What advantages do novels have over other mediums?

Iwriteforfun

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 12, 2022
Messages
50
Points
58
When comparing these mediums, I was struggling to find anything that novels have that other mediums don't. Detailed imagery, well comics and movies do that better, action is better there too, and the creator's exact intentions are displayed. And so on,
So what are the things that novels offer that a comic or a movie or something else can't offer?


Check out my novel btw, please:
 

CharlesEBrown

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 23, 2024
Messages
4,725
Points
158
Novels rely on theatre of the mind; it is a big part of why I like horror fiction but am not a huge fan of horror movies (at least post late-1960s) in general - I am better at scaring myself than most directors are, and if a writer sets it up well, it will be far more effective for me than anyone showing me the monster or whatever.
 

theInmara

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 24, 2021
Messages
153
Points
83
On top of what Charles E Brown says, it's pretty easy for a single person to write a novel. It helps to have an editor and a publisher, but you don't need them.

Despite what we see in webcomics and daily comic strips in the newspaper, comic books and graphic novels usually take a whole team of people to create with any efficiency. Even if one person takes their time to create a whole graphic novel, it is a phenomenal amount of work, and involves an incredible amount of compromise (ask us how we know).

Movies are on a whole other scale than that, requiring entire groups of businesses and corporations to come together to create the spectacular works we're used to today. And they really skimp on the story telling, typically, with very thin scripts and slapdash world building if they're even original. Often times, they're based on novels.

Other mediums, such as radio plays, fall somewhere in between or around these primary examples.

Another thing a novel can provide that none of these other mediums do is the complex inner thoughts of the characters. Prose is particularly suited to divulging conflicted reactions, philosophy, and the brutality and beauty of language itself.

Finally, there's the difference in time taken to enjoy each medium.

A play or a movie is one and done, in the theater, one to two hours, at the pace of the production, and if it's good you walk away elated and very content.

A comic goes so quick. Reading it is super fast, and you don't really need to do more than to glance at a panel to get the gist of what's happening. But you can always come back to it to enjoy the artwork more, later. You can sit with it. But it's also kind of precious because of that. You don't want to get shmutz on it.

A radio play or an audio book is closer to a novel, typically, or is a novel, but you're stuck listening to it at the pace of the voice actors, again.

While a novel can come in many forms, doesn't necessarily have precious artwork bound up in it, and you can often read it just about anywhere. And it sort of demands a leisurely pace, if it's not a real pot boiler with lots of cliffhangers. You can reread the same paragraph over and over to try to understand it without someone yelling at you to stop rewinding it (usually). And you can take it with you to work and read it on the toilet during potty breaks.

It isn't fair to consider these mediums as competing endeavors. We have the capacity to enjoy them all, and they all exist. You can be reading a book all week, but go to a movie one night and read a comic on the bus on the way to the theater, then pick the book back up before bed when you get home, listening to a podcast on the way back.

That is, if you're not burnt out by having scrambled through college to get a decent career only to end up working overtime every week for the rest of your life. The feeling that these different things are vying for attention and taking it away from each other is sort of an artificial construct of the circumstances in which most of us live.
 

cabbag3

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 27, 2021
Messages
276
Points
133
Bragging rights and to find out which one of us have Apophenia. jk
The same as Charles, I enjoy letting my imagination do the work and reading is kinda more intimate to me than watching movies.
I can watch movies alone, but I can't really read a book together with somebody without feeling awkward.
 

LoneQuack

Active member
Joined
Jun 16, 2024
Messages
120
Points
43
If you have good enough imagination and a good writer, it's nigh impossible for any other medium to surpass novels in most criteria, although I think your approach is a bit misguided. And by that, I mean they aren't comparable.

To give an example think of them as trying to compare shirts with pants. Just because they are both clothes doesn't mean one has leverage over the other.
 

Rezcore

Kell-Wnown Timber
Joined
Aug 18, 2022
Messages
1,093
Points
153
As a media nut, I have a decent understanding of this. Novels are more personal, you can tote the everywhere, stop and start them as needed. The words on page are more personal as they aren't filtered through dozens of people. Sometimes you can hear the author's voice in the novel.

Music is probably the best analog to that, not the soulless drivel put out by artist like Taylor Swift, which is made by Corporate executives for her brainless fans to eat up. If you're offended, I don't care, your taste are already compromised.

Art is an interesting mirror of music.

Movies have the ability to allow you to feel the voice of the writer, but it's obfuscated by the annoying dei and other similar efforts to kill joy.

Television is similar to movies, though I do mean western movies and shows as non western filmography tends toward content.

Comics are great, but can be ruined by their editors.
 

John_Owl

Per aspera ad astra.
Joined
May 20, 2023
Messages
948
Points
133
building on these other answers... Novels excel at consumer participation. That is to say, what does the viewer contribute to the movie? nothing. what does a viewer contribute to comics or graphic novels? Voices. that's it.

What do readers contribute to novels, webnovels, or other purely written medium? Nearly everything. no matter how we try, an author will never be able to describe EVERY little detail of a character while keeping it interesting. I rely on my readers to fill in anything I don't describe. This allows my works to be better suited to a wider audience. I didn't describe the girl's hair? Well, it's on the reader to decide if she's a redhead, blonde, or other hair color. That way the girl can be whatever the reader would prefer for her role as i put her in.
 

