The Selling Point

As some of you may have guessed, I have been on a Harry Potter reading spree lately. Well, naturally after reading all of the seven books, I decided to move on to watching the movies. I'd seen bits and pieces of 1-4 before, but they were disappointing. These past few days, however, I forced myself to sit down and watch all of them.

I was still disappointed. 

The movie critic in me will admit that the movies have gotten progressively better, but they're still lackluster compared to the books. And that's my problem: I can't separate the books from the movies. Which means instead of enjoying the special effects or the quality of acting, I'm muttering about how this and that is missing.

Which brings me to the point: Movies and books have different selling points. 

For example: If I wrote a book based completely on the Harry Potter movie (let's say the Goblet of Fire), I would have a pretty pathetic book. There is no Winky, no hints of dark things to come, and everything would seem to happen by luck rather than any sort of premeditation or foreshadowing. The reader would miss out on that "Ah-ha!" moment that I absolutely reveled in while reading. I would never sell the movie-book, that's for sure.

Which makes me wonder how low we've stooped to find something so one-dimensional entertaining. And that's what the movies are: one-dimensional. 

I will admit it's impossible to incorporate all the elements of  a book into a movie (it would be extremely long) but when you completely warp the plot it just pisses me off. That's why I can't stand the movie Eragon. It made me want to pull my hair out. Another movie where I was muttering the whole way through.

So, really, is it inconceivable to follow the same basic plot of a book in its film adaption?

Had to share!

We've all been there . . .that place where it physically hurts to write. You feel like you're trying to squeeze your brain dry. And what do you come up with? Nada.

I have found a solution to this problem. You might think that it will be the adage: just write. Well, it's true, but here's a nifty little tool to help you along.

Write or Die.

I found this link through another blogger's comments. The name of the site alone intrigued me. And I found it very useful. You set yourself a word limit and then you'd damn well better start writing. Because if you stop to muse or play on Facebook or run for a diet cola, the screen starts turning red. I think it makes noises, too, but I currently have my sound turned off. It's honestly like having that teacher breathing down your neck, making you do your homework. It works!

Now, am I saying that the words you produce will be pure genius. Erm, no. But, hey, it's a start! And it did help me climb out of my rut. So, thank you, Dr. Wicked!

The Ripple Effect

As most of you know, my completed novel, Fury, has been on the shelf for a while (as in my shelf at home, in third draft form). I've tried recently to pick it up and edit it for the last time before I scrape up a query letter and synopsis, but my attitude is still blase. 

And on top of all that, I had an idea. You can call it a "what if".

What if I changed the setting of my story? What if instead of it being a typical fantasy background, I set it in the modern day? What kind of complications would that produce? How would Fury survive? Could she survive? 

Lots of intriguing questions. But there is another one that is even more important:

Would it work?

Let's say that it would. A modern setting would mean getting rid of some of the main plot points. A modern-day Caden probably wouldn't set out on a quest to solve a curse for his one true love. He'd be cruising around in a sports car looking tough. Which would mean that I would have to find a different reason for him to go searching for Fury. Endless possibilities.

So, will I do it?

Nah, probably not. First things first: Fury is hideously deformed. In the here and now, we're not very nice and Fury would be hard-pressed to escape EVERYONE. Sure, she could keep to the forest but then what would be the point of having a modern setting? 

It's intriguing to think about, however. Changing one thing in a story can have a ripple effect. You think that something like Where wouldn't be that relevant, especially if it's a character-driven story, but it is, and I find that amazing.

Things besides setting can have the same effect. One sentence can change a whole scene. It sounds crazy and intense, but that's how it is. I'm discovering that in Dragon Queen. I'm playing with a scene right now. Last night I had an idea on how to introduce Drake back into the story, but in order to do that, I have to change almost everything that I have written for Ch. 19. And then there is everything that follows that just doesn't fit anymore. It's frustrating sometimes. But that's just another one of the many joys of writing. 

A hard time of it

I'm having one of those times where things go from bad to worse. I honestly think that I've hit rock bottom, though, so I'm looking forward to getting out of this dip.

This weekend, which was supposed to be a time for fun and laughter and lots of water and sun, ended up being a really awful weekend. Friday morning, before we even had all our stuff packed for the lake, my mother called me to tell me that my grandmother was not going to survive the weekend. She advised me to go see her before we left. It was an awful sight. My grandma, who has always been a very thin woman, was nothing more than a skeleton. Each breath she took was painful to hear. It was--in a word--heartbreaking. We stayed for a while, but she never woke up. She never knew we were there.

She died the next afternoon. Leaving my boyfriend to go fishing (he said he couldn't deal with it, he'd watched too many people mourn) I went back to my grandma's house. I expected a scene of deepest mourning. It was, but everyone was mostly calm and relaxed. We were even able to joke around and share a few laughs. My cousin came back with me to the lake that night (I had to pick up my stranded boyfriend) and we sat on the dock just listening to the night for a while.

Sunday, however, was when it hit me. Grandma hadn't left a will, but she wanted everyone of her grandkids to have something of hers. It was impossible to choose. I didn't want anything. And I wasn't the only one having problems. When I finally decided what I wanted (a resin castle with pewter and crystal figurines of dragons, unicorns and wizards) I sobbed and sobbed. It's sitting on my dining room table at the moment. I had planned to put it on top of my entertainment stand, but I don't know if I can manage it. It hurts to look at it. 

