Article - What Makes For Good Writing?

A Personal Commentary - What Defines Good Writing?

Written By: Lisa Caputo

03-04-2015

With Castle on a two-week break, I’ve decided to try to post a little more here to pass the time and discuss aspects of the show that our fellow fans find interesting.  I previously posted my personal thoughts on episode 6x23, something I was prompted to do based on a question posed by an old friend of mine.  This next post comes from a request I received from a fan named Sandra on Facebook who asked if I could write a bit about my personal take on the writing on Castle.  As a writer myself, and someone who has some training and experience in scriptwriting, I was asked to speak of what makes writing good or bad and where the Castle team falls in those categories.

I will preface this by saying that these are my own personal opinions, based solely on what I learned from my training, my experience, and my longtime passion for television as a storytelling medium.  In no way do I intend to give hard and fast rules for writing nor debate anyone else’s opinion if they vary from my own.  So if you don’t appreciate what you read here, I kindly ask that you leave it at that and not make it a point to argue my opinions.  We all have our own personal likes and dislikes and storytelling in general is a very subjective thing in and of itself, so this is simply my own take on what, to me, makes for good and great storytelling.

When I started watching Castle, I was immediately impressed with the show.  While I feel that it has gotten stronger over the seasons, even in those early days there was something special about it.  It was intelligent, witty, and didn’t feel the need to throw the storytelling in our faces, rather it allowed us to read between the lines, take in all of the clever details, and use our brains to piece together what it all meant.  That’s something I immediately appreciated as it was definitely a rarity, especially at that point in the television landscape that was riddled with poor writing and far too many reality shows that took away from the opportunities on television for good storytelling.

But I was also a bit wary about how long the show could continue in that way.  After all, and especially at that time, well-written shows that catered to a more mature and intelligent audience were typically not ones that had a lengthy shelf life.  Some of the best shows on television at that time were cancelled after just a season or two because they weren’t necessarily welcomed by an audience that had become so accustomed to blunt and in-you-face stories, simple characters, potty humour (for lack of a better term), and instant gratification.

So what made Castle so special was also something that could have been its downfall.  Fortunately for us, audiences took to it and reveled in its uniqueness.  A cross between a romantic comedy, an intriguing mystery, and a procedural crime drama, Castle offered viewers something different.  But what made the writing itself so special?  What made it stand out amongst other network shows?

For me, there’s a few really impressive elements to the storytelling on this show and, in my personal opinion, the Castle writers have always been and continue to be some of the very best working in network television.  Here are a few of the elements that make them quite extraordinary:

DIALOGUE

This is a big element and one that the Castle writers are all extremely gifted with.  One has to remember that when writing scripts, a writer can’t describe the scene or the action as they would in a novel or short story.  There is very little description, if any, that can be used when writing in script format, thus the entire story has to be told through the dialogue.  And when you only have 43 minutes or so in which to tell that story, every word has to be carefully crafted to make the point clear without taking up too much time.  The dialogue tells the story but has to tell it in the voice of the characters as well, and when you have a team of writers working on a single show, that means each and every one of them has to be able to be in tune with the characters in order to write the dialogue in a consistent and believable way.  While each writer has their strengths and some viewers can pick out those clues as to who wrote which episodes, the vast majority of scripts could have been written by anyone on the writing team.  I’d challenge any viewer to watch an episode without knowing who wrote it and without seeing the opening credits and actually guess which writer wrote the episode.  In most cases, it wouldn’t happen.  But what is always front and center in any Castle episode is great use of dialogue, using as few words as possible to convey the most meaning possible.  Obviously, having solid actors, as they have on Castle, is a key to that as well, relying on both their words and facial expressions to tell a much bigger story in a short amount of time.

SUBTEXT

This is, quite possibly, one of the most difficult elements to master when it comes to writing.  Subtext is difficult because good subtext can’t be obvious and the best subtext occurs when even the characters themselves seem unaware of the true meaning of their chosen words.  Subtext is basically a character’s way of saying what they’re really thinking and feeling through subconscious word choice, giving us the keys to their soul through their words even if they think they’re saying something entirely different.  This is challenging for a writer and for an actor to convey properly and it’s also one of the things that the Castle team excels at more so than most writing teams on television.  One of my all-time favourite scenes of the series is from “Food To Die For”, which was written by Terri Miller, certainly one of the best in the business at writing great subtext.  Towards the end of the episode, Castle and Beckett are talking about their case and how sad it was that the couple involved never had a chance to be together because one was terrified of the other breaking their heart and wouldn’t let them in.  Through an exchange of dialogue between them, they essentially described how they felt about each other and why they themselves weren’t together, all without the characters themselves even really catching on to what they were saying until the end when they sat back and considered what they had said.  It was a beautiful moment where we see the sheer terror that Beckett feels and why she’s so guarded and unable to let Castle in to her heart, wanting to protect herself from the pain of love gone wrong, all while Castle shows that despite his own past failures in love, he sees something in Beckett that makes him feel like she could be the one for him and he knows what his heart really wants.  It’s beautiful and poignant yet so incredibly heartbreaking at the same time, with the two characters wearing their hearts on their sleeves for us while the other had no idea what the true meaning of their words actually was.  That, my fellow fans, is great subtext, and this is just one example of the truly great subtext that’s been used in so many episodes over the seasons.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

