One of the recent posts about movies (and the Mild Wife's reactions to watching one of the Lord of the Rings movies for the first time) reminded me that I have a very particular quirk when it comes to watching movies. Basically, I always try to guess the plot.
I'm not entirely sure why I think this is fun, but at the end of the day, I do. I think it may have something to do with my propensity for engineering brain, because plots seem like things that have to fit together in a particular way. So if I can understand what the author/screenwriter is trying to accomplish, I can try to piece together the way the movie might unfold. If you want a happy ending, make sure the knight rescues the princess. If you want a horror film, the princess was actually a demon in disguise and kills the knight at the end.
The other thing that probably leads to this guessing game is the fact that I try my hand at writing every so often. I imagine it's sort of like a chef who goes out to eat at a restaurant: you can, and do, appreciate other people's craft, but you also understand a bit of how it all gets put together. I figure you might be curious about how they cooked the vegetables to give them that texture, or what other ingredients they may have added to the house sauce.
Either way, I usually end up trying to guess at what might happen next in a particular show or movie. I usually keep this to myself because there's a chance I might be right, and other folks don't always appreciate spoilers being thrown their way. The Mild Wife, however, thinks this is pretty amusing, so she will often ask me to guess what I think is going to happen next.
The funniest bit for all of this, though, is that we sometimes watch cheesy romantic comedies (i.e., romcom's) when we stay in. Sure, we appreciate critically acclaimed movies with some thought up in there, but every now and then, we just want something very light-hearted. With these movies, it's actually a little bit easier to guess what's going to happen, because the genre is not exactly known for crazy plot twists. Still, the Mild Wife will play the "guess what happens next?" game with me even for the romcom's.
Like I said, the genre itself makes it a bit easier to guess what's coming next, so I tend to guess correctly more often for these. That has led the Mild Wife to joke that, "I could write romcom's." That's hardly my cup of tea as a writer, so the notion usually makes the Mild Wife and me giggle like mad. I'm not sure I could keep a straight face if I had to write flirting scenes or the declarations of love.
I think I may have to start guessing incorrectly more often.
I'm not entirely sure why I think this is fun, but at the end of the day, I do. I think it may have something to do with my propensity for engineering brain, because plots seem like things that have to fit together in a particular way. So if I can understand what the author/screenwriter is trying to accomplish, I can try to piece together the way the movie might unfold. If you want a happy ending, make sure the knight rescues the princess. If you want a horror film, the princess was actually a demon in disguise and kills the knight at the end.
The other thing that probably leads to this guessing game is the fact that I try my hand at writing every so often. I imagine it's sort of like a chef who goes out to eat at a restaurant: you can, and do, appreciate other people's craft, but you also understand a bit of how it all gets put together. I figure you might be curious about how they cooked the vegetables to give them that texture, or what other ingredients they may have added to the house sauce.
Either way, I usually end up trying to guess at what might happen next in a particular show or movie. I usually keep this to myself because there's a chance I might be right, and other folks don't always appreciate spoilers being thrown their way. The Mild Wife, however, thinks this is pretty amusing, so she will often ask me to guess what I think is going to happen next.
The funniest bit for all of this, though, is that we sometimes watch cheesy romantic comedies (i.e., romcom's) when we stay in. Sure, we appreciate critically acclaimed movies with some thought up in there, but every now and then, we just want something very light-hearted. With these movies, it's actually a little bit easier to guess what's going to happen, because the genre is not exactly known for crazy plot twists. Still, the Mild Wife will play the "guess what happens next?" game with me even for the romcom's.
Like I said, the genre itself makes it a bit easier to guess what's coming next, so I tend to guess correctly more often for these. That has led the Mild Wife to joke that, "I could write romcom's." That's hardly my cup of tea as a writer, so the notion usually makes the Mild Wife and me giggle like mad. I'm not sure I could keep a straight face if I had to write flirting scenes or the declarations of love.
I think I may have to start guessing incorrectly more often.
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