Funny Friday

Hey guys,

Sorry I've been away from my blog for a little while. As I've been taking a break from my ms, I've been taking a break from blogging as well, which I think has been kinda healthy for me :-) Anyway, I wanted to do my funny commercial segment. As you know, I LOVE commercials. I think the brainstorming and writing for some of these commercials are just brilliant while others are an utter disaster and makes me cringe to think they received a nice fat check for such a lame idea. Commercials are a very interesting form of writing to me. You need to convey a message about a product or brand and you have to do most times in 30-60 seconds. And I will admit that creative and funny commercials ALWAYS get my attention. I remember their product and in a store, sometimes it could be the difference between choosing that product and a similar one next to it. So, here are some funny ones that have cracked me up. Just want to warn you that the 2nd one has some vulgar language in it, but it's actually what makes it very funny.

I FINISHED MY MS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woot Woot! So stoked.

On Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 10:33pm, I typed the words, The End. Man, what a good feeling that was. A little scary, but exciting. It was almost surreal..."What? I'm actually...done?" I started working on this story in January and as I went along, I had very reliable and smart BETA readers who helped me to make the story and writing that much stronger (though I'm still waiting for some feedback on some of the final chapters).

So now, I will try my best to leave it alone for at least a week (maybe two if I can handle it) and then start revsions. In the meantime, I am compiling a list in a special document entitled "Revisions". In this list I am typing out all the things I need to do. For the next week I'll be doing a lot of reading and researching on line about revision and the things I need to be thinking about as I prepare for the process. PLEASE...if you have suggestions about things you think I should think about in revisions, or things you do when you're in revision mode please share.

I will also be doing some research on outlining (I don't know how to do it for crap) because for my next novel I'll be writing, I want to have the whole thing plotted out before me. I'm very excited about that story, currrently titled, The Willow Elves, which will be a YA Romance Fantasy. I know the beginning middle and end, but I think having an outline will allow me to have better flow (and hopefully less bouts of struggle/writer's block) as I write the story. Also, I am writing the new story in 3rd person limited (I think, still debating if I'll do it in omniscient) which is different from my other written novels which are First person past and first person present.

So that's what I'm up to in terms of writing and I just HAD to share. I'm DONE!!!!!!! Woooooohooooooooooooo :-)

Movie Review Monday: Blood--The Last Vampire

Okay, as you can see from the trailer, this movie looks pretty damn awesome (if vampires, demons and kick ass fight scenes are your thing). The overall story line of the movie sucked me in. Film wise I got a sort of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon vibe from this movie, but with a much darker, YA feel. I like to think of this movie as Crouching Vampire, Hidden Demon, as it had some of the beauty and intensity of CTHD, but it was a hit and miss. In fact, the whole movie in every possible way was a hit and miss for me, starting with the fact that I didn't feel or understand the whole vampire component to the story other than Saya (the mc) sometimes drinks blood from a bottle provided to her by some dudes whose mission/hidden agenda I never really understood.

The effects: Sometimes the artistry of the effects and filming were so beautifully done and other times it was cheesy, fake and awkwardly angled. I don't mind the exaggerated blood type effects (something I actually love about the Kill Bill films), but there were times when the effects didn't look any better than those from the original 1981 version of Clash of the Titans. It was very strange to see these modern effects mixed with antiquated ones. It went back and forth from "cool" to "Boooooo." Disappointing.

The fight scenes: Some of them were great, others were so convoluted that I couldn't tell what the hell was happening. Things were flying through the air (body parts I'm assuming), but the weird angles and dark lighting made it hard to decipher what was happening at times. There was one scene that was so fake looking and so completely unrealistic that I laughed out loud. If it had been beautiful (like the fight scenes in the woods in CTHD), then I wouldn't have minded, but this scene (the one on the truck if you see the movie) was just plain silly and...dumb.

