Visual Stimuli?

This weekend, I attended a lecture given by a director/scenic designer. As someone who spends a fair amount of time working on theater, I found it a very interesting discussion. One thing that really struck me was the extent to which the designer relied on visual stimuli. He poured over thousands of visuals until he found the ones that spoke to him. That's where he drew most of his inspiration from.

This took me somewhat by surprise. In hindsight, I guess it shouldn't have. Theater really is a very visual medium. Except, when I do it, I still don't approach it in that sort of visual way. I make spreadsheets and checklists. Maybe that's just me. I often prefer words to just a picture. Or music. I've mentioned before here how I like that for inspiration. I've just never thought of myself as highly visual.

Which was why I was surprised by how much I like Pinterset. It's a website where you can set up boards, like cork boards, and collect on them images that you like, that interest you, that inspire you. I heard about it ages ago, but I only got one recently after all of my friends proved to me how awesome it is. I must say, they had a point.

Pinterest is a great tool for people who like visual inspiration or even those who just like looking at pretty things. It's a great site, and I'd highly recommend it.

For more on getting the most out of Pinterest, I'd suggest reading Rachel Gardner's thoughts on the subject.

How do you feel about Pinterest? Do you enjoy visual stimuli?

Stats are Whack (and Wicked Helpful)

Once upon a time, I was discussing Miss Snitch with my dad, and I mentioned that two of the secondary male characters were dating each other. Now, I tend not to bring up my characters' personal business unless it's actually related to what they're doing, and in this case it was. But my dad's reaction was something along the lines of "Isn't that a bit much for YA?"

Me, I didn't think so. Because, near as I can tell, most teens have met LGBT people. There are LGBT people in the schools YA readers go to. Most teens are fans of LGBT celebrities. Some readers will be LGBT people. To boil this down: No, because LGBT people are a fact of life and thus are fit for books.

Once upon a time, in the fantastic play The Importance of Being Ernest by the utterly wonderful Oscar Wilde, "I don't know whether there is anything particularly exciting about the air in this particular part of Hertfordshire, but the number of engagements that go on seem to me to be considerably above the proper average that statistics have laid down for our guidance." This is very useful advice, even when one isn't trying to get engaged.

In life, the shadow (stats) move in response to the sun (people), but in fiction, if you want it to look like life, the the shadows of actual life need to tell us, as writers, where our suns should be pointing.

Hannah from Invincible Summer once posed the question: Why aren't there more characters like me?

This is a good question. Readers want to be able to recognize themselves in the books they read. But, if that's really going to happen, books have to reflect actual life with characters like actual people. That includes the statistical minorities. They exist in life, so why aren't they in the books?

I, for one, think sometimes I try so hard not to make every character in my book just like me that maybe I forget to make them like people. To include a little something for everyone. But it's definitely something I'm trying to work on. Because everyone reads books, so everyone should have someone to relate to in them. No one should be out there thinking, "Why aren't there characters like me?"

How do you feel about this? Do you let stats or your life experiences tell you how to make up your world? Do you have trouble finding characters like you?

All the Little Pieces

The other day, Melissa commented on my post Reblocking = Rethinking that "a great story is made up of X,000 perfect words in the perfect order." At the time, I thought that was quite brilliant. Last night, my family and I were watching our collective favorite Christmas movie, Love Actually, and I realized that the reason I love that movie is that it doesn't just have one, two, or three great moments. No, it has a ton of moments where I end up saying, "Oh, I love this part," or "this is such a good moment," or "ooh, I love this bit."

The truly great stories aren't one absolutely amazing bit. They're made up of x,ooo really good moments in a succession. For one fabulous moment, I'll read the book once and occasionally pick it up and flip right to that chapter. For a ton of good moments, I'll reread the entire book over and over again, because all of it's good and all of it feels worth it.

To sum up: You don't have to create a scene that is so absolutely fantastic that people read it and go, "oh, heavens to hopscotch, I'm never going to be that good - I should just give up." It's better to have a lot of little great moments over and over again. Tiny moments that tug at heart strings or inspire smiles and laughter or make me want to read that bit aloud to a friend total up to a book that moves someone, makes someone laugh every time they read it, and they want to give it to friends. 100 one-pointers is better than 1 ten-pointer.

Thoughts? Are there stories you love that are just a lot of good moments? What are you better at, little moments or big scenes?

October PSAs

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

One year, when I was in high school, one of the organizations put up signs that said, "Support Breast Cancer." I think we can all realize that they meant "Support Breast Cancer Research" but really it felt like one of those occasions when the jokes made themselves. "Really," my friends and I would say, "you want to support a disease that kills millions of women? Not sure we can get behind that."

