The book is better than the film…

I was at an event recently where Google were there talking about marketing on the internet (yes, actual Google people – not just ‘experts’). One of the Google guys made a comment about how content on the internet will be 80% video within the next 2-3 years. As a writer, I found this a worrying thought… not to mention a sad one.

The fantastic reality within the sad story…

A few weeks later I was retelling the story to a video production specialist that I know, and asking him about script writing for videos. He launched deeply into an explanation of how people communicate in different ways. Some rely on the words themselves, others are more like actors and get their message across by their manner of speaking. He described how what a person reads in one way, they might speak in another way, so often scripts become no more than a guideline… By which point my mind wandered off to Storyland, because I’d just had an exciting thought!

Some people will always love the written word more than the visual medium of film and video because they love to fuel their own imagination. How often have you heard someone say ‘the book is better than the film’ or bemoaned a large chunk of the book’s plot which had been ignored by Hollywood?

Leave room for your imagination…

Now I am not about to argue with Google over the future of the internet; if anything I think the quoted timescale might be a bit too long. But whether there is 20% or 2% of the internet set aside for the written word that is still a lot of words available to fire up a person’s imagination.

You see, I believe that words can paint a thousand pictures and that poetic rhetoric or beautifully presented prose can move an audience far more than a movie. The written word leaves room for the reader’s imagination to interpret what they are consuming. It provides an insight into the writer’s thoughts, intentions and imaginations without forcing you to see the things they describe in exactly the same way. Wise words can influence generations, change minds, create new worlds and unlock powerful visions within a person's mind, heart and soul.

Bear with me here, because I love a good action movie, rom-com or funny YouTube clip as much as anyone. But my conversation with the video production guy made me appreciate that film is all about someone else’s interpretation of the words. It is what they see when they share the story, not what you want to allow your mind to turn it into.

Long live YouTube, movies, and video marketing…

And so to my final thought on this happy story of the ancient art of storytelling learning to live in harmony with the modern visual version. (Apologies for the writer’s snobbery coming up).

The less there is of anything, the more people appreciate it for its scarcity. So as the written word becomes less of a feature on our computer screens and tablets, surely its value will increase. Maybe this is good news for writers and lovers of the written word after all. It could even be fantastic news! Because instead of the reams of boring, keyword-optimised, poorly planned and despairingly dull content that inhabits the internet today, it might just favour the beautifully worded once more…

…You never know, the printed word might even outsell Kindle again one day.