The acting: again, a hit and miss for me. Some of the actors did a nice job, including the main character, Saya, played by actress Gianna Jun. She was very believable in her role. Great with the sword and fight scenes (though I'm not sure how much was her vs. a stunt double). Her emotions felt authentic and therefore I connected to her and her character's situation. However, the secondary main character, Alice, played by Allison Miller baffled me. At times, she seemed to really know how to deliver a line and then there were moments where I cringed and wanted to scold her acting teachers/coach (if she even has one and if she doesn't, she needs one!). I won't blame her ENTIRELY (though mostly), because sometimes I think it was the quality of the script with cheesy lines like "Please be careful, Saya" after Saya had just slained over 100 demons and saved her life. The character who plays her father was also pretty disappointing, but then his character was your typical, overly strict high ranking military father, so there was no real depth to his character. The actress who played Onigen, the head Demon for whom Saya is seeking to kill to avenge the death of her father and mentor, played by Koyuki was actually pretty good, (also known for her role as Taka in The Last Samurai) and not hard on the eyes at all. She is so beautiful that I found myself mesmerized at times (no, I'm not gay...not that there's anything wrong with it :-))

Overall, I found the movie entertaining. The only thing that kept me invested to watch it to the end (because it wasn't the acting or special effects), was the story line/plot. It worked for me (for the most part) and I had to see what would happen to Saya and whether she would win. Which reminds me...the ending left me scratching my head. Very strange and awkward ending for me.

My rating system:

1=hated it, just wasted an hour and half of my life and I want it back damn it!
2=meh, not the worst I've ever seen, but I don't ever need to see it again
3=entertaining, maybe I'll watch it again when it comes to Netflix or cable
4=pretty awesome, I'll probably buy the DVD when it goes on sale
5=OMG, this film was kick ass awesome, it is pre-order from Amazon worthy, add to my list of favorites

I give Blood--The Last Vampire, a 3

Blogging--My New Insecurity

Good Day to you, whomever you may be that's actually reading this.

Last night I started preparing a post for today about my actual journey in writing and where I am at this point. But this morning I was reading a post on someone's blog about...well, about blogging. Yesterday another blog that I follow had posted about blogging as well and both of the topics seemed to focus on how to come up with topics for blogging and about blogging itself. 

Now, I'm a fairly new blogger. Never even heard of blogging or knew what it was until a few months ago. Crazy, right? Not really considering I'm not a facebooker or a tweeter. However, a good friend of mine from AW started one and it was awesome, but I was too overwhelmed and afraid to begin my own, even with her encouragement that I should do it. I'm not technologically savvy when it comes to the world of computers. I know how to do the things I need to do, but I scare easily when I can't figure something out. And then there's the little fact that I'm a SAHM with two, very attached, needy, can't-get-enough-of-mommy four year olds and I honestly didn't have the time to concentrate long enough to figure it out. 

Obviously, I eventually got my blog up and running, but I'm still trying to figure out all the millions of features that make the blog really come to life. I'm getting there, slowly, but surely and with the help of some of my other blogger friends (Thanks you guys, you know who you are! :-) ).  However, I have a new MAJOR problem. I have come to realize that blogging is making me incredibly insecure. Now, I was reading over at this other blog about blogging, a comment regarding comments. This person poses the question, "Are comments really an important part of blogging? If you're getting a lot of comments does that really mean you're getting a lot of readers?" They go on to say, "Explore the difference between a wide, general readership and a small, specific readership dedicated to commenting." I'm not quoting this person to counter what they are saying (which is why I'm not mentioning names), but only to explore my own feelings about this and my answer is, yes. I feel like it really is an important part of blogging. I mean, how do you know whether or not people are actually reading or interested in what you have to say if they don't leave comments. It seems an easier question to pose when someone is receiving anywhere from 30-50 comments on everything they blog about. Of course, I know that when people start blogging, it takes time to get a following. I get that. I really do.

This brings me to my next and biggest insecurity in the blogging world. Followers. You know that little box with people's pictures, photos, or  anonymous grey heads that tell you they've joined your blog because something you have written in one of your blogs really caught their eye or captured their interest and made them say, "Hmm, I think I'll join this person's blog because I have connected to this person in some way based on what they've said/written and I want more? 

Yeah. Ha. That's what I thought it meant to get a follower. Only, I've just recently discovered that sometimes this is the case and sometimes it's not. And from what I now know, the comments are the only way to differentiate those who follow because they are genuinely interested in what you have to say and those who follow because when you hit that "post a comment" button on THEIR blog, it automatically signs them up as a follower on yours. I didn't know you can even have that feature, but realized last night, that apparently, some people do. I even went to my features to figure out how they did that (not because I wanted to do that, I don't), but because I wanted to just know what button has to be pressed or what box has to be checked to make that happen. How did I discover this you ask? ( for those of you who didn't even know that can happen). Well, I posted on someone's blog last night. I had