La Dee Da

I'm supposed to be writing right now.

But I am, you say? What is this blog entry if not writing?

Well, this isn't what I'm supposed to be writing. Two to three is technically my allotted 'story time'. To see what my 'story' may be, check out that link under 'me in other places' up there in the top right corner. I'm currently working on the fourth chapter of 'For Emily', which is a young adult fantasy novel/novella about a girl whose dreams affect an alternate reality. Sounds complicated and official, right? Ha.

WRITER'S BLOCK...........FGHGHOGHIGHSLSJ;DIJEGWBHGWWBGNLGVG.

Hm, I wonder if it's actually 'writers' block'. A sort of collective possession.

Anyway.

I've been trying to get some impartial/anonymous feed back about the first three completed chapters, but feedback is slow in coming. I'm pretty sure the plot moves too slowly, I may have a lot of unnecessary detail about secondary characters (although my last self edit hopefully removed most of that), and I'm not sure one of the main character's character is consistent between chapters. Maybe I just need to keep writing and trust that it'll even itself out instead of trying to fix everything immediately.

Writing is hard.

I should have taken those story writing classes in college like I wanted to.

New Toy

I recently purchased a Wacom Bamboo Tablet. I love this thing. Below is the first presentable image I have created. She is called Rosaline and is a character in the comic I may or may not create in the more or less near future. The story is really choppy but has a complete story arch in bullet point draft (which is farther than most of my stories have ever gotten... okay, that's farther than any of my stories have gotten). I'm excited to see how the quality of my work improves.

Twilight

I admit it. I went. I saw Twilight in theater. It wasn't horrible. Quite.

Other than the total lack of acting on Edward's part and the blatant skipping of very important character development (as in, maybe we should have more than one conversation before we declare our love for each other), it was mostly decent.

But it wasn't the book. It wasn't even close. Dialogue that in no way needed to be altered (and, in fact, was essential to the overall arch of the story) was altogether missing in the movie.

The movie threw in a few extras for our politically correct pleasure. Bella's friends were drastically altered in character (with the exception of Jessica, she was excellent) and you got the feeling that she had to have one solitary friend from each major race in the continental US (not that I'm against diversity, but when a movie feels type casted, you've done something wrong), we were reminded that women should take control in a relationship and ask the guy to prom when he drags his feet, and what teenage angst movie isn't complete without someone asking if you're 'being safe'. Because, obviously, Edward's insisting on sex in marriage in the book is too narrow minded for our enlightened viewers.

Sigh, we loose so much in trying to be relevant.

I agree with Rotten Tomatoes: 44%. You wouldn't have gotten half of it if you hadn't read the book. And it went so slowly! They could have fit so much in if we hadn't lingered in every little pause. I assume they were trying to build tension with those pauses but that didn't occur to me until the day after I saw the movie. I was initially just annoyed that they probably wasted a good twenty minutes of movie time with silence.

I'd see it again. If it was free.

What I've been up to

Alright, then. Sorry about the long pause in posts, I really don't know why it happened.

I've been making some actual progress on my story this past week. Hm, let's start with Halloween, actually.

SO, the big Halloween party was a blast. Mom and I got everything decorated and the massive amounts of food made and on the table in time (as in, after I spent two full days doing nothing but cooking and baking, we were slicing up the chicken and setting it on the table as guests arrived). Everyone showed up in pretty impressive costumes, although Matt gets the prize for his Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas costume. Too bad he had to change after he got murdered. Two of my brothers successfully staged the over throw of the Egyptian Queen and the twins did a marvelous job with Dustin and me as the Fae Court. Even my dad had a good time (we were worried, acting's not generally his thing). He got to go around and intimidate everyone as the Phantom Inquisitor. I just wish we'd had more time :( But, all in all, a grand time.

Since then I have inherited a massive amount of yarn from my in-laws and have been busy making a blanket and a baby set (I'll post pictures when I have them). BTW, the baby set is not for me, no I am not pregnant, no we are not planning on children in the near future. I seem to be getting those types of questions often, lately. I prefer to make baby clothes and blankets because they use less yarn than adult sized things and because they take less time. Plus, they're really cute!

Finally, after the madness of Halloween, my story has been pulled off the back burner. I'm really pleased with the progress I've been making. Yesterday alone I did six pages of character profiles and four pages of actual story. I love how the story seems to develop itself. I do not mean that it writes its self, trust me, lots of effort here. But that if I want my characters to end up in one place, several other events must take place before they are emotionally or geographically able to be in that place. Every so often another piece to the puzzle just pops into my head. I am beginning to understand that old light bulb metaphor. I'm also surprised to find that my characters change, or that a stock character I want to use just won't fit any more. Sometimes that makes me sad, some of my characters have existed in my mind for years and I was really excited to use them, but mostly the change in character makes sense and I just have to deal with it. Besides, I'll always be able to use them in another story. :)

Twilight

Okay, so the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer is totally awesome. With the exception of book four, but hey, you can't have it all. I would just like to state for the record, however, that the movie Edward is not the Edward from the book. He's WAY too James Dean. Edward is not James Dean. He's sweet and traditional, his hair is different, really, not James Dean. It is possible to be totally irresistible and innocent at the same time. No really, it is.

I'm done.