{"id":21,"date":"2013-03-31T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-31T12:15:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-03-26T09:45:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T14:45:16","slug":"suitable-similes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/k-tock.com\/?p=21","title":{"rendered":"Suitable Similes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read the script for 3:10 to Yuma<\/em> the other day. The September 15, 2004 draft titled Contention<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, it is one of a collection of four drafts of the script. My intention is to read through them all, to see how the story developed over the course of the drafts.<\/p>\n

One of the things that caught my eye in reading the first draft is Brandt and Haas’s use of simile.<\/p>\n

They chose powerful similes that evoked an emotive quality.<\/p>\n

On page one, they describe one of their characters scanning the street<\/p>\n

“sharp but calm, like a redtail waiting for a mouse to show itself.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A clear picture of a predator on the hunt. It informs us of who this character is in only a few words.<\/p>\n

There’s another predator simile on page 33.<\/p>\n

Wu looks at Crenshaw like a shark who\u2019s just seen dinner.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another great simile is on page 41.<\/p>\n

McElroy looks at the kid like he\u2019s a dog he\u2019d like to beat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’ve tended to avoid simile in my own scripts for some reason. But they’re a great shorthand for expressing the tone and emotional quality of an action or character moment.<\/p>\n

So, think about using similes– similes that evoke a powerful visual image with a clear emotional quality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read the script for 3:10 to Yuma the other day. The September 15, 2004 draft titled Contention. Written by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, it is one of a collection of four drafts of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-310-to-yuma","category-similes"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/k-tock.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/k-tock.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/k-tock.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k-tock.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k-tock.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/k-tock.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106,"href":"https:\/\/k-tock.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/k-tock.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k-tock.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/k-tock.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}