How To Write A DVD Commentary

Read a couple DVD commentaries today. Yep, still sick. It'll be nice to have my voice back someday. *cough, cough*

So, my enormous Maine Coon kitty's using my lap as a footstool as he snoozes, WG's at work (and refused to kiss me as he left because I'm still sick, *hack, cough*) and I'm reading DVD commentaries.

Conclusion: Most writers write terrible DVD commentaries.

( Good lord. )

I mock, yet I am just as guilty. I simply didn't see it until I read other people's commentaries.

Some people say that authors are incapable of analyzing their own work. I do not believe that. I just think they don't know how. Everything they know about writing goes out the window when confronted with a request to write a commentary. Buh? You want what?

There is a process, however. Help is on the way.

Step 1: Consider the audience. What will the readers find interesting?

This isn't your home-movie moment with a captive audience to torment. What is genuinely different about that story they might not already know? Think, what got the readers interested in the first place? Are there bits of plot that you cut but wish you could have kept?

Step 2: Pick an approach, preferably based on audience interest. There are all kinds of options.

- Was this written three years ago in response to other stories or past events in canon that can help the reader contextualize it?
- Was the story drawn from a real life anecdote that might be interesting in and of itself?
- Does the story comment on some event in the world, or in fandom, today?
- Are there stylistic choices that make your story unique or interesting, something you can take apart structurally or linguistically?
- Are there events that went on in the publication of the story that (here's an important caveat) readers might find interesting?
- Is it drawn from some literary or other unexpected background? Have you hidden references to "The Story Of O" in your Gen-fic, for example?
- Did you learn something about canon, or develop resources that other writers might want to pursue?

This has a dual benefit. It gives your story a gloss that's interesting, and it causes you to step outside of yourself and your fic. The odd thing is that when people ask about your story, they don't want to know about the story, they want to know something other than story that's related. Ha.

Step 3: Choose your voice. Be entertaining.

This doesn't mean you have to be a buffoon on a bouncing stick. Intellectual writing is also fascinating. But do not forget you're still a writer.

Step 4: Have your commentary beta'd.

If anyone's reading your commentary, you're probably a good enough writer to catch your own SPAG errors. But commentaries are wide open in terms of style and approach, so you're flying without a net unless you have a beta to ask questions.

Step 0: I should have put this first. Only write the commentary if the subject warrants it.

That popular PWP or adventure fic may not have enough meat on its bones for you to say much about it. Even if people ask for a commentary, examine whether there is anything more. Maybe it's all in the fic. If so, save yourself the headache.

Now. I suppose I should follow my own advice, eh?



ETA: Was that too sarcastic? Some of the commentaries I just read were really bad.

ETA2: Added step four, probably the most vital.

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