I admire this fella Michael Pollan and notice that he's been very successful with his books, many of which seem to include rules, lists and whatnot.
So here’s my idea . . .
I study about food and realize that other people are also interested in food, but not all of them have yet learned to be completely obnoxious about it.
My apologies for my absence, I have been up to my cake hole in relatives (in a good way) for the last week or so. There will be a post to come. In the meantime, enjoy this, which I stumbled across today and which made me laugh. (Food and humour is a next-to-perfect combo for me.)
Okay, I admit it, I found this video because I was trawling youtube for Doctor Who videos. I don’t know why, because I own the full set on DVD and the most recent episodes are on iview. But I like what some people do with clips and songs and…
Okay, I’m just a bit of a Whovian tragic, we’ll just take that as read.
But while I was doing that, I came across this clever little video.
Its purpose is to demonstrate a variety of film editing techniques using footage from Doctor Who (which is how I came across it). You don’t need to know Doctor Who to follow it (although it would probably help to know that Doctor Who is a science fiction/fantasy series that involves time travel).
As someone with a rudimentary-but-keen-to-know-more understanding of film-making (mostly gathered from watching the extras on the extended Lord of the Rings DVDs) I found it very interesting.
But then my writerly brain kicked in and I wondered if you could use some of these ideas in the written form as well. Cutting before and after action have different effects, as does continuing dialogue across action and so forth. Obviously, they are different media, so it’s not a direct correlation, but the possibilities are interesting.
A lot of novelists already use screenwriting techniques to help structure and create their books. Do you think we can also learn from the other film disciplines to make our stories better?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and if you have any insights or links to share, please do!
I have several posts on the boil, but the ideas in them seem to be taking a while to uncomplicate themselves and come out clearly. (It’s not helped by the fact that the scene I’m working on in the WIP is proceeding at glacial speed; I’m distracted.) So in lieu of a real post, I thought I would share this.
Feel free to ignore the bit at the end about the pandas (or not, Graham is always good for a laugh), but the bit at the start with the dude in the box made me laugh out loud. If you are at all Whovian, watch and giggle:
Or, if your fandoms are otherwise, check out this Cheezburger post. It includes 10 quotes from favourite movies and TV shows that are all about picking yourself up, dusting yourself off and pushing on, even if times are tough. It’s cute and includes a couple of my favourites, namely the Dumbledore one and the one from my favourite fish, Dory. I quite regularly remind myself to ‘just keep swimming’!
(It’s possible that Dory isn’t my only favourite fish. I am also very, very, taken with Bruce the shark, but he is less cheerily encouraging and more terrifying. Although his stalwart efforts to treat fish as friends not food, in the face of his addiction, is admirable.)
Exhibit A, demonstrating both the fabulousness and terror of Bruce:
Hope your week is going well. Wish me luck with this scene and posts o’doom!
Tonight Twitterverse roared with outrage over Kendall Grey’s post on Authors for Life where she bemoans the fact that sometimes, publishing is hard. Grey spent four years writing and a great deal of money and effort promoting an urban fantasy trilogy; it tanked. She wrote an erotic novel she describes as a “piece of trash” in two months, spent much less in promotion and gave it much less effort, and that book made some decent money.
Recently, a disgruntled writer perpetrated a stunningly rude and unwise rant about writing on her unsuspecting readers. Many people (unsurprisingly) took it amiss. The wonderful Heidi Cullinan, though, wrote a balanced and sensible response which deserves reading by anyone who wants to make a living in this art form. Thought I'd share it with you.
I was going to have a rant. I read something about writing process that gave me the irrits, and I was going to have a rant.
But then I got to thinking (it’s my curse, being able to see things from both sides) and I decided that there was something in the advice, even though it irritated me, so I have been giving it some more, less ranty thought.
There will be a post in it, but in the meantime, the gist of what I wanted to say is:
Do what works for you.
If it’s writing like a mad thing, then editing at leisure, do that. If it’s writing at the kitchen table after everyone is in bed, do that. If it’s doing most of the work in your head, then writing the thing in almost one draft, do that. Whatever gets you to ‘the end’ and makes you happy with the result is what works for you and don’t let anyone tell you it’s wrong.
And now, in celebration of doing things your own way, my latest favourite musical group, Walk off the Earth, with a great a capella cover of Taylor Swift’s I Knew You Were Trouble.
I should have got onto them much earlier, as they were the ones responsible for this clever cover of possibly the most covered song in the history of the internet, Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know.
I was amused to discover this little more recent send-up, which made me like them even more:
And finally, perhaps the best example of my point, of doing it your own way, this great cover of the Beatles From Me to You.
There are a lot of armchair historians out there these days...which, don't get me wrong, I think is a good thing.
For one thing, it may mean that the publishers who seem to have given up on publishing history in favour of celebrity drool-fests might rethink their strategy and go back to publishing works by the likes of Charles Esdaile, Dominic Lieven, Andrew Roberts, Michael Broers and all these other fabulous authors I admire.
As those of you who keep up with my shenanigans will know, I have, of late, been locked deep in the writing cave* finishing a manuscript (a new romance which there will be more on soon, I hope). Consequently, my blogging has been somewhat neglected. This, in itself, is not that big a deal (well, it is, it’s slack, but I’m sure your wheels haven’t fallen off as a result). But what is a big deal is that, due to the locked-cave sitch, I FORGOT I WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE GUESTS ON THE BLOG THIS MONTH!
There’s no excuse. I have a little diary for the purpose of keeping up with the blog calendar and it is right next to my left elbow as I type this.
But in spite of its existence and extreme cuteness, I did it. I forgot. I think I mostly forgot is was April. Which, given it is my birthday month, is something of a worry
Now, I have left it too late this month to actually interview these authors, so I’ll have to do that another time (and I will, because they are all completely awesome). But in the meantime, the least I can do is introduce you to their books, because they are also extremely cool and you might just be in the market for some reading diversion. So, without further ado, may I introduce you to: Continue reading →
Today, the 25th of April in Australia we observe Anzac Day.
The recording above is of the Last Post, which is traditionally played at ANZAC day services. I took this recording from the Australian War Memorial page on The Last Post, where they explain its history and its role in funerals and other services marking the passing of service men and women.
ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and is an acronym that has its origins in WWI. It is particularly associated, in our national memory, with the terrible loss of life at Gallipoli in 1915. (If you would like to read more of the history and the modern-day memorials beautifully maintained by the locals on the Gallipoli Peninsula, see this site.)
But Anzac day is an opportunity to remember and honour all the men and women who died in the service of their country. Those who will not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. We honour their memories, not to glorify war, but lest we forget.
The verse above, familiar to anyone who has ever been to an Anzac Day service, is taken from a poem called ‘For the Fallen’, which was written by an English poet, Laurence Binyon, in 1914. It was written for England’s lost soldiers, but I reproduce it after the cut in full, as some of the imagery is beautiful and the terrible loss of war is something all countries share. Continue reading →
Did you ever design a gown for a real life Super-Hero?
It's nerve wracking, isn't it?
My 6th "Art Gown" goes out to Wendy Anderson who portrays Nealy Gone, a chronic wallflower, who at 50 years old embraces the heat and changes of menopause to become an ass-kicking Super Hero, The Hot Flash
My writer buddy Eleni Konstantine, invited me to visit her blog and said I could talk about whatever I liked (she’s a brave girl, Eleni).
So I got thinking about why I write Romance and I discovered a whole heap of new reasons and some surprisingly deep thoughts about why the world (not just me) needs Romance. If you’d like to read it the post is here (with bonus Foreigner music clip, if you’re old enough to remember).
