Plugging Away

I'm plugging away on the writing front. I'm working on a rough (emphasis on rough) draft of a synopsis for my latest story. I've gotten more feedback on it and wrote out my goal list to have the first three chapters polished and a synopsis finished by WRW's Retreat (even though I'm still now sure if I can afford it—ugh!). But it's nice to have goals. Now it's just the sticking to them that is hard, which is why I'm telling all of you. I'm accountable not only to myself but to all those who are reading my blog. You have a right to taunt me if I don't do it. :)

Has anyone seen No Country for Old Men? It's one of those movies, at least for me, which I need to discuss with someone else who loves to pick apart movies and books. When I attended the Michael Hauge workshop on story structure, we talked about character growth in regards to identity and essence and two of five things you need to do to make your audience in tune with your main character. It did follow the structure of showing current situation and having something happen which creates a new situation, then a point of no return, climax, etc. But I'm wondering if the main character whose growth is chronicled is actually Sheriff Bell and not Llewelyn (Josh Brolin), whom I originally thought. Also, just before I fell asleep that night, I wondered if the theme of the movie was "the only thing certain in life is death." Because a few characters talked about certainty in regards to what occurs in life.

And can I say that there's nothing worse than a psychotic hitman with his own principles? Javier Bardem was SCARY.

Good Stuff

I really love this little book I mentioned in my comment to the previous blog: It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be by Paul Arden, a former Creative Director who now runs a film production company. There was one chapter in particular that stood out to me.

The Person Who Doesn't Make Mistakes Is Unlikely to Make Anything

It goes on to have a few quotes on making mistakes from those who know best and who learned best:

"I haven't failed, I've had 10,000 ideas that didn't work." —Benjamin Franklin

"Of the 200 light bulbs that didn't work, every failure told me something that I was able to incorporate into the next attempt." —Thomas Edison

"There is nothing that is a more certain sign of insanity than to do the same thing over and over and expect the results to be different."—Albert Einstein

Reading and learning about successful people who have made mistakes and still kept following the path to their goal is one way I cope with rejections and my own failures. As the Arden says in the opening pages of the book:

Your vision of where or who you want to be is the greatest asset you have. Without having a goal, it's difficult to score.

Fear Factor

This past weekend I attended a workshop through WRW. It was a fun and very helpful workshop by Denise McInery about using improve to spark your creativity and get to know your characters. But what really resounded with me is something Denise told us about a brainstorming session with a critique group. She said that during the session, many people kept saying, "yes, but ..." to her ideas. It was giving her affirmation and then taking it away at the same time. She didn't write for nearly two months, afraid that her ideas weren't good enough. She'd rewrite a paragraph over and over again because she was afraid that it still wasn't there yet. She said the best anyone can do for other writers is say "yes, and ..." which was part of an exercise we performed. Two simple words can help encourage someone and still add your valuable ideas to the pot. I have been struggling lately with rejections. I've gotten a lot of "yes, but ..." and now I realize why I've been avoiding putting the pen to the paper.

I'm scared.

I'm afraid that I don't have what it takes. I'm afraid that I'm going to fail again. This fear is paralyzing and annoying. But now that I recognize it, I can work to overcome it and change my perspective.

"Fail. Fail again. Fail better."—Samuel Beckett

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

A little late, I know. I had this whole dinner thing planned for my husband when he came home from work. And it took FOREVER for me to buy the food, prepare it, and then have everything served up (including me) in perfect timing for when he walked through the door. Honestly, I wouldn't get anything done if I had to cook huge meals every night. Luckily, I'm very adept at pushing microwave buttons. :P

In honor of Cupid's big day, I wanted to share some cool quotes that have to do with love or ... close enough:

"Death cannot stop true love; it can only delay it for a little while." —The Princess Bride

"The odds may be good, but the goods are odd." —(can't remember but love this one)

"A man in the house is worth two on the street." —Mae West (she was the original cool chick)

"Love is a battlefield." —Pat Benetar

"I'd rather spend a lifetime with you then to live all the ages of this world alone."—Lord of the Rings

"You have bewitched me, body and soul."—Pride and Prejudice

"A man falls in love through his eyes, a woman through her ears."—Woodrow Wyatt

"I feel like a million, but I'll take one at a time." —Mae West

"He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals. "—Benjamin Franklin

"There's nothing you can do that can't be done. Nothing you can sing that can't be sung .... All you need is love."—The Beatles

"Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses."—Dorothy Parker

"Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained."—William Blake

"Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth."—Benjamin Disraeli

"Anyone who marries for money earns every cent of it."—Anonymous

"Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be."—Robert Browning

"However far away, I will always love you."—The Cure

"I love that you get cold when it is 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."—When Harry Met Sally

Vacation Time ...

Just got back from an amazing trip to the Turks and Caicos, which comprises 40 islands and cays in the Caribbean located just south of the Bahamas and east of Cuba and Haiti. Only eight of these are inhabited. We stayed on Providenciales (Provo) which is home to the "Best Beach" as rated by Conde Nast magazine. The water is torquois and calm with an extensive reef surrounding the islands which you need to use a boat to get to. It's so hard to believe that just a few days ago I was baking in the sun and now there's ice on the ground surrounding my house. Ugh! We drove around the island and found beautiful coves and secluded beaches right out of Thornbirds or From Here to Eternity. We even got to meet the locals outside the resort when our rented Jeep broke down several times. They were the most considerate, pleasant people I've ever met. Several times, various islanders went out of their way to help us get our Jeep started and never asked for anything in return. We chartered a boat to take us to a private island for the day. My husband and I, along with another couple, explored the island where we found iguanas sunning themselves, hummingbirds flittering around, and small lizards scattering with each step we took like a scene from Jurassic Park. Though I received a scare in this paradise when we decided to cut across a lagoon, which looked only a couple feet deep. Midway across, we found it getting deeper and deeper until the water was up to my chest. The water was as clear as a swimming pool and the sand like baby powder below our feet, but there was a few large patches of seaweed directly in front of us where something was taking a siesta. As my friend turned around from near the shore, she exclaimed, "Something is moving towards you." I then replied, feeling my stomach rising to my throat, "Ah, are you serious? Because if you're joking, it's not funny." To which she said, "It's getting closer." I ran. Well, as fast as I could in chest-high water. My friend's husband stood still several feet behind me, deciding to air on the side of machoism. The "thing" (which by this time, according to my imagination, was one of those pod things from that Invasion show which was making its way to me to take over my body) swam past him. He said it was just a nurse shark, which has no teeth and therefore couldn't hurt me (or take over my body). For the moment, I was somewhat calm until the next day when he told me that he had told a small fib to keep me from totally freaking out--it was a tiger shark.

Though he did tell me that sharks don't bite people. No, they just give them sharp, pointy kisses.