I've been pondering the subject of translating books into good television series. I recently watched "The Dresden Files" on Sci-Fi and decided to give the books a try. Often the translation process ends up with some pretty bad TV. I like "Bones", though it really has nothing to do with Kathy Reich's novels except the main character sharing a name. Which I think is fine, since what works great in a novel does not often translate to TV. I thought the Showtime program "Dexter" was a spot-on rendering of the book, even if they did have to soften it ever-so-slightly just so they don't run out of supporting characters. I've always thought Laurell K. Hamilton's books read like a good cheapie syndicated series along the lines of Highlander. (at least until she took that unfortunate turn into what I consider to be poorly written porn) I've heard many people say that HBO's The Wire is more like a novel than a TV series. I'm not sure what my point is, as I've said. There was pondering.

Also, I got an idea for a novel, not scifi or horror but historical romance. I've written an outline. Don't know how committed i am to actually writing it.

Plus I just joined a Gigapet message board.

Right after I posted about my new insight on story, Ela Thier sent out a new article about something very similar, about knowing the difference between the story itself (in her metaphor, the fossil, or in one that also works well, a sculpure) and the dust & debris from excavating/carving it. The article is on her Story Writing page. The title is Story Structure, Dinosaurs, and Stephen King.

I had another insight about the difference between story and setting. A lot of my scifi ideas are essentially settings. The story is what happens in that setting. While reading a story called "Brain Raid" in the current F&SF, I thought it's really about a young man and his career angst in a troubled industry, which could occur in many settings. This one happened to be in a setting involving rogue AI's (artificial intelligence) and specialists who hunt them down. The scifi is in the setting more than the story. Analog's guidelines say something about how if you take the science out of the story there's no story as a guide to what they're looking for, but I think many successful scifi stories could be told in a different setting that is not scifi.