Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

Ugh, I just can't concentrate on anything the last couple of days. I've got tons of stuff to do, but I just can't make myself do any of it. I've got to work on CIaG chapter one, I've got lots of reviews that I owe people on OWW, I need to work on sending stuff out, and that's just the writing stuff.

Oh well, I'm spending the week out of town for work. Maybe staying in the hotel, there'll be fewer distractions.

I had a new thought regarding the beginning of Call It a Gift. Perhaps, instead of not being hired for a new job, I should start with Ginny being fired from her old job! I think that will better illustrate how it is her own behavior keeping her from keeping a job for more than a couple months. I'm also thinking that, if her boss for this one is a friend of Ginny's mother, and hired her on that basis, it will add even more emotional weight to Ginny's feelings of failure.

The other thing I need to work on though is how to introduce the weirdness of Ginny's early childhood (and her 'condition') earlier. I don't want it to come out of nowhere in the medicopter, but I'm not sure how else to introduce it without shoehorning it in with an internal monologue (which I'm trying to avoid in this piece.) Maybe the boss should have some awareness of it, and could work it into the firing conversation? But how to do that without making the boss seem too tactless?

Maybe the boss can make a simple oblique reference to it, (I know you had a hard childhood, etc.,) prompting Ginny to angrily deny that that has anything to do with it, then she finds herself without any other convenient excuses. Hmm...

On another note, I finished Harry Potter 5 last night. I liked it a lot in general. A couple minor things here and there bothered me, but on the whole, I was more than willing to forgive them based on the strength of the rest.

My comments server is down. *grumblegrumble* I wonder if I picked a good one. I hope it doesn't go down all the time.

Update: And of course I check again, two minutes later and it is back up, making me out to be a whiny, impatient brat. *think* Yeah, sounds about right.

Well, I've gotten a few crits of my revised CIaG chapter one now, and there seems to be a consensus that Ginny isn't really coming across as a complex, interesting character yet. That's a little disappointing, but I can't say that I blame anyone, I still feel a little that way myself.

It's so strange to me that, when I write, it really doesn't feel as though I create my characters as much as I meet, then get to know them. It feels like they are complete characters, pre-existing somewhere, and when they don't come across that way in my writing, it is because I don't know them very well yet.

I think that's where I'm at with Ginny right now, and that is also probably why I have been unable to make any progress on chapter two as yet. I feel like I have to keep pushing through iterations of chapter one until I get it right. I know that the only way I was able to finish 'Nina' was when I decided to stop going back and rewriting everything. I decided to just push on through and handle any problems later. But maybe that only worked because I had already gone through a dozen different rewrites of the first chapter. I had already gotten to know my protagonist.

*nods* That's what I have to do here. I started with a scene: "Young woman suddenly goes blind and deaf while driving on the highway." But I don't know who the girl is yet. Then, I rewrite, starting a little earlier, adding a few details, Ginny is now an acquaintance. I think that I have to go through the scene a couple more times, probing deeper each time, finding the next layer, until I know her as well as I know myself. (Though admittedly, that isn't always particularly well.)

I think what might also help is trying to stay away from the 'telling.' That isn't getting to know Ginny, that's me telling her what she thinks. Instead of speculating on what's in her head, I have to watch her carefully. Noting her body language, the way she speaks, the contents of the junk in her car, the work history on her resume. I have to approach her like a person that I want to know better, not like some golum that I can control by putting words in her head. Nina never listened to me about what she should do, and I think that is what made her such and enjoyable character to write about (and hopefully read about.)

So how do I do all that? Well, I guess I'll just keep poking at that chapter one until Ginny and I are on the same wavelength. Then maybe I can move on to chapter two.

But, just as a minor caveat to myself. Don't take too long! Beware of falling back into the endless rewrite trap. A perfect first chapter is worthless if you never write chapter two.

*Sigh* I haven't been doing very much writing in the last week or so, despite feeling the urge. Why? Well, part of it is that I've been reading a lot more recently. (btw, Red Thunder by John Varley is pretty good. I enjoyed it, even if I felt it lacked some of the emotional weight that I usually enjoy so much in his writing.)

But the extra reading is only part of it. A lot of it, I think, is my dilemmas about what to work on. I don't have anything submitted at the moment, and I feel like I should, but they aren't ready.

My rational side looks at the situation and says: "Well, the reasonable thing would be to go ahead and put one more coat of polish on them, send them out, then work on the new stuff while you are waiting to hear back about the others."

"Yes," agrees my emotional, creative side, "that would be the reasonable thing. But I don't wanna! I want to work on the new stuff! That would be the fun thing."