Within two years, two women I love found lumps in their breasts. They're both better now, but it's scary. It's one of those things you don't think is going to happen to you or people you know. But it can, and early detection is incredibly helpful in the treatment and cure of cancer. So get mammograms and perform regular self-screenings. (Guys who might be reading this post, this goes for you too. A Y-chromosome does not except you from breast cancer. Sorry.) Combat breast cancer!

Or, as one friend used to say, "Save the ta-tas!"

October is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History Month.

While I could seize this opportunity to go discuss ad nauseum various members of the LGBT community who have done great things for history, culture, literature, etc, I won't. (Even though my love for Oscar Wilde knows few bounds). Instead, I want to link to this youtube channel.

This is the channel for the It Gets Better Project, which was started by Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller started in memory of Billy Lucas, who committed suicide at the age of 15 because of the sexual-orientation related bullying he endured.

It want to say this to anyone on this site enduring bullying and harassment right now. Life might suck right now. I remember when life sucked in high school. Trust me, I know what that harassment looks like and sounds like, and I know what it can do to a person. I also know it gets better. I think my friends who got harassed in high school would agree with me that it gets better. You'll go out in the world, and you'll find people who love you and accept you for you are. People who can love like that do exist. You've just got to hold on until you find them. Because it gets better, and you should be there to see it.

ASL Dance Music

Okay, I love dancing and dance music, and I have some sort of irrational fascination with ASL. So, all in all, this video made me super happy. Enjoy. :-)

On Talent and A Hecka Ton of Work

This is funny and interesting.

However, be warned, this does contain cursing (including an F-word). Probably a PG-13. Just clearing that up up front.

How To Win An Academy Award

The Must See Movie of the 2010.

Brillinace

I am kicking over to this rant, because I think it is genius. I couldn't have said it better myself.

Oh, the Interwebs

A while ago, I read a post on Roni Griffin's page about web presence. And, naturally, that got me thinking about, well, web presence.

I do not have a very large web presence. I feel secure enough in myself to admit that. ;-) This blog, this one right here, that you are looking at right now, this is my web presence. I don't twitter. I don't have another blog. I have a livejournal I created to look at something and now just links back to this blog. I don't have my own personal website. I am not splashed all over the Internet.

And, you know what, I am okay with that.

Because this blog takes time. Any form of web presence takes time. So, if I wanted to add anything else to the list of things I do on the Internet every day, I'd have to take some of that time away from here. I'm not okay with that.

See, even if I occasionally have a bad week or so, I like to think that I'm bringing my A-game to these posts. I don't want to write meaningless drivel that wastes your time and mine. And, something tells me, if I take up twittering, I might not have enough time and energy to give this my top notch stuff. Not okay.

That's my web presence.

How about you? What's your web presence? Big? Small? Are you considering changing its size? Why?

Some Things of That Might Interest

Stephanie Thorton is having a contest over at her blog. You outta go check that out, all.

An agent's thoughts on quoting rejection letters in a query.

Kiersten White has had an interesting Query Week. Definitely worth reading, even if you aren't querying at the moment.

The Intern shares some good marketing advice. Most of it, I think, applies to any time you have to sell youself, even in the blogosphere. Especially the advice about skydiving.

An FYI

Falen is having a contest over at her blog to celebrate making it to 50 followers. Why don't y'all go over and say congrats. :)

Again, But This Time In Song

One day, a friend told me that if I liked Harry Potter, I absolutely had to watch the Very Potter Musical. (I actually linked to it a while ago on the blog, if you want to watch. I recommend it.)

Well, the Very Potter Musical is a fan musical, but it's certainly not the only musical that's been based on a books. There's, of course, the incredibly famous Wicked which is based, though not too closely, on a book of the same name. There is also Little Women: The Musical, which I have previously mentioned on the blog, not to mention a musical based on Jekyll and Hyde.

While many people have opinions on books becoming movies, most people don't consider the possibility that their book might become a musical.

I'm not sure how I'd take something like that. I'd certainly be flattered to have someone express that sort of interest in anything I wrote, but on the other hand, I'm not sure how I'd react to the changes the creators would doubtless have to make to suit the medium. Though, I won't lie, I'd be interested to see what kind of songs my characters would get.

How would you feel about someone turning your work into a musical? How do you feel about musicals (or, you know, straight up plays) based on books?

To Give and Recieve

I just thought y'all might like to know, the lovely Miss Beth Revis is having a blog contest. I'd recommend going over and checking it out.

In other news, two very kind fellow bloggers were kind enough to think of me with the Over the Top Award. Thank you Piedmont Writer and Hatshepsut. Thank you both for thinking of me. I'm not going to post the answers to the questions again, but if you're interested in seeing 'em, you can click here.

