishment regardless of the sales or reviews.

Please kindly add me to your ping list.

[mairdie]

My big writing mistake was taking a class in screenplay writing. It was addiction at first sitting. I used to write fiction and did all the stuff you’re supposed to do. Then I tried my hand at movie scripts and I lost all ability to write novel style. Script are weird animals because you’re writing for a group of collaborators. With a novel, you’re all on your own and do it all. With a screenplay, you can’t step on the toes of the set decorator, you can’t limit the imagination of the casting director, etc. You give broad strokes that will fire the imagination of your collaborators and make them want to complete what you’ve started. My screenplay instructor was very critical of actors. If you described what they looked like too closely, they wouldn’t think they could audition for that role. All very strange. For example, never describe the color of your character’s eyes. Weird?

Another thing about screenplays is that the action goes like bat out of hell. You don’t rhapsodize over the fragrance of a flower or the shadows on a wall. You just move it along following the fixed outline of the timed pieces.

I didn’t believe in the timing business so I went to see The Fugitive with a stopwatch. Matched perfectly. Learning experience.

Hired my teacher as a consultant on my first screenplay and learned a lot more about writing dialog. People don’t talk in sentences. Record conversations and really listen to the way people speak. It’s fascinating.

And when you send a script to an agent, it was eye opening how rigid their nitpicking requirements were. Apparently, low level interns do the first read at agencies. The number of submissions is staggering and they use the nits to wipe out anyone not already in the business who doesn’t know which nits MUST be followed. That reduces their workload.

And even a query letter for an agent follows a set formula that you MUST follow. Same for a book proposal. Same for a TV spec script. There are books that give the details of the formulas and they’re well worth the money.

The agent I finally settled on ran into a guilt trip when they couldn’t get information on my screenplays out of their Hollywood partner, Writers & Artists, for the full two years they were pushing them. So the agent, which I’d chosen because they were the NYC book agent for John Grisham, offered to read a novel proposal from me.

I COULDN’T WRITE IT! Screenplays had totally changed my style and I couldn’t force myself to go back into novel model writing. One of my regrets.

But I do recommend classes as they usually know the inside info you need to know to get past the entrance door.

[Windcatcher]

I deliberately avoided the first tenet in the fantasy novel I published on KDP a couple of years ago because it’s so overdone. I made my main character established and somewhat well-known (in mercenary circles, at least) who wound up biting off a bit more than he could chew in the current adventure. While the book is presented mainly from his perspective, the story is about a team of adventurers having to support and rely on each other more than the trials of a single hero.

[Lazamataz]

Would that be this?

It would!

Unfortunately, in the modern world, book and movie sales are most often determined by marketing efforts rather than the quality of the content.

True, exposure is king... but quality content don't hoit. 😁

Having said that, good luck to you. And congratulations on completing it. That is an accomplishment regardless of the sales or reviews.

The reviews have been stellar! People seem to like this work.

Please kindly add me to your ping list.

You're added!

[Lazamataz]

While the book is presented mainly from his perspective, the story is about a team of adventurers having to support and rely on each other more than the trials of a single hero.

That's so much more realistic.

[Lazamataz]

Hello wordsmith

Howdy! 😊

[Lazamataz]

Very interesting post, all around!

[Windcatcher]

It was a real challenge, because it means presenting the reader with a host of characters, mercenaries who largely don’t know each other at the start but are collectively hired for a quest. I had to work out personalities and origin stories for each of them and present them in a way that doesn’t confuse the reader.