An unexpectedly insightful writing tip came from Adam Nimoy's autobiography.
It's the first book I've read on my new, nifty little kindle. A lovely read that isn't a dry recitation of one's life, or full of excessive gossip about growing up with a distant celebrity father. What is most fascinating is how insightful Nimoy is into his profession of directing. As a writer, I felt I benefited from a chapter about M.O.D. — a character's Moment of Decision.
Nimoy writes, while instructing of a class of students,
This is a critical moment in your movie and you want to make the most out of it, because it adds tension and suspense to your movie and keeps the audience wondering , what's he gonna do, what's he gonna do? M.O.D.'s are much more powerful than dialogue because talk is cheap, but what people do, especially under pressure, is infinitely more revealing about their character than what they say.
He goes on, about an addicted character needing to make a decision about whether or not to take some pills,
Good actors want to make a meal out of moments like that because a good actor knows that this is what's going through his mind: "Should I take it or not? Maybe just one, know one will know, I've been real good, been sober for six weeks, what's one gonna hurt?".... You need to hold us in suspense when he pulls out the pills and looks at them and looks to see if his girlfriend is coming and reads the label and is thinking about it and is torn.
Of course, print is a different medium than film, but I'm going to tuck this instruction away in a corner of my mind for future writing.
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