Miss Ronni Griffin was kind enough to give me the Superior Scribbler Award. Thanks Ronni. :) Now, I'm not sure if I've got the rules quite right, but I believe I now pass this blog on to five other bloggers. Here goes:

1) Susan Mills of A Walk in My Shoes. (She's probably forgotten more interesting footwear than I'll ever see in my life.)
2) Lisa and Laura of Lisa and Laura Write fame.
3) L.T. Elliot who Dreams of Quills and Ink
4)Roni Griffin the premier * Fiction Groupie *
5) Miss Natalie Whipple in Between Fact and Fiction

Thanks, Thoughts, and Thunks

The very sweet Tiana Lei has given me the Over the Top Award. Thanks for thinking of me, Tiana. ^_^

The rules for this award are pretty simple. I need to answer the following questions with just one word and then pass it along.

(Just one word. That might just kill me. A training exercise in concision, then.)

Your Cell Phone? Battered
Your Hair? Long-ish
Your Mother? Charming
Your Father? Tall
Your Favorite Food? Pasta
Your Dream Last Night? Movie-inspired
Your Favorite Drink? Tea
Your Dream/Goal? Publication
What Room Are You In? Dungeon
Your Hobby? Reading
Your Fear? Isolation
Where Do You Want To Be In Six Years? Somewhere
Where Were You Last Night? Friends
Something That You Aren't? Expected
Muffins? Nope
Wish List Item? Books
Where Did You Grow Up? Pennsylvania
Last Thing You Did? Music
What Are You Wearing? Clothes
Your TV? None
Your Pets? None
Friends? Awesome
Your Life? Great
Your Mood? Anticipatory
Missing Someone? Nah
Vehicle? Feet
Something You Aren't Wearing? Hat
Your Favorite Store? Borders
Your Favorite Color? Alternates
When Was The Last Time You Laughed? Now
Last Time You Cried? Dunno
Your Best Friend? Awesome
One Place You Go To Over And Over Again? DoF
Facebook? Yep
Favorite Place To Eat? Home

I answered those in one word, and it didn't kill me. Who'd have thunk it? (And, yes, if you're wondering, it was hard.)

Anyway, it is my pleasure to pass this award along to:

Lady Glamis over at The Innocent Flower
Natalie Whipple who is Between Fact and Fiction
Kiersten White of Kiersten Writes
Susan Mills the footwear queen of A Walk in My Shoes
Lisa and Lauren, the dynamic duo of Lisa and Laura Write

Some Things of Interest

Here are a few happenings on the blogosphere:

Ms. Tana Lei is having a contest featuring books by Maureen Johnson. Go swing by and check it out.

Edittorent has some posts about Steam Punk. I'm not super familiar with the genre, so I found these informative, and I think they might be helpful for those interested in knowing more about it. (Click for posts 1, 2, and 3.)

Better Than Reality

It's strange fact of my life that, since I spend a lot of time with film majors, I'm involved in more than a few conversations about writing, script or novel. A while ago, my brother, who got involved in a friend's project, was discussing dialogue with me. According to him, his friend had a very interesting manner of speaking not common to most people. And, according to him, it showed in the script.

My brother told me that scripts should never sound the way people actually talk, because that's going to change. Instead, they should sound the way people wished they talked, because that wasn't going to change any time soon. The dialogue shouldn't mimic real life's; it should be better than it.

Now, I cannot believe I'm actually going to say this -- and if I thought there was even the vaguest chance he might read this post, I would never say it -- but I think my brother actually have gotten that one right.

To save myself the pain of having to concur with my brother, I will chose instead to quote Nathan Bradsford: "Don't write what real life sounds like; write better than real life."

If you're sitting there thinking, 'Wait, isn't that basically what her brother said?', yes, that is basically what he said. However, I'm willing to skip over that fact in my head. What can I say, that's how I roll.

Anyway, I must say, I believe that quote is quite true.

I know that the way I speak bears very little resemblance to the way a lot of people speak. I like the words 'quite' and 'rather.' I also try to avoid using the word 'like' out of the context of 'Oh, I like this cake very much. It is very delicious.' (When I was younger, my father used to charge me a quarter every time I messed that one up. He pulled that stunt on my friends as well. Believe me, you shape up fast when you cannot get a paragraph out without interruptions on a grammatical front.) I also tend to sarcasm and sentences that thrive on commas.

I also know that the way people speak isn't always the wittiest, funniest, or prettiest manner of speaking. I know I clean it up when I'm writing the dialogue for my stories. Gut feeling tells me dialogue writers for films must clean that up as well, though I don't know as much about that as I should.

This is, indeed, another concern for me, as I'm writing in first person. My narrator writes the way people talk, which isn't always the best thing. I don't just want her to sound like a real person. I want her to sound better than a real person.

How do you feel about realism in dialogue? How about in narration?

