All too often we hear people compare movies and books, regardless if the book was written before or after the movie. But is this fair to either format?

Movies: not only can they spark ideas for writing, but they are their own form of story-telling. They bring to life the world that we see in our head, but sometimes the vision of the director is not always the vision that we see in our heads. Does that make the movie good or bad? No. movies should be based on other things than our own inner vision. They should be judged on if they are well acted, well portrayed, etc. Just because it does not meet what we thought it should, does not make it a bad movie.

Books: ah, now here is our forte right? Not only do the stories we see in our heads come out onto the paper for us writers, but the readers and writers all have movies that play in our heads as we read. What one reader will see, the other will not. This is what makes books highly personal, you can see it how you want, not how someone else wants you to see it.

So just because a movie is based on a book, or a book is based on a movie, they are their own format’s and, in my opinion, should not be compared. They should be enjoyed for their own value and not if this scene or that scene was cut or if that scene or that scene was altered.