Comments on: Your Next Deconstruction Challenge

By: Mae

Mae — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 16:19:56 +0000

Just finished reading Shutter Island and deconstructed it.
Wonder how close I came. Ha!!!

Part 1 : Set up – Background about Teddy’s father-History of the Prison- He and Chuck walk around finding where the buildings are- Interviewing the patients- etc

Plot Point One_ The storm-can’t leave

Part two- The response- tells Chuck about Laddiius-try to get the files,

Midpoint- Migrane – from seeing Rachael

Attack- Goes to Lighthouse- sees Noyce- loses Chuck- blow up the car- go to ferry-

Plot Point 2- Meets Cawley – at the Light house

Resolution- His dream- says he understands- later he becomes Teddy again- They will get him now.

By: Mae

Mae — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:41:38 +0000

Reading Shutter Island on the Kindle. The percentage is easy to see at the bottom of each page, so it’s easy to reread and look for the Plot Points. I’m now looking for the Pinch Points. I printed several p.125’s so I can fill them in. I can see what is wrong with my two novela. Your books are the best and I’ve read a ton of them. Thanks

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:54:13 +0000

@Mae — glad you’re enjoying it, Lehane is one of my three favorite authors (Nelson Demille and Colin Harrison are the other two). I’m finishing a massive project for another week or so, then will post the deconstruction of Shutter Island. Thanks for writing and participating, am hoping you’ll continue to get value from this process.

By: Mae

Mae — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:35:47 +0000

Reading the book. Wow. Good writing. Bought the Story Structure book, so I can break it down. The book is so good I have a hard time thinking about the story structure. When is the deconstruction going to start?

By: Luisa Perkins

Luisa Perkins — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:19:39 +0000

I just started reading the book today; can’t wait for the deconstruction.

By: Lydia Sharp

Lydia Sharp — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:23:28 +0000

Larry,
Looking forward to your deconstruction, as usual. I just wanted to chime in on your thoughts of how this makes us better writers (and RE-writers). It may seem silly for a novelist to study films, but a well-structured story is a well-structured story, and you can learn from it. Analyzing movies is a good place to start because it’s quick and in-your-face, and you can easily rewind, fast forward, pause, or whatever you need to do (not at the theater, obvs, but I’m a believer in homework). Once you have a good feel for what’s what, you start seeing the structural points in written stories jump off the page as you read, sometimes without even consciously looking for them.
And that’s when good things start happening in your own writing.

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:17:51 +0000

@Martha — Shutter is one of those movies that’s definately seeing twice, especially if you’re a writer trying to figure out how Lehane and Scorsese pulled it off. Once you know the ending (which you would if you’d read the book first, in which case you may not need to see it again), you’ll see the clues, the foreshadowing, even DiCaprio’s over-acting, which in retrospect turns into brilliant acting.

A masterful example of the principles of structure, chacacter — and most of all, CONCEPT — at work.

By: Monica

Monica — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:42:06 +0000

Your new book site looks terrific! I really like the look. Your publisher did a fantastic job.

I don’t know if I’ll get to see the movie Shutter Island before you do your dissection, but I’m sure I’ll gain some benefit nevertheless. Perhaps I will eventually see it and then return to your analysis. I admit it would be better to have seen the movie.

By: Martha Miller

Martha Miller — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:06:55 +0000

Hi Larry,
My bud and I who saw “Shutter Island” together must be slow . . . we didn’t have a clue about that final twist. And we talked all the way home about how LeHane put the story together so the reader didn’t feel cheated. In his book, he must have dropped clues along the way without giving the secret away. I was so intrigued by ‘how’d he do that?’, that I ordered a copy of the book. I’ll look forward eagerly to your deconstruction of the plot. Thanks for doing that!

By: janice |Sharing the Journey

janice |Sharing the Journey — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:17:01 +0000

When are you going to do the spreadsheet we talked about, to make it easier for us to note-take when these films come out on DVD! I won’t be able to watch this one – I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to dark films and the trailer made me say Naw, don’t think so.