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What’s your “bliss”?

By on May 24, 2010 in Random

Camping in May in New Hampshire is risky. You really don’t know what the weather will be like. Fortunately, we had beautiful weather. Or this would have been my last camping trip in May, but don’t tell my husband.

On Sunday we went on a long bike ride. And, if you couldn’t guess, camping in the White Mountains means that the bike trails will not be flat! Our first hill was a very looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong hill. Kids were crying. Calves were burning. Parents were begging encouraging.

And as my daugher said, “It feels like someone is slashing my legs with a knife. And then shoving red hot pokers on them. And then pouring lighter fluid on them and lighting them on fire. And then taking a machetti to them. (No, she’s not dramatic at all.)

On the way back to camp though, we had a loooooooooooooog downhill ride. The kids were calling the downhills “happy”. (reflecting their mood) And on this long downhill, they switched over to the word bliss. So all the way down, they kept calling out.

“Bliss!”

And then my daughter said, “I’m effervescing!” (Yeah, we like to read books and then use the harder words in our daily vocab. out of context.)

Riding uphill is extremely hard. Riding downhill – coasting – is a lot of fun. Let’s switch gears to writing. For me, I experience writing bliss when writing the emotional scenes on the first draft.

What part of the writing experience is “bliss” for you. Drafting? Outlining? Writing the first draft? Revising? Polishing? And I dare you to call out “Bliss” when you are feeling happy writing. (Or go crazy and make up your own word!)

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A rather much needed break from talking about crap.

By on May 5, 2010 in Random

I wanted to share something that was refreshing to my soul. And, um, this might have something to do with writing, or it might not.

So, kids today don’t play outside as much. They have short attention spans. All they want to do is play video games. Due to video games, they just want to watch violent movies. And forget sitting through an older movie that has dialogue with no blow ’em up scenes. And taking that one step further, forget the classic books with small print and rambling prose. They’ll never read it.

Well, take hope. I got out an old Disney movie from the libary. That Darn Cat. To tell the truth, I wasn’t sure if my kids would sit through it. After all, it doesn’t have any computer animation, special effects, or jokes about farting.

They sat through the whole movie, spell bound. It was filled with mystery. Humor. Suspense. Great clues. A hint of romance. Serious characters. Goofy characters. Serious moments. Funny moments.

Overall, I was encouraged.

Okay, and now, how that applies to writing. All those elements I listed up above – try and include those in your story. (Instead of crap.) (I just had to fit that in somehow.)

And I think I’m supposed to end my post with a questions. So, what’s your favorite old and classic Disney movie? I loved Herbie.

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Low expectations means better results.

By on April 26, 2010 in Random

On Friday nights, my husband and I practice an ancient ritual, passed through the generations. It’s called pizza and a movie. Totally secret, right?

Though lately, we’ve had a hard time finding movies we like. And I can’t decide if that’s because we’re getting older, or because the movies have headed south. Maybe both?

Well, he brought home this movie called, The Hangover – Rated R, and I totally don’t watch rated R movies anymore. But he insisted that he’d heard it was really good. (word of mouth) So I curled up on my couch, with a pepperoni slize in one hand, and my book in the other – ready to exit at the first sign of dumb dialogue. I mean, come on, The Hangover? How good can a movie be about a bunch of guys partying in Vegas for a bachelor party?

But (gasp) I stayed for the whole movie. I actually laughed out loud. Here are the factors that hooked me and I’m sure you’ll see the obvious relation to writing.

  •  Great character-specific dialogue that continually surprised me.
  • Enough backstory revealed that I cared about these guys and realized that they weren’t just a bunch of immature highschool wannabes.
  • Mystery revealed. The groom went missing. The movie was about solving this mystery – not about their partying. (Key point)
  • The stakes were high and things kept getting worse and worse.
  • The clue to solving the mystery was planted in the very beginning.
  • Great relationships between the four guys. Believable.
  • A suprising ending.
  • True character transformation in all of them.

Has a book or movie suprised you lately?

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Geez. Why didn’t I stick to plotting?