Unfortunately, so far, the conflict has meant that I'm stuck in the middle. Thus, I'm not doing the reasonable thing or the fun thing! Not to mention all the crits I owe. Ugh!

Anyway, just as a sort of status update:
Short Stories:

• Disconnected - Needs dramatic revisions, but it's emotionally charged and personal, thus tough to work on.
  
• vmpire Laundry - Needs one more coat of polish and perhaps a few minor revisions.
  
• Pool Rules - Needs a little more polish at least, and potentially needs more revisions. Also, consider sending out just the rules as a flash piece?
  
• The Hunger - Maybe a few tiny tweaks, but essentially ready.
  
• The Oven (working title) - Unwritten, but partially outlined and percolating.

Novels:

• Nina Kimberly the Merciless - One more good once-through draft, I think, to tighten and polish only. Note: too long for YA markets. Consider querying agents?
  
• Nina 2 - Unwritten, but partially outlined, lots of good ideas.
  
• Nina 3 - Unwritten, but have general plot idea.
  
• Call It A Gift - Chapter 1 is written, but may need a little more work before I go on. Or perhaps I should just forge ahead?

The headline is a slogan from a nifty T-shirt I saw over at The Onion, and I think it expresses perfectly (in satire of course), what I've been thinking about lately. A few days ago, I posted the reasons that I like Moulin Rouge so much.

But on that subject, I’m reminded of some of the user comments I saw on Amazon.com. It seems that there is a certain type of person who enjoys disliking things. Whenever two movies (or books, or songs, or whatever,) have any similarities at all, these people feel that preferring one must mean hating the other. Some examples, re: Chicago vs. Moulin Rouge (Capitals theirs!):

• Moulin Rouge was NOTHING compared to this movie!
  
• This is my opinion on the matter of Chicago(hated it), and the fact is, people: MOULIN ROUGE IS THE BETTER AND MORE APPEALING TO LOOK AT MOVIE!!
  
• Remember Chicago fans Moulin Rouge was the whole reason why Chicago was made and won Best Picture they honored the Best picture to Chicago because they didn't let MOULIN ROUGE WIN!
  
• After years of bad ones such as Evita and Moulin Rouge we finally got Chicago

Now, you already know that I love Moulin Rouge, but I really enjoyed Chicago too! I see Chicago more as pure entertainment, meant to be fun, with a few satirical jabs at media culture, but not more than that. On that level, it succeeds admirably. I saw it twice in the theater, rooted for it at the Oscars, and plan to buy it on DVD. Moulin Rouge on the other hand, I feel has more emotional weight.

But I like both! What’s wrong with that?

If you read through the other user reviews on Amazon, you’ll find many more comments like the ones above. And even those good-hearted-but-naïve souls who try to keep the peace do so by trying to explain that the movies really are quite different and therefore shouldn’t be compared.

Phhhtthht, I say. *pauses to wipe drool* Why not compare them? They are both musicals, uncommon enough these days, both set in the past, both featuring big-name actors doing their own singing and dancing, etc. There are a lot of similarities, so comparisons are inevitable.

My question then comes from people’s need to polarize the issues. Why can’t they say things like: ‘I like both in different ways’? or ‘I liked this one, but that one was even better.’? It’s like the alpha wolf, trying to put the smackdown on any challenges to their authority.

Of course, I don’t mean to dismiss the possibility that these people may have legitimately hated one and loved the other, but the type of comment I describe above is so common to all sorts of discussions that it makes this particular example (Moulin Rouge vs. Chicago) almost moot.

People are always dividing things into groups. Understandable. It’s human nature to categorize things. It’s a useful skill. And I’m not suggesting that we abandon all value judgements, but why does everything have to be black and white?

They are trying to digitize an analog world, baby! They’re breaking the rainbow into 16 million pieces, and all the king’s programmers and all the king’s IT professionals won’t be able to put it together again. The one's and the zero's need to re-discover one another and you know what? I'll bet they don't even know what thery were fighting about in the first place! Why can’t we all just get along?

...

Oh Lord, did I really just type that? I think I need a nap.

Hey, check this out. I saw it at The Drudge Report. Apparently, the US Air Force is developing laser weapons for fighter jets! Pretty neat, says I. Reminds me a little bit of Real Genius actually. Wonder if these are good for popcorn too?

Anyway, the best part of this article (I thought) was this:

The one unrealistic thing about the laser is the sound it makes. When fired, the simulator makes a noise that sounds a lot like a "Star Trek" phaser blast. In real life, the laser makes no noise at all.

