The Joy of Writing

I’d forgotten it. I wrote last night, and it felt like HOME. It’s definitely where I need to be. I had this book on my mind, the story I posted about last time, and I didn’t ask anything more about whether or not it was what I SHOULD be working on, I just wrote. Things flowed. I was at it for about an hour. Properly done, it could be a quality story.

What exactly is a quality story anyway? I guess I would have to say one that keeps the reader turning pages, and one that brings up emotions. It should be cathartic at the very least, but profound is always lovely.

Yea, that’s a long, far dream for me…

Writing Dilemma

OK, so WHAT do you do when you have a sort of weak story that you’ve been working on for many years, and you finally realize that the sequel you’ve developed for it is FAR more compelling than the original? My initial story was a romantic drama involving a doctor in training and her lover, who turns out to be a killer. I started it years back in a writing class from writers.com, but the more I wrote (her POV), the more I became enamored of the antagonist (the killer). My sequel envisions them after he is released from prison, and due to a complex situation, she shows up, and then things get REALLY messy which is the last thing he wants. This book has crime, politics, murder, infidelity, and a mystery in it, but what REALLY scares me is that it needs to be written in the his POV.

So how on earth does an unlikely housewife/mom/entrepreneur/woman of faith like me writer this ex-con?

And how on EARTH do I write the male perspective? Tips and suggestions are more than welcome, because I think I need to release the original tale and just go ahead with the sequel. (Hey I can always do a prequel, lol.)

Sorry

OK, I was pretty angry yesterday, so I apologize. Now, I have a new blog for posting mother hood stuff up and live, but my blog is STILL disabled, so I’m still not very happy, as I need it to be live to transfer the posts.

Monday there will be no time for writing, as there is work to be done, and this week will be hectic, as there are thank you cards to mail, regular Christmas cards (family, personal AND business) AND shopping to start. Plus at least 2 parties, if not 4, in the next few weekends, and while our tree is up it’s NOT decorated.

Much as I love Christmas, right now, with snow on the ground and the toasty warmth of my house, I’d rather be writiing…

Ticked

My host disabled my mom-blog, and I am PISSED as I have a lot to write this week. I’m switching to Wordpress, if I can figure it out, it’s not going to be easy. Did I mention that I’m PISSED, as they have not responded to my contacts? To get real spam blockers, I need to pay $150 for EE. Screw that! Arg…

Anyway, I thought I’d vent by critiquing some recemt film and TV viewing. I’m a student of all things fictional, and even bad TV writing can be educational. Besides, as a mom of two very little ones and an entrepreneur, I don’t really have time for much else. So let’s start with some scifi…

Invasion: This week’s episode pulled me in - I don’t always watch - and then turned me off. One of the main plotlines involved a Christian cop. Oh, WHY do they make Christians always look so LAME? or STUPID? or WEAK? or RIDICULOUS? As someone currently practicing Christianity and having been surrounded by it in one form or another my whole life (yes, Catholicism is Christianity), it ticks me off. Real Christians are anything but weak, it’s the hardest thing to do in the world and you need a LOT of strength of mind. OK, so that’s my tangent. But I ended by saying, “What sado-masochist wrote this episode???” The one-armed cop gets his arm back after being taken underwater by a glowing tentacled creature…made me think, Octavia Butler meets Cocoon. Not more than 2 scenes later, the sheriff (who’s an alien) talks the cop into, get this, CHAIN SAWING off his arm. Which you hear him actually doing - saw sounds and screaming.

UM, wouldn’t you PASS OUT????? Ok, I know it’s scifi, but a little realism please? Which brings me to the next error in writing by those fine folks at “House”. I totally love this show, but ERROR #1: you don’t get a pelvic exam alone in the room with the doctor, not even a female doc but most especially NOT with the young and cute Dr. Chase. It’s the law. And you don’t ERROR #2 get chummy with a hospital doc giving a pelvic. And hello, how long was in there that he told this woman his life story? I woudn’t like him, I’d be wondering when he was taking his hand OUT and where the hell the nurse was. This patient doesn’t pass out either. (Here, I would direct you to the entry in my blog about how I passed out during labor thanks to an extended pelvic and dehydration, but did I mention my other blog is still down?? grrr) And PLEASE, don’t do this, 6-different-POVs-oo-isn’t-this-exciting-directing? crap from a show that is already unique and has an anti-hero as the protagonist we all don’t know why we love.

On to films, I saw “Walk the Line”. Thanks to my years hangin’ in Greenwich Village, I’m a closet Johnny Cash fan so I was psyched, which was why it saddened me that this movie was a bit more hype than worth it. Joaquin is amazing, which is great considering he doesn’t look like Cash, except for this one EERIE scene at Thanksgiving dinner, when he stares at Robert Patrick and it really looked like Cash’s ghost possessed Phoenix for a moment. All the acting was amazing, and I would have liked it far better if I had seen it before “Ray”, which had (uncannily) much the same plot - a lost brother, drugs/sex/rock-n-roll, a woman who stands by your side even when she shouldn’t. So there was too much familiarity about it, but for what it’s worth, it was better in my opinion…”Ray” did not exactly END and that was annoying.

Tonight we decided to go for puff light movie, “Christmas with the Kranks”. It was sort of weird. Austin Pendleton was TOO creepy in this, I kept thinking “serial killer!” “child molester!” and that they’d end up ruing the day they invited this weird stranger. I didn’t believe that Tim Allen’s character would prefer the cruise so much he’d whine about it during the party. Then all of a sudden, it becomes mushy and attempts to acquire depth in the last 15 minutes. Yea, ok. Hey, guys, you have CREEPY neighbors…MOVE!

Tomorrow it’s Harry Potter 4, and Sunday night is a Christmas episode of “Dead Zone” (?). Oy, they are reaching…