LilRora

Mostly formless
Joined
Mar 27, 2022
Messages
1,349
Points
153
The more you are presented, the less you have left to imagine. The less you are presented, the less you can build upon with your imagination.

Novels are, roughly speaking, the second least defined medium out there, preceded only by poetry and followed by manga and comics (if we went into details we could obviously make stricter distinctions and try add various other forms of art, but that's the general idea for modern media). That makes them easy to comprehend compared to more sophisticated and symbolic writing, but leaves a lot more to imagination than any visual medium.

This is not a good or bad thing by itself; some people will like the lack of detail and enjoy the freedom it gives, and some will struggle to imagine what novels describe.

From author's perspective, writing novels lies in a great spot between poetry and more detailed media - it is simple and easy to create in large quantity. Poems require far more imagination and thought, while comics and manga take much more time and effort.
 

Plantorsomething

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 3, 2020
Messages
310
Points
103
When comparing these mediums, I was struggling to find anything that novels have that other mediums don't. Detailed imagery, well comics and movies do that better, action is better there too, and the creator's exact intentions are displayed. And so on,
So what are the things that novels offer that a comic or a movie or something else can't offer?


Check out my novel btw, please:
Cuts down the fat. Story only, minimal to no need for other skills like drawing or cinematography
 

placeintime

Yeeting myself out
Joined
Apr 13, 2020
Messages
130
Points
103
I think novels are much more descriptive and immersive. When comparing it to like comics, you could see that there are chunks missing from it. It's also true for anime as well. (For anime, I think primary because of budget and VA XD) But for novels, it's much easy to be more descriptive, creating a better immersive scene for the readers.
 

Daitengu

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 11, 2019
Messages
917
Points
133
When comparing these mediums, I was struggling to find anything that novels have that other mediums don't. Detailed imagery, well comics and movies do that better, action is better there too, and the creator's exact intentions are displayed. And so on,
So what are the things that novels offer that a comic or a movie or something else can't offer?

Well, the cost is FAR cheaper than everything else. Even black and white manga is more expensive to make.

Heck, because the cost of entry is so low, it has the most creator access of any medium.

For the longest, novels were the only way to experience other worlds. Ever since special effects and CG came about, film have been able to do it as well, but at a much more expensive cost. So novels like Dune just haven't been made well for the longest because of the cost. Compare the 80's version to recent versions and you can tell budget is the real killer of scifi and fantasy.

Another advantage is a book can outlast a DVD or bluray disc. There's literally books from the middle ages still in existence, where as we expect all current DVDs to oxidize within 50 years.
 
D

Deleted member 84247

Guest
 

Fallion

Active member
Joined
Jan 27, 2022
Messages
12
Points
43
Production cost, information density, availability.
Personally I also love being able to intake information at my own pace, instead of movies, broadcasts and similar where it's always either too slow or too fast.
 

ACertainPassingUser

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 12, 2022
Messages
1,103
Points
153
Novel is the fastest to write.

Its the most accessible medium for everyone, as typing is really fast.

Novel with illustrations is also quite accessible. Author can focus writing while only drawing thing that are considered important.

Manga/comic is the third most accessible. There's ten thousands of comic artist out there.

Animation is extremely hard. There's only 24 anime per month. And there's 20,000 comic with 1,000,000 webnovels running around.
 

Jocelyn_Uasal

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 30, 2024
Messages
233
Points
108
I don't think comics and movies always do detailed imagery better? Things like taste, smell, the coldness of the air outside or the dampness of the air, I would say that novels do all of this better in my opinion.

Sure I can see on screen that its raining, but the internal dialogue of how it feels and what it means to a character is all lost.
 

ElijahRyne

A Hermit that’s NOT that Lazy, currentlycomplainen
Joined
Aug 12, 2021
Messages
1,835
Points
153
Typically you read at a faster speed than video and audio. Therefore in the same time you either get through the story faster or you get more detail in a written work than in a video/movie/tv. The same goes for radio and audio books, either they go to fast for the average listener who isn’t reading along, or they go at a slower pace. In video-games you are essentially being told a story like you would learn about a location in a museum. Extremely interactive yet still slower than reading. Comics, and similar forms of media, are similar to novels in that you can read them extremely fast, but often times if you do so you will lose track of what is happening.

Nevertheless that was a bit reductive. Each medium can tell the same story in a a way that any other medium couldn’t while being both unique and interesting. Novels are better for me because I am impatient. Impatient to the extent that I use text-to-speech to make sure I am reading at a consistent and fast pace.

Novels are unique because you only have words and their absence to work with to tell a story. This means it is harder to tell a visual story, but also easier to tell a more internal story. It is often difficult for film/video/tv/plays/games/comics to tell a story using solely what a character(s) think when compared to books. Instead they are more about how those thoughts affect the world of the story. Not to say that one can’t tell those stories, just that it is easier for someone using only words.
 

Indicterra

Making the Emperor proud, one corpse at a time
Joined
Oct 14, 2023
Messages
403
Points
133
Just wanna ask, did I spook you something....if then I am sorry
 
Top