Writing Advice Wednesday

This year’s frontrunner for Best Picture at the Oscars, The Shape of Water, is released in UK cinemas today. Though I’m yet to see it, I’ve heard nothing but good things about this unconventional love story, directed by Guillermo Del Toro.

Del Toro is well known for his love of movie monsters, and since his films feature so many fantastical creatures, he always does his best to make sure they evoke sympathy. His Monsters are often more human than the other characters in his films. It’s a trick he learned from classics like King Kong and Frankenstein. In yet another excellent video essay from Patrick H Willems, whose work we’ve shared here before, this underappreciated form of characterization is covered in more detail:

Even if your “monster” is more like the Xenomorph from the Alien movies, and less of a sympathy-evoking character like the Fishman in The Shape of Water, it’s important to treat your otherworldly antagonist with the same amount of respect you’d give a human antagonist.

If you’re on Pinterest, why not follow my Pinterest board full of useful writing advice? It will be updated weekly, so you can keep track if you ever need an excellent video essay or some relevant advice about problems you are facing. You can always drop me a line at [email protected] with the subject “Ask Laurie” and I will do my best to answer it. I might even include it in an upcoming edition of Writing Advice Wednesday!