You're watching CSI and feeling guilty that you aren't working on your writing. Cheer up. New insights are everywhere. Enjoy the story about Grissom and the gang while you make notes of techniques that work well on TV but don't work on paper.

The Number of Scenes

TV shows change scenes often and with no visible effort. In one scene Grissom and Catherine are in Grissom's office discussing blood splatters. Two minutes later you're watching Nick and Sara collect fibers in an abandoned car in a parking garage. A few minutes after that, we see Greg in his lab being difficult as usual. The viewer can see what's going on, so the story gets off to a fast start with dialogue and action. The pace never lets up.

That's not easy to do on paper. You may need a paragraph of description just to place the characters in Grissom's office. If you jump around from one locale to another too often, your reader will tire of reading descriptions. Skip the transitions, and your reader will suffer from intellectual whiplash, wondering where they are and how they got there.

Solution

1. Keep the number of scene changes to a minimum.
2. Use you first scene to do more than introduce the main character. Start putting the conflict in place right away.
3. Use short transitions between scenes to keep the reader with you. Say something like: the next day Sara dragged herself into her math class. And for short story publications and most books, hash marks aren't acceptable transitions -- use words.

Point of View

CSI tells its story in a present tense, third person, omniscient point of view. In other words, the action is taking place right now, and we see and hear everything that happens to all the characters as they try to solve the crime. The only issue is "who done it and how."

Using this kind of point of view can be problematic for the average novice writer. If he writes in present tense, he may slip into the past tense several times before the bottom of page one. Writing in third person can cause the writer to keep the main character at arm's length. Stories told in the omniscient point of view discourage young readers from identifying with the main character. As a result, the reader may not care very much about any of your imaginary people.

Solution

1. In general, stories for young people should be told in single point of view. Get inside your young main character's head on page one and stay there. A transition like "unbeknownst to Sarah, her brother left the gate unlocked" is a shift from Sarah's point of view to her brother's.
2. If you have trouble with third person, try first person. First person makes single point of view and conveying your main character's emotions easier for the writer.
3. Keep your story in past tense unless you have a very good reason for using present tense.

Direct Quotes

Dialogue is the main thing in a TV drama like CSI, and it bounces between characters like a ping pong ball. Viewers always know who said what because they see bodies and faces on the screen. While listening to the dialogue, we can admire Catherine's red tank top or hate her new hair do. We see Grissom drumming his fingers on the table and sense that he's impatient with the stubborn witness.

But writers can't just spew out a string of direct quotes and expect the reader to visualize the scene. "Who said what?" becomes a big issue. Having characters constantly call each other by name doesn't sound natural. Without reminders that character's have bodies, the quotes seem to come out of thin air.

Solution:

1. Start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes.
2. Use tags frequently. If only two characters are talking, you may skip a tag now and then. However, very young readers need tags for every paragraph of dialogue. As they struggle to decipher the text they may forget what the third word was before they've reached the sixth.
3. Put that tag in early. If Jack hasn't been identified as the speaker by the sixth or seventh word of the sentence, "Jack said" will be too late to help.
4. Keep reminding the reader that the characters have bodies. Add facial expression of some movement to the tag to help the reader see the speaker.

Show Don't Tell

Although many things that work on TV won't work on paper, the fact remains that dramas like CSI are all about showing rather than telling. Some aspects of these programs can actually make your writing better. Consider these insights:

1. TV dramas begin with action and dialogue, and your story should, too. Try to sneak in the essential facts of your characters' back-stories gradually without stopping the flow of the plot.
2. Ask yourself what you would notice if you were in your character's shoes. Exclude details that wouldn't register with you in this situation.
3. Use more direct quotes than indirect ones, and add body language to some of your tags.

TV dramas can be good or bad role models. Using their techniques can leave your readers confused or completely convinced your story could have happened. May all your future stories play out vividly inside your readers' minds.