I couldn't sleep last night. I kept waking up and just staring at the ceiling. And I have to keep myself occupied, or else I just start crying. 

I'm sorry I haven't kept this a 'professional' blog. I can only excuse my actions with saying that grief often affects writing. Sometimes it unleashes the river of creativity, other times it stifles it. I'm not sure where I am at the moment. I need to work on Ch. 18., but that is where Jade learns that Tyar has died (sorry for the spoiler) and I just can't bring myself to write about more grief right now. 

Into Battle!

I need a Pensieve. You know, a way to siphon off thoughts and save them for later so that I can focus on one thing. Unfortunately, Pensieves only exist in the world of Harry Potter, so I'm going to have to suffer.

My main focus right now is Dragon Queen. I am currently writing Chapter 17, which involves a rather large action scene. I've got about 2K words describing a bloody conflict, but I'm only happy with about a fourth of it.  And as I wrote, I was thinking: Maybe I'm just not cut out to write battle scenes. But then I think about Fury. There is a nice struggle at the end between Yalei and Fury, and I'm pretty happy with the way that turned out. It's dark and intense. But the main difference between the battle in that scene and in Dragon Queen is the old internal vs. external. Fury prevails through her mind and heart. The scene in Dragon Queen is a bunch of dragons chomping and clawing at each other. A lot different. And a lot harder to write. I think I'm going to have to pick up Christopher Paolini's books again and get a little bit of reference. 

Right now, I'm slogging through it. I had to resist the urge to go back and edit it yesterday. Because it's not even finished yet. I kept repeating: Finish it first, then edit. Just get it down. 

This struggle to write physical conflict has revealed to me something about my writing: I am more concerned with internal conflicts. I like it when a character has to wrestle with their flaws rather than grapple with an opponent. While there is a little bit of that in Dragon Queen, there should be more physical trials. Why? Well, because that's the point. It's a war. There needs to be bloodshed and gore and things getting parts of their body chopped off. Jade can't just sit there and muse about how awful it is and shouldn't she do something. That would be a major turn off. 

It is also difficult, I am finding, to write a battle scene  from the 1st person POV. I can only write about what she notices, which means that a lot of the action is not getting wrote down. And some of that out-of-sight action is important. Where I'm floundering at right now is where Jade is finally kicking some butt, but Tyar is also fighting with Darion in the background. Not sure how to make the reader aware of Tyar's struggle while not seeming to go out of POV. Something else to mull over.

Five more of me, please!

I simply have too much that I want to do in one day for me to accomplish it all. I'm sure everybody's been here. But this week I could really use five more of me. 

There are the things that need to be done: cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping.

Things that should be done: re-staining a chair, working on Dragon Queen, looking up more agents, editing Fury, exercising.

And things that want to be done: reading a book, working on my story, sleeping, spending time with boyfriend.

Maybe I don't need five more of me to do all these things. Two more might work. We could all just have our categories. The real me, of course, would be laboring over the want category while still reaping the benefits of the other categories. (Can you just imagine if we had someone to exercise for us and still gain the rock hard abs and svelte thighs? Utopia! Someone really needs to invent that.)

The point is, I don't have any more of me. I just have one mind, one heart, two hands, and a whole lot of stress. So I'm going to have to prioritize. That means tackling the needs-to-be-done list. But that's no fun. Not even the grocery shopping part (because when you're watching your diet and your wallet, you can't throw the good stuff into your shopping cart). And then I really should move on to the should-be-done list. Especially the exercise, since I've been slacking there. Fury can wait. The rest--not so much.

But, dag nabit, I'm going to add a little bit of the wants-to-be-done in there, too. Because life is just no fun without a little slacking. Nor are relationships (sorry, boyfriend). This weekend will be boyfriend time. Tonight I will probably read again. I need to zone out a bit. 

I think as long as I accomplish a few things tonight,  I'll be able to slack off the rest of the time. I'm going to have to zoom through grocery shopping, do 30 minutes of cardio (if I shop really fast that might kill two birds with one stone), clean dishes and fold laundry, and then the rest of the time I'm going to be curled up on the sofa with HP and the Order of the Phoenix. Oh, and I've already worked on DQ so I'm good there. Guilt assuaged. 

Back from the Brink

I took a break from writing (and thinking about writing) this weekend. This was mainly due to a little thing called LIFE that was demanding my attention (including attending a going away party for a friend at work, getting sick, running a yard sale, going to a baby shower, reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (in two days), playing with my 4-year-old cousin, hanging out with my mom, going to a barbecue . . . and that's it).

I'm going to try to get back to rewriting Dragon Queen chapters 17-? today. I managed to rewrite the end of Ch. 16. Twice. The first rewrite felt too contrived. The second one I'm a little happier with, but I'm going to comb through it today and make sure that I'm completely satisfied before moving on.

I have to thank Jenn Lidster for helping me come up with the ideas for these chapters. And Lydia Sharp for being honest and letting me know exactly what was wrong with the circumstances. I think that the new chapters are going to be so much better with their help and advice.

Professional progress: I contacted the guy I interned for at the UA Press. He was happy to offer me some advice and will be getting back with me shortly. Yay!