Just a Kiss

The ever unique Girl With One Eye had the interesting idea for people to post a kiss scene from their one of their books for the 21st. Normally, I don't post excerpts but today, I though, "Well, why not? Just this once."

So, without further ado, an excerpt from Miss Snitch.
------


“Have I said Happy New Year yet?” I whispered.

“No, I don’t think you have,” he answered with a smile.

“Well, Happy New Year, then,” I told him. Inside, we could hear people counting down to midnight. Ten … Nine … Eight… Our eyes met, and suddenly all there was was him, me, the moon and stars, and the sound of oncoming midnight. Three… Two… One… Happy New Year! I smiled at him. I wanted to speak, but somehow my voice didn’t seem to work anymore.

I don’t know what I expected, except that as we stood there, I prayed he wouldn’t back away.

He didn’t. Instead, he leaned in closer. We were almost chest to chest. I could feel his breath hot on my cheeks. And then it happened.

He kissed me.

It wasn’t a long kiss. At least, I don’t think it was. It felt like it lasted days, but it probably only lasted a few seconds. It wasn’t impassioned either, and I doubt it looked anything like a kiss from a movie.

Still, it felt like the whole universe, the instant his lips touched mine, dissolved into the two of us, and suddenly I couldn’t feel the cold anymore or hear the sounds from the party inside. Somewhere, deep, in the farthest recesses of my mind, one thought occurred. ‘Wow.’

Here's An Idea

So, last night, instead of sleeping, I listened to a youtube post of an old George Carlin stand up. Yes, I like George Carlin. I've said it before and had people not believe me, but it's true. I might not always agree with everything he says, but he's certainly good for a laugh. And if a guy can get me to laugh even as I disagree with him, then he's certainly funny. Even if I sometimes wonder if he kisses his mother with that mouth.

Anyway, he made an interesting point. When discussing kids and all the issues that they have, he said, "I think every day all children should have three hours of day dreaming. Just day dreaming. And you [adults] could use a little of it yourselves. Just sit at the window, stare at the clouds. It's good for you."

I, personally, concur. I don't think people spend enough time letting their minds wander and find ideas that wouldn't have occurred to them on their rational, linear thought stream. Did you know that research shows that people's minds are more active when daydreaming than when they're thinking linearly?

Kids don't day dream anymore. They're not learning how to have strange ideas. And what are we going to do when people forget how to hope for impossible things? That will be a sad day.

Me, I daydream. About a lot of stuff, really. Sometimes about stories I'd like to write some day. Sometimes about people I know and what we used to do together. Sometimes about things that are more fun than what I'm doing or not doing when I'm daydreaming. I love daydreaming.

How about you, are you pro-daydreaming? What do you daydream about?

Book Love

Inspired by yesterday's post over at Between Fact and Fiction to remember by high school required reading, I remembered some books I hated (**cough** Ethan Frome **cough**) but I also remember some that I really enjoyed.

Ender's Game. Anyone who's met me in person is groaning. Yes, I love that book. Yes, I reference it all the time. But, senior year, my English teacher gave us a Select-a-Quest option on our term paper to design our own book pairing and question, so I got to compare to Ender's GameThe Republic. Did the book feel different when I had to analyze certain components and think of it for literary value? Yes. Did I still love it? Yes. Because it was a choice, and because it was a book that a kid my age might actual choose to read of their own volition (which, let's face it, few school assigned books are).

Romeo and Juliet. The first time I read the play was for a class. And my teacher made it fun. True, we had to memorize passages and perform them for the class, but I'm a thespian, so I didn't mind that so much. And she only made us do that twice. Actually, my earliest memory of a close friend was his train wreck recitation of the prologue, so these recitations helped kids make friends. Instead of analyzing Act 5 in a paper, she let us perform it. Which, if you had kids in your class like I did, was hella fun. And there's something about a woman who looks like your grandma saying, "He's telling a sex joke. If you're confused, assume he's talking about sex," that just makes you know you're going to enjoy that unit.

The Odyssey. Long as heck, but my English teacher that year was a dream. She and I had a very similar sense of humor. Every act, we had to do a presentation. And, yes, these presentations did have to involve acting a scene out. But, if you're like me and you find zero budget productions to be absolutely hilarious, then you found that be to absolutely awesome. One guy, for the rest of the year, was known as "The Supple [Name Deleted to Preserve His Privacy]" because of the t-shirt he wore during his presentation. My teacher actually made it fun to work on.

What were some of your favorite books from the days of school assigned reading? How did the teachers make it good for you?

Even More Light Reading

It's beginning to dawn on me that people will never cease to be brilliant individuals who will say things that I wish I'd said first and say them better than I ever could.

• Kierstan White has a cute and very charming post about blogging persona and style.
• A fabulous post about Voice by Elana Johnson
• A post by Ms. White about translation and meaning.