"The problem is, pilots don't know when the weapon has fired if it doesn't make a noise," said Suzanne Baker, a software engineer who helped develop the system. "We got the noise for this one from Tactical Air Systems. I think they got it from 'Star Trek' or something, but I'm not sure. You'd think a bunch of nerds like us would know that."

Is that fun or what? ^_^

At work today, everyone was going to a training meeting that was supposed to be in a conference room across the building, but I was in the middle of a temperature study (I work in a lab), and couldn't go. Anyway, with everyone gone, I was sitting in the lab by myself with a tedious experiment, and I got a little bored. So I kinda started singing to myself, like in the shower or something. Nothing huge at first, just a few under-my-breath versions of tunes from "Chicago" and worship songs from church, with a few old songs from plays I was in when I was younger.

But since there was no one around, I decided to start singing a little louder. Pretty soon, I was belting them out with full projection from the diaphragm and everything.

Then my boss, (whom I'm on good terms with, thank God,) leans in the door and asks me to keep it down. They had moved the training session to the room right next door!

The one saving grace? She said that they had been enjoying it until I got so loud they couldn't hear the trainer.

*blush, sigh* Thank God for giving me a sense of humor about myself.

Over at Trey's blog, I saw a great list of questions to ask when writing a story. Apparently he got them from Rumor Mill where they were written by Paul Pence.

The idea is that you come up with a 'What If?' question, like say: "What if eating spinach really made you as strong as Popeye?" or "What if someone lost their job to their own clone?" Then you ask yourself these questions:

• What problem could this possibly cause a person?
  
• What kind of person would feel this problem more than anyone else in the world?
  
• What would make this problem the biggest thing that has ever happened to this person?
  
• How would I work to overcome this problem if I were in the same situation?
  
• What things keep this person from succeeding in overcoming the problem?
  
• With whom does this person interact so that we can discover the problem through action and dialogue?
  
• How do these other persons handle this problem and its resolution?
  
• What ultimate price or risk must the person face in order to finally overcome the problem?
  
• How does this struggle affect the person?

I've seen lists of this nature before, but these struck me as particularly significant today, because I'm currently mulling over the plot of my current WiP, Call It A Gift. I've got the situation, and a vague idea of what brought it about, but I'm still not entirely sure what happens next.

Not terribly worried though, that's how my last novel, Nina Kimberly the Merciless started too.

Okay then, it’s morning now, and I’m exhausted from being up too late. ^_^

Regardless, I’d like to return to the topic that I introduced last night.

To begin, allow me to spend a moment simply discussing what I love so much about Moulin Rouge, then I’ll address the issue of comparisons/competitions in a separate post.

Moulin Rouge is simply overflowing with style. Few movies are bold enough to be so up front, so insistent, largely because it makes any missteps all the more apparent, and it has the potential to turn a forgettable mediocrity into a laughable embarrassment. It takes courage to really stick your neck out on the line with such a dramatic, vivid, style. The sets, the costumes, the cut-cut-cut editing that usually I hate, but find perfectly appropriate here, the movie first knocks me off balance, then allows me to fall into its waiting arms.

From the very beginning, with its tiny, energetic conductor, Moulin Rouge lets you know that you aren’t in for a conventional film. Then, with frenetic cuts, hallucinations, loud music blending a dozen different songs into a lunatic tapestry, the movie casts a spell on me, and I sit watching with a huge grin on my face.

And I won’t spend too much time on the music here, but I found the blends of pop-music, so cheerfully anachronistic, to be a joy. Songs that I had heard on the radio, but never really listened to now had characters and context that I cared about, and it filled the previously trite (no offense to anyone here) romantic lyrics with a meaning that I had never seen there before.

Also, just as a brief note to those not already aware, there is a second volume of the soundtrack with more songs and the wonderful end-credits music on it. I highly recommend it to those of you who enjoyed the first volume.

For some, the first third of this movie is too much. So in-your-face that it becomes off-putting. *shrug* I can see that, I guess. To be sure, it’s a lot more that the general movie audience is used to. For me though, it almost perfectly mirrors Christian’s (Ewan McGregor) own first visit to the famous nightclub. It’s loud, confusing, a little scary, but also exiting, exhilarating and more than a little drugged-up. It’s a journey into a world he’s never seen before, and though it’s understandably disorienting, he is filled with the joy of discovery. His father warned him so strongly against this place that he is practically giddy at the prospect of finding out for himself. I love the energy in that first night at the club. I love how the rapid-fire cutting keeps me from getting a really good look at anything. There is so much to see, that to linger for more than a second on anything is to miss out on something else. I think it’s wonderful.