By on March 1, 2010 in Random

Sorry if you clicked over to find yet another post on the whole plotting vs pantzing debate. This post does not involve an intricate plotting system using Play-doh, pennies, and popsicle sticks that I invented to craft the perfect novel (even though I tried with no success).

But I am a plotter through and through. I outline. I take notes. I dream. And my creativity is at its best when I have an idea of where I am going. So, why didn’t I apply plotting  to real life? I must have had a lapse of judgement or maybe it was the cold, I don’t know.

We took the kids skiing this past week to a mountain we’d never skied before. I’m so used to going to a mountain that I know, arriving at the top, and choosing a random path.

Well, I hadn’t skied with my youngest cutie son in a while, so I mistakenly trusted my husband’s judgement about taking the chairlift to the top of the mountain on the first run. And, I didn’t plan.

Wise Hubbie:  “Why don’t we take a look at the trail map before we go down.”

Oh so foolish me: “Nah, we’ll just take a green (easy trail). No problem.”

I decided to take a trail “by the seat of my pants”. I mean, the trail was marked with a green circle. It should have stayed green the whole way down!

Part way down, the green changed to a blue square – a slightly steeper, harder trail not meant for beginners. I cheered my son on and then watched as his careful snowplowing and carving turned to sheer panic and he lost all control.

Thank God there were no trees. His skis slammed into a snowbank, his ski boots popped out, and he completed a flip worthy of Gold medalist Shaun White (almost). Then, he landed face down in the icy snow.

Tramautized and crying, it then took him an hour to get down the slopes.

Lesson learned. I’m sticking to plotting.

Do you find that how you approach your writing is a carry-over from how your approach life? Are you a plotter or a pantzer?

(My son is fine. A few scratches, but no emotional scars.)

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Benefits of having a giant crack in my trashcan lid.

By on February 10, 2010 in Random

I have many recently formed opinions on what I refer to as the Great Query Contradiction. But they’re still cooking in the pot known as my brain. 

I also have recently formed opinions on – you guessed it- the Giant Crack in my Trashcan Lid. (It’s not really a crack anymore. In fact, on the front left side, it’s more of a jagged hole.)

I do not have a sleek, smooth, urban, polished, Pottery Barn trashcan. (And any other adjective you can throw in there. Does Pottery Barn sell trashcans?)

I have a regular plastic trashcan. Off white. With a lid. Not a fancy lid, you know, the kind that flips inwards, so in case you are carrying trash or something like trash, it’s okay, you don’t have to worry about it all falling to the floor. And not the kind that you step on a pedal so the lid flips up. Very convenient modern inventions both of them.

But no, I have to manually lift up the lid of my trashcan with my hand. Yes, I know, prehistoric. Sometimes, with my hands full of, well, trash. I can trace it all back to the fact that I should have put a fancy trashcan on my wedding registry, but back then as a starry-eyed bride, I had many more interesting things to fantasize think about, than trashcans.

List of problems resulting from a manual trashcan lid.

1. When I lift up the lid, it often falls back behind the trashcan, causing an annoying crash, especially after the thousandth time.

2. To compensate for this lid malfunction, I push the trashcan up against the wall, so the lid doesn’t crash to the floor. But over the years, this has left a line of grime on my wall, which is fine if I never move the trashcan.

Okay, so the list is short. But, I’m the kind of person that adjusts to small annoying things instead of doing something smart – like buying a new trashcan.

Back to the crack. It started small. But then it grew. A small piece of it chipped off. Annoying. Yes. But then, a big chunk ripped off, and I knew I needed to buy a new trashcan. And I will, when I make the trip to Target 45 minutes away. But, I’ve adjusted again.

Benefits of having a jagged hole in your trashcan lid.

1. Most of the time, I don’t need to even open the lid anymore. I wipe off my kitchen table and flick the left over fruity Dynobites    Raisin Bran flakes into the hole. Kinda easy if you ask me. No pedal to push or lid to flip.

2. The lid is not hitting the wall as much anymore, leaving less grime.

3. The lid is not crashing to the floor as much, if at all.

When will I buy a new trashcan? I’m sure you don’t care.

And, I have no idea how to connect this blog post to my writing life. Any ideas? And what kind of trashcan do you have?

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