Story Advice from Alfred Hitchcock by Dave M. Strom

Today we welcome a new guest writer to Writer’s Fun Zone, Dave M. Strom, who is stopping by to chat with us today about “Story Advice from Alfred Hitchcock.” Enjoy!

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I’m an Alfred Hitchcock fan. He was the master of suspense, and he has influenced my writing. Here are links to short interviews by The American Film Institute.

Utilizing Materials To The Fullest

Hitchcock did this so well. In Rear Window, Jimmy Stewart fended off the killer with flashbulbs: he used what was indigenous to his photographer skills. In North by Northwest, Cary Grant was trapped in an auction room, but got out by doing crazy bidding and getting thrown out. Hitchcock said Cary is in that auction room, so that auction room must be used.

I was told by an editor that in my novel’s opening scene, she wanted to see the comic book shop better. She’s right, I’ll fix that. But I used what was in that shop. The villain John Glutt buries Holly Hansson under a tall bookshelf stuffed to sagging with 99-percent-off comic books, and he gloats, “That’s where you belong! In the bargain bins!”

Exposition Is A Pill That Must Be Sugar-Coated

As a storyteller, you must sometimes deliver information to your audience. Hitchcock says at the time you give information, it must appear to be something else. That pill must be sugar-coated, especially at the opening of the story.

The movie Dune starts with a no-sugar information dump about powerful warring families and space-travel spice. The first cut of Dune did this with a talking head, later cuts use narrated artwork stills. I felt dumped on.

Hitchcock says try introducing your characters with action that is interesting to look at, instead of, “This is John Smith, this is his wife, this is his son.” I started a story with a movie critic watching a movie. Then he gets a text from the cops that a super-bully is robbing the bank. He races out of the theater! Telepathically summons his Intellecta-car (eat your heart out, Michael Knight)! Dives onto the passenger seat! Wrestles into his black cape and cowl and body armor while his car auto-pilot-zooms to the scene of crime!

On Evoking An Emotional Response

Hitchcock was not interested in what his movies were about, only how to use their content to evoke emotion. To him, caring about content was like looking at a painting of apples and wondering if the apples were sweet or sour. Who cares?

I care. I poke fun at superhero cliches, like why are so many superheroines double-D or greater, or why can’t the woman beat up the villain instead of cringing behind the tough guy hero? But to care, I must feel. My rough first drafts often had story actions and dialogue, but did not evoke emotion from the point-of-view character. I now fix that as early as possible.

Not every writer does this. This year, I read a science fiction story nominated for an award, the point-of-view character being a sentient spaceship. The story listed big space battle actions in excruciating detail, with no emotion. Guess what. No award either.

The Difference Between Mystery & Suspense

Hitchcock made suspense movies, which deliver information to the audience to build tension, rather than mysteries, which withhold information to present a puzzle. The former is emotional, the latter is intellectual. He mentioned movies where there were mysterious goings-on, and you don’t know what is happening until a third of the way into the picture. He considered that wasted footage, because there was no emotion to it.

I just wrote a first draft chapter about the corruption of a huge superpowered comic convention. Dull, dull, dull until thousands of fanboys, and Holly’s old beloved mentor, and Holly’s biggest fan—cute little Kittygirl—fell under the power of Bunni, the evil super-bimbo! Betrayal! Giggles! A punch in Holly’s kryptonite-weakened face! I started caring.

On Mastering Cinematic Tension

Hitchcock has his famous example of people sitting at a table, talking about baseball for five minutes, very dull. Then a bomb goes off and blows them to bits. The audience gets a few seconds of shock, that’s all. Now put the bomb under the table, and have the audience see that it will go off in five minutes. That gets the audience working because you gave them that information: hey, you dumb guys, stop talking about baseball and get rid of that bomb!

I think this baseball example is hard to pull off in a prose story. But science fiction author Larry Niven pulled off tension with his novella, “Death by Ecstasy.” Cop Gil Hamilton woke up sometime in the morning, tied up by the blackhearted Loren the organlegger (guess what he sells for a living). Loren calmly talked shop with Gil while cradling a gun and staying out of range of Gil’s telekinesis (arm’s length). Gil knew, and thus I knew, that a telepath will check on him at 9 a.m. Gil keep Loren talking while fighting the urge to ask what time it is (Loren might figure out there’s a telepath) and to coax Loren to come closer. But I know that Gil’s telekinesis can barely lift a shot glass, how can it stop Loren? Then Loren gets angry, and Gil calls Loren a murderer, and Loren goes into a white hot rage. He aims his gun. And Gil looks down the gun barrel and thinks, What time was it? What time? It was hard not to read ahead.

To Sum Up…

Use your materials to their fullest. A spoonful of sugar helps the exposition go down. To master tension, give information. A good story evokes emotion. And to quote Hitchcock…

Good evening.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dave M. Strom is a technical writer who has written about superheroine Holly Hansson since the novel The DaVinci Code. He puts funny into his superhero stories and has women clobber the bad guys. Dave reads comic books, watches cool cartoons, and occasionally performs at open mics.

Website and blog: https://davemstrom.wordpress.com
Email: dave.strom@gmail.com
Twitter: @davstrom