Then it progresses into a series of well-played misunderstandings, double-entendre's and slapstick. “It's quite long and I'd like you to be comfortable. It's quite modern what I do and it may feel a little strange at first, but I think, if you're open, then you might enjoy it.”

And of course, from there begins the love story. Even though she is essentially a prostitute, and even though it’s directly implied (but not shown,) that Satine (Nicole Kidman) and Christian sleep together, the love between them has a wonderfully innocent feel to it that I really enjoyed. So different from the oversexed sitcom romances that are so common on TV these days. The love-song medley is transcendent. I tell you this, up until that scene, I had been enjoying the movie a great deal, but when Christian sings: “We should be lovers, and that’s a fact!” the movie had finally solidified it’s grip on my heart. (Not to mention my total crush on Ewan McGregor.)

Then, inevitably, (we’re told in the first scene after all,) comes the tragic end.

***Spoiler Warning***




For me, it was made all the more tragic by their apparent success just before the end. I felt sure that the Duke, when trying to shoot Christian, was going to accidentally hit Satine instead. When Zidler punches him out and knocks the gun all the way to clink against the Eiffel Tower, I cheered. It seemed that love had indeed conquered all obstacles and that we were going to get a happy ending after all. Of course, I had forgotten about Satine’s illness.

During her final scene, my eyes begin to mist up, but it is after she dies, at Christian’s heartfelt cry of despair, that the tears really began to flow. That cry is not a macho actor faking out a couple of tears. It's not an angry scream disguised as sadness. It is the wordless, irrational, non-understanding despair of someone who, just when he felt the most happy he had ever been, now sees it all being taken away. It is despair. I saw this movie four times in the theater and cried every single time.

Just like classic tragedy, the characters were imperfect. Good, but with flaws that lead to their downfall. Satine’s history as a courtesan, Christian’s initial dishonesty (posing as a famous writer to impress her,) then both of them in hiding their love and lying to the duke. They were not perfect, and they paid a price, but the price by far surpassed what they deserved.

Of course, it is actually Satine’s illness that brings the tragic end, not the duke, but I believe the principle is the same. Call it fate, call it karma, call it God, (though I don’t believe God really works like this,) but Christian and Satine could not be allowed a happily ever after. However, they were allowed one perfect moment, and the forever reward of having known true love.

***End Spoilers***

I could go on and on. Did I mention that I like this movie? ^_^

But that’s essentially why Moulin Rouge is one of my all-time favorites.

Just as a point of ego, some of my other favorites include: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Amadeus, Never Cry Wolf, Casablanca, His Girl Friday, and Magnolia.

Maybe at some point, I’ll write about those too. If anyone has any interest.

*looks at watch* Gee, maybe I oughta get back to work...

Just got back from a nice pizza-and-movie night with a bunch of girls from my church. We put a "No Boys" sign on the door, painted our nails, chatted, and watched Moulin Rouge. Much fun was had by all... except of course for one poor girl who punctured her foot on a three-ring-binder being used for scrapbooking. Ouchie! :(

I love Moulin Rouge with a deep and abiding passion. It's one of my all-time favorites. I've got a little more to say about that, I think, and about the comparisons to Chicago. Why do people always seem to feel like they have to pick one to like and then dismiss the other as inferior? I like both! However, it is way too late for that level of commentary right now. I'll have to get back to it tomorrow.

Nighty-night!

If you do, you might want to check this out:

The Dullest Blog in the World

It was a while back, but Carol Bartholomew posted some interesting writing questions on her blog, though I think she got them from Chance and Jeremy

1. What do you all think is the one thing in your writing that you do that no one else on the planet can do like you? What is it that is unique about you?

Gee, a couple of years ago, I probably would have said my dialogue, but now that I've had more feed back through the OWW, I'd have to say that character is my strength, more specifically, showing character in interesting little ways, particularly with my secondary characters. Works for me. ^_^ Though I still like my dialogue too.

2. Pick one author (preferably published) who's work you admire. Now identify one characteristic that you think they do like no one else. Why?

I pick John Varley. What I really love about his writing is how all his characters are thoroughly unimpressed with all the wonders of technology around him, thus freeing them to focus on emotional issues instead.

3. What is the ability or trait, not necessarily attached to anyone else, that you would like to develop in your writing?

Hmm, that's a little tougher, to nail it down specifically, that is. Maybe the ability to work out plots in advance a little better. The way I write now, even if I try to outline, my characters always get in the way, forcing me to change everything. I don't want to stop listening to my characters, but it would be nice if I was able to use the character to work out the plot without having to actually write out each scene to see what happens.

