Which medium do you think works for what story?

[jamesbondsmith]

As the title says, which medium to you think works best for which kind of story?

I have several projects in various stages of writing/brainstorming. One is a superhero novel series set in the 'real world', and another novel/series is a little closer to the epic fantasy mould. I'm working on a graphic novel script which was partially inspired by Bioshock, and I think the emphasis on the architecture of the main cities means it needs a visual medium (or perhaps it could be an illustrated novel similar to the Stormlight Archive). Another idea which has gone to the backburner is a tv show which can be boiled down to Sanctuary/Primeval, if a Buffy-wannabe was going around trying to kill all the creatures they're trying to save.

Obviously, different media have their own pros and cons. Literature gives more access to the internal workings of a character, but visual media are more immediate, and film/tv allows you to follow the characters movements and bring music into the equation. To use the Bioshock example, games also allow you to almost tell yourself the story.

[Use the Falchion]

I can't answer, but I can sympathize. I have an urban fantasy series I'm working on that's best as a book, while a separate, more fantastical epic fantasy series I'm working on is planned as a cartoon. 

I think it just depends on how you first envision the story, and if the medium can properly convey your vision and accommodate the story you're telling. The novel works best for the urban fantasy since I want to be in one person's head the entire time. Meanwhile the cartoon is an ensemble cast, and I want a decent bit of banner, silly high jinks, overblown reactions, and cool fight scenes.

I think games are...different. In some of my favorite games, yes, you do get to tell the story. But those are pretty rare. In most of them, I'm following a set story, but I get to explore the world along the way. The depth, the lore, the and the sense of the world are far grander than most books and shows. So I guess I'm saying that games are best if you want to show off the world you built. 

Not sure if any of this made sense. 

[Wyndlerunner]

This is genuinely an interesting query, with a lot of different ways you could go about it. I'm wont to think of book to film adaptation, when we talk about story mediums. Film is an innately different form of storytelling than written works, so as a rule, many of the changes that get lambasted by book communities are only in place because of the changes necessary to convert a book's story to a visual book medium. (although there are some that I don't feel apply to that). Games are a very interesting form of storytelling because of how many different types there are to build. For instance, let's look at The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This is a game that has a very open, freeform, playstyle. You can do things in any order, and many aspects could be completely skipped. Because of this playstyle, The game's plot and backstory are open and somewhat barebones, so it can be understood in whatever order it is encountered. Ocarina of Time, on the other hand, is designed far more linearly. There is a set progression of what the player does, in what order. So, the story is written much differently to reflect that progression.