We now interrupt this protracted dry spell for an unscheduled LOLcat… there is no need to adjust your screen… this is only a test of the emergency blog post system…

I’m not a fan of blog commenting. Weird, right, since I (occasionally) write my own blog you’d think I’d be all about the feedback of others. Eh. Mostly I write this blog to keep myself honest and to (occasionally) entertain my friends.

If I happen to find myself in the position of commenting on someone else’s blog, I try to keep it positive even if I don’t happen to agree with the opinion. We need less haters in this world, dammit! To be totally honest most of the comments I make are in the lemming vein of  “me too! LOL!”

Erudite stuff, folks.

However, there are times (occasionally) I’ll read a post and it will get me thinking and then I feel like maybe a more verbose comment is appropriate. This morning I found myself at such a crossroad.

I was rolling through my daily blogs and landed on this one from Lani Diane Rich. It apparently struck a chord with me. And so without further ado, here is the rant I posted in response to this article by Sarah Bilston:

It never fails to stun me how much vitriol is spewed when the subject of women’s fiction is introduced – and that the angriest spewers are women themselves. 

I read and write romance novels and I stand by the genre as a legitimate and profitable wing of the publishing industry. I find it sad and ridiculous that so little respect is given to – or demanded by – the writers, readers and publishers of this juggernaut of a genre. No other single genre – including the much vaunted “legitimate literature” – rakes in as much cash as romance/women’s fiction. So what does this tell us? 

People like to be entertained. 

People like to be entertained with fun and frivolity because it gives them a chance to step out of their own lives for a time, out of their responsibilities and wondering if the next paycheck is going to cover the mortgage, car insurance, daycare, whatever. I , personally, get enough of that stress in my daily life and I don’t need it to be the focus of my entertainment. 

But maybe that’s just me. 

Am I saying that if a story doesn’t come with a happy ending it’s worthless? Of course not. Because that would be *ridiculous* and erroneous. We need all types of stories because we are all types of people – and it never hurts for us to step out of our comfort zones and check out someone else’s flavor of entertainment. That’s how we grow. That’s how I have a library built on the collected works of Shakespeare, the Brontes, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, Nora Roberts, Jennifer Crusie, Lani-Diane Rich, Anne Stuart, PJ Tracy, Dan Brown, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut – and those are just my keepers that I can rattle off the top of my head. I’ll pick up any book that sounds like it’s got the goods by way of story. Because the beauty is that I will likely learn *something* from the experience, even if that is simply this writer’s style is not my cuppa. 

As for Ms. Bilston’s “Americanization” of this particular novel, I have to say that that I’m actually more interested in this new altered version. I will be making the effort to find this and see if it lives up the hype. And if not, no harm no foul. I’m certainly no worse off for spending a few days reading a novel following one woman’s journey than I would be rereading Romeo & Juliet (the biggest, fattest anti-romance out there). 

Not all stories are created equal. Not all books released under the “literature” or the “romance” tags are worth the paper they’re printed on. In fact, the great majority of them are mediocre leaning into truly awful. Not all books released by renowned authors are of the same caliber. But if you don’t try, if you don’t open your eyes and mind to the endless possibilities available then you will miss the true gems that pop up. 

Closed minds are everyone’s loss.

Olivia Wilde as The Baroness

The Ballad of G.I. Joe.

And yes, that’s Alan Tudyk (xoxo), Ben Stiller, Julianne Moore, Henry Rollins, Olivia Wilde, and a whole bunch of other right minded folk. I haven’t seen anything this hilarious since Dr. Horrible. I kept expecting to see NPH roll through…

or at least SRSLY hamper any productivity I may aspire to.

Things You Wouldn’t Know If We Didn’t Blog Incessantly. Beyawesome.

So life threw me for a loop this last week – finding out about Blake, the Girl starting Kindergarden, doing a read through for one of my STC classmates - leading to getting absolutely no writing done. With any luck I’ll get back to the WIP today (fingers crossed).

Blake Snyder’s website has announced the Blake passed away this morning  Tuesday August 4th from cardiac arrest pulimary embolism.

I can’t really even begin to process this news. I just stopped by his blog literally after writing the previous post to insert the link… I am stunned.