This one is always a tricky one for the viewers because you’ll always have fans who want the characters to stay the same while others want them to learn and grow and become better versions of themselves over the years.  You see this all over the Castle fandom; some want Castle and Beckett to be like they were in the earlier seasons while others enjoy seeing them be more evolved versions of who they were back then.  People in life change over time, and while we may retain who we are at our core, we always become a product of our experiences.  For me, the wonderful thing about Castle and Beckett is that their story truly is the perfect love story; two people meet, fall in love, and help each other become the versions of themselves that they’ve always been meant to be.  Beckett was stunted in some ways by her mother’s murder, always playing by the rules and seeing only what the facts could show her.  She was logical, rational, sarcastic, stubborn, and fun in her own ways but certainly not someone who really let herself be free to enjoy life and everything it has to offer.  Meanwhile, Castle was stunted in some ways by his failed marriages and his fame and fortune, shallow, immature, arrogant, and living his life without a care in the world despite the fact that one could tell it was all an act to convince himself that he was happy.  In each other, these two found those missing elements of their own selves, eventually impacting each other’s lives in a way that added those elements back in and made them much more complete.  Beckett learned to look beyond the facts, enjoy life, and understand that she had more to live for than avenging her mother’s death.  And Castle learned to have some structure, become more serious about his future, and open his heart up again to someone who could have broken it worse than anyone ever could have.  They both learned not to fear their feelings, to embrace their love, and to allow themselves to be happy.  Over the years, they’ve been through a lot individually and together and that has made them stronger people and a stronger couple.  There is nothing out of character about who they are now, nor who any of these characters are (yes, including Alexis) as opposed to who they were in the earlier seasons because, just like everyone else in the world (for the most part), they’ve evolved.  That’s character development done right.

CONTINUITY

Continuity in television or film can mean different things but in this case I’m referring to continuity of the storytelling itself.  Yes, every TV show and every film will have continuity errors in other areas of production.  That’s part a parcel of how they’re shot and edited together and no editor worth their salt would opt for continuity over acting as the performance is everything and most people won’t notice or care about an insignificant continuity issue if they’re wrapped up in the performance itself.  And, from my own experience and what I’ve seen in the industry, sometimes continuity errors are done on purpose, just to see who is really paying attention.  But I digress…  continuity in storytelling comes down to writers planning ongoing stories in advance and knowing their story inside and out to make sure that when those storylines come back into play again later on in the season or in the series, there’s a flow to them.  If you were to take episodes where there’s a continuing story, you should be able to watch them all back-to-back without losing any sense of seamlessness to them.  Yes, there’s often time that has passed in between but the story itself should have a flow to it and the plot should make sense from one episode to the next.  There are very few shows that are written on the fly, that is that most seasons and even sometimes the majority of a series will be plotted out in advance.  They may not sort out all of the details but they’ll know where they’re going to start, where they’re going to end, and where the major plot points will come up throughout the season.  It’s no different than writing a novel.  You have to know where you’re heading or you’ll lose your way.

The Castle team has always been excellent at their continuing storylines, both within a single season and over the course of much of the series.  Some of the longer-running mysteries like the Johanna Beckett murder case and 3XK, and now possibly the mystery surrounding Castle’s disappearance, have been woven throughout multiple seasons and yet if you were to single out those episode themselves and watch them back-to-back, they all flow through rather seamlessly.  In fact, it’s an interesting thing to do when you have some time for a Castle marathon.  But there have been a great many other things that have been woven throughout the seasons with the writers always doing a fantastic job of planting seeds in one episode and letting them grow under the surface until they bloom somewhere down the line, whether in that same season or even sometimes in the next.  Think of when Martha last moved out of the loft during her relationship with Chet.  Castle assured Alexis that she’d be back in six months.  When did Chet die and Martha moved back into the loft?  Six months later.

Foreshadowing has always been a huge strength for the Castle team and all one needs to do is watch an entire season from start to finish after already knowing how it all ends to see the many instances throughout the season where foreshadowing was used in ways that are often not as obvious as they may be on other shows.  It prompts the audience to use their senses and their minds to determine what may be coming down the road.  But there are other great examples of continuity as well in nearly every single episode, with the writers calling back to previous episodes or scenes or lines as both a means of paying tribute to the fans who pay attention while also giving that sense of familiarity and added emotion as we fondly remember those past moments while enjoying the new ones as well.

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These are just some of the examples of what the Castle writers excel at and in some cases, they’ve combined them all brilliantly.  Think of “always” as a prime example.  For those who question the writing abilities of the Castle team, think of how that one word carries so much weight for the fans.  It is a piece of dialogue loaded with meaning in just one word, an example of subtext in that it really meant “I love you” when Castle and Beckett were too afraid to say that out loud, an example of character development in that it still means the same thing but it almost carries more weight now because the characters have grown to the point together where “I love you” is a given so “always” just adds that little extra special context to it, and it’s also a fantastic example of continuity as a line that’s been used in every season since it was first uttered in season three.  It’s one word, one very simple word, yet it holds so much more meaning than any other could.

Of course, when all is said and done, these elements are ones that may mean something to me but hold no meaning to someone else.  Writing is subjective thus we will all have our own opinions on what makes for good writing or what makes for bad writing.  But the fact of the matter is that the best writing is that which speaks to us, inspires us, entertains us, enlightens us, makes us feel, and makes us think.  The stories and the characters that we can invest our time in, especially with so many other options available for our entertainment these days, those are the stories and characters that truly mean something.  If a story can reach you in that way, if a story can move you and bring you to tears (either tears of joy or tears of pain), and if a story can impact your life in such an immense way, THAT is good writing.  If a story makes you stop and think after you've seen it play out in an episode, THAT is good writing.  If a story makes you feel for the characters involved, feeling their sadness or their terror or their sheer joy, THAT is good writing.  If a story inspires you to sit down and write about it, THAT is good writing.  And for me, through all of my years of watching television, studying writing, and now reviewing shows for a living, the Castle team has achieved that more so than any other.  For me, that isn’t just good writing, it’s great writing.