You are blue. You are somewhat innocent, in the fact that your genius only extends to the physical world. You have a false sense of contentness. You are usually the quiet one, the genius. Everyone can count on you to help when they have problems, but you only fall short of being able to solve your own.

What inner color are you?

Quiz by Shirono

Well, they were a mixed bag. There were supposed to be three events. One was a magic show, which was aimed at little kids, but that's hardly a surprise, and it was actually pretty entertaining.

The 'Polyjuice Potion Competition' was just a costume contest, which would have been fine except they hadn't organized things nearly as well as they had for the magic show. It didn't get started until fifteen minutes late, and when you've got fifty eight-year-olds sitting in a Borders Books Cafe, waiting for something to start, fifteen minutes can be a long time!

There were a couple of really neat costumes though. One guy was dressed as Platform 9 and 3/4s. He was a brick wall with a sign, and he had rigged up clothes to look like someone had just run through the portal, and only their but and lower leg were still sticking out. And the employees themselves were pretty good too, especially one man dressed as Snape.

The third event was "Hogwarts, A History" which turned out to be a trivia contest. A pretty good selection of questions I thought, and it was really neat to see all these little kids raising their hands in unison to give their answer to: "What is a Hinkypink?" Not bad, but they could have used a microphone for the 'professor.'

But of course, the main event, at midnight, was the unveiling of the book itself. Given the number of people there, they handled everything exceptionally well, giving people 'tickets' as they arrived, then calling them up in groups based on the ticket number.

So I got mine, and boy, this sucker is a book! You could seriously wound someone with this thing.

Hmm, maybe I'm going to be on of those bloggers...

Anyway, today, I'm expecting the delivery of two DVDs from Amazon.com. The first: The New York City Ballet Workout, Volume 2, and Disney's Robin Hood!

The first is an experiment. I've always wanted to be a little more graceful, and I've definitely wanted to get into better shape. Maybe this could be one of those bird-stone thingies.

The second is a treasured favorite from my childhood. I remember staring, dreamy-eyed, at Robin, admiring his red fur, his handsome snout, his fine tail... ahem... maybe not. But even still, I remember watching that movie, simply enthralled. I haven't seen it in years, so I really looking forward to it.

Oodah-lolly, Oodah-lolly, Golly what a day!

Also, I'm looking forward to going to a Harry Potter release party tonight with a good friend of mine. I'm not dressing up or anything, though I am considering brushing my long, curly hair out into a bushy Hermione fringe. ^_^ Hope it'll be fun.

I'm not sure if I'll end up reading the book right away though. Currently I'm reading Red Thunder by John Varley, (One of my heroes!), and on my nightstand, I've also got Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer and Darwin's Children by Greg Bear, so I dont' know when I'll be able to get to Harry and Co.

Incidentally, I ordered Darwin's Children 'used' from Amazon.com and recieved a soft cover "Review Copy" that said "Not for Resale" on it. Personally, I don't care much, but is there sume organization I should report this to? Or is it a common practice that I just have never seen before?

Well, now I've got the comments feature up and running. That's a good thing.

Oh! Also, I made a Quiche last night for dinner! Why do I mention this? Well, because I'm fairly well proud of myself. Never made a quiche before. It always sounded vaguely scary, and I had never had the nerve to try one.

But on Tuesday, I was surfing through some recipe sites (trying to get back into a healthy diet, you know) and there it was. Crustless Quiche

So I bought all the stuff and did it. Turned out quite well too, if I do say so myself. Much yumminess.

Anyhow, the other reason I mention this, is because I just started my blog, and I have almost no posts as of yet. Got to build up a post-portfolio before I start spreadin' my name around. Right?

Right.

Wow!

Who would have ever thought that starting up a blog was so easy to do? Certainly not me, but it must be relatively easy, because here I am. No other explanation makes sense.

So anyway, I've been reading a lot about blogs recently, which progressed into reading some blogs recently, and finally to thinking of starting my own blog recently. ;)

I'm still new to all this, obviously, but what I plan to do on this blog is essentially just 'talk about stuff that I'm interested in.' Maybe do some amateur movie reviews, maybe a little brainstorming about my writing, along with discussion about any other shiny things that catch my eye.

Sounds like fun to me, I hope you think so too. ^_^

Though I still think 'blog' sounds like something you do after a few too many tequila shots.

Speaking of tequila shots, I heard of a neat new way to do them. Rather than using salt and lime, use cinnamon and orange. Good stuff, but as always with tequila, drink responsibly, like when you're at home all alone and won't embarrass yourself. ;)