I had the good fortune to take his 2 day workshop this last March. I learned SO much, from both Blake and my fellow students. One of the most prominent things I took from the experience was that writing isn’t rocket science, but you do have to LOVE what you’re doing or it won’t quite work. Watching Blake for those two days, I can tell you truly no one loved their job more than he did. It was, and still is, inspiring to me.

My heart goes out to his family and friends. If I am feeling the loss of him after only being a fan of his books and spending sixteen hours with him, I can only imagine what they are going through.

Blake will be sorely missed.

ETA: I’m sorry, it was just pointed out to me that Blake passed on August 4th, not today.

Friday morning. I got a good amount of work done last night. I didn’t actually *finish* the bones draft – yeah, yeah. However I took the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet which is 15 main beats and filled in all the blanks.

Blake’s contention is that in a 110 page script there are 15 beats/events that have to happen in a certain order and in certain places in order for the story to flow smoothly and for the movie-goer to get the payoff at the end. I love this type of stuff. I’m a paper pusher by trade and I generate spreadsheets and bullet-pointed lists like no one’s business, so this model is practically tailor made for me.

Once you get the 15 major beats in place, you fill in the other 25 or so scenes (Blake’s working on a 40 scene structure). Now my WIP is destined for a 15k word count, so I didn’t use all 40 spaces for scenes – no room. But I have a complete roadmap as of last night; filled in the last of the details.

It’s pretty exhilarating.

Now all I have to do is make the time to write this thing. Harder than it sounds, but I’m pretty motivated right now. I’ll let ya’ll know how it goes.

It’s Thursday, the last of my dedicated “me” nights. See on Tuesdays and Thursdays my mother-in-law watches my nubbins and the hubbin hauls them there and back – so I get an hour before work and one to two hours after work to wallow in glorious solitude.

It’s been a good run.

But as they say, “all good things come to an end.” On Monday the Girl starts Kindergarden, five days a week, and I will become the sole source of transportation. The Boy is also starting daycare two days a week so the hubbin will finally get his shot at Tuesdays and Thursdays of solitude. It’ll be good for him.

I’m going to miss it desperately.

So tonight is the night. I will come home, crack open a cider and get to work. The current WIP is pretty much blocked out in an expanded Blake Snyder Beat Sheet -I’ve taken the 15 main beats and broken it further into specific scenes. Feeling really strong about it right now.

I may just make it to that “end of the week” goal after all.

OK, I didn’t finish the bones draft. BUT I did finish the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet, so I have a very clear idea of where I’m headed.

I got distracted by rewriting the opening scene (SQUIRREL!). But it’s sooooooo much better now, if I do say so myself. And I do. Nyah.

I finished watching the first season of How I Met Your Mother – really fun show. Neil Patrick Harris is god. I’m glad I’m catching it now, where I can power through a bunch of episodes in a sitting. My brain’s become so scattered it’s hard for me to watch weekly installments of pretty much anything anymore. C’est la vie.

Aside from a weekend of solitude and an exceptionally clean house upon my return, the hubbin got me the series box set for Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Full of awesome and win. Now it can be all Buffy, all the time. Woot! I have a good hubbin. xoxo

But, first… the bones draft. New goal: bones finished by the end of the week.

It’s a new(ish) day (10:30 am), a new month (August 1), a new year (my birthday).

When my hubbin asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year I promptly responded, “A weekend of solitude.”

(Infodump Insert: every year I take a weekend or two [more if I can swing it] where I hie off to a hotel armed with a box of wine, bag of pretzels, and a stack of romance novels and sit on my ass doing NOTHING for two days. I highly recommend it.)

So here I am, in my hotel. But this year I have plans to actually do SOMETHING. I am going to finish the bones draft of my current WIP if it kills me. So why am I writing a blog post? Well, I could say as a warm up exercise (not untrue) but mostly to get publicly reacquainted with my WIP since I’ve ruthlessly ignored the poor thing for several weeks. So hang around and watch me gather my thoughts; if nothing else it should be good for a laugh.

Bones Draft. WTH is that? Well, Jenny Crusie refers to her first drafts as “don’t look down”– as in “get your ass across the rickety rope bridge it doesn’t have to be pretty you just need to get to the other side and if you look down you’ll fall to your death and likely won’t get back up and finish”. Or at least that’s my interpretation of what she’s explained in countless workshops and blog posts. Being that Ms. Cruise is an incredibly talented and successful author and I wouldn’t mind growing up to be her, as a good little fangirl I adopted the tag “DLD” for my first drafts. (The next one is the “truck draft” as in “if I get hit by a truck the MS is in good enough shape that it can go to print posthumously”. What isn’t to love about this woman?? I’ve never actually made it to my own “truck draft” which is the point for this whole weekend… but again I digress. SQUIRREL!) Unfortunately, “DLD” just felt like I was wearing someone else’s clothes.

Remember when I took the Blake Snyder Save the Cat! screenwriting workshop? And I decided to be a screenwriter? (SQUIRREL!) I discovered the screenplay layout is actually the perfect first draft layout (for me). See, it’s all about dialogue and brief directions and even briefer description. A screenplay assumes (quite rightly) that there will be a whole army of production guys and gals to realize the environment, so the writer doesn’t have to bother with anything more than the barest world establishment (in most cases). See I get stuck on the whole word craft and never make it to just blocking out the damn thing before going back in to dress it up…

So I’ve been working this particular WIP as a pseudo-screenplay for the bones draft. When that’s complete, I’ll go back for the “flesh draft”, get it? “Flesh and bones”. C’mon… it’s funny! Especially since this WIP is a vampire story…

See? This may seem like a lot of ramble, but this whole time I’ve been getting used to the keyboard of my new net book, slurping life giving coffee, and most importantly staring at my collage/mood board while listening to the playlist I made for this WIP. It’s actually helping quite a bit.

Want a peek at what’s in my head? Cool! The WIP is a paranormal romance, vampire flavor.

Logline:

A vampire hunter is charged with protecting a vampire from her own kind… and herself.

The Cast:

The Hero

The Heroine

I’m breaking some serious romance rules here because this story is ultimately the Hero’s. Sure, it’ll be written third person with POV from both Hero and Heroine… but the story begins and ends with the Hero’s arc. Hopefully this won’t bite me in the ass.

The Villain

The Villain's Henchman

The Chaotic Nuetral Patriarch

I’m sure these faces are recognizable to you. I tend to “cast” my characters with real people; actors are (obviously) the easiest. It helps me to focus more on who they are when I have a ready picture in my head… or on my bulletin board. A lot of writers pick images for their collages/mood boards the evoke feelings or mood rather than literal translation. I prefer the literal.

The Setting:

pretty...

LA

Alternate Near Future Los Angeles (I pulled these images off the web and I don’t have any credits for the photographers [Sorry!]. I desperately want a HUGE print of the red palm trees… I cannot express my love for it enough…)

Obviously, I’m not breaking any new ground here; vampires, near future LA, the stereotyped cast. But old ground can be reworked into fresh landscape. At its core this story is starcrossed lovers – Romeo & Juliet. But without the double suicide.

The Playlist:

Hey Pretty (Haunted – Poe)

Only Time (Pretty Hate Machine – Nine Inch Nails)

Cover Me (Born in the USA – Bruce Springsteen)

So Alive (Love and Rockets – Love and Rockets)

Soak Up The Sun (C’Mon C’Mon – Sheryl Crow)

Love Song for a Vampire (The Annie Lennox Collection – Annie Lennox)

(I Just) Died in Your Arms (Broadcast – Cutting Crew)

Relax Max (Swingin’ Miss D – Dinah Washington)

Need You Tonight (INXS: The Greatest Hits – INXS)

Promise (Horrorscope – Eve 6)

The Bad Touch (Hooray For Boobies – The Bloodhound Gang)

Devil Inside (INXS: The Greatest Hits – INXS)

Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing (Forever Blue – Chris Isaak)

In Demand (Texas: The Greatest Hits – Texas)

Sin (Pretty Hate Machine – Nine Inch Nails)

Hey Pretty (Bonus Track) (Haunted – Poe)

The playlist is liquid – it keeps changing. Mostly by adding. In fact, it occurs to me I need to hunt down my version of “Kiss” by Tom Jones and slip it in… Anyhoo. My personal musical range isn’t as broad as I would like it to be. I have a thing for listening to the same stuff over and over. I would go insane without Chris Isaak, Annie Lennox, Nine Inch Nails, and Eve 6. But then again, whoever said I was sane to begin with…

There you have it. The basics of my WIP. I’m about halfway through the bones draft. I’m hoping to complete that today and start the flesh draft tomorrow. Wish me luck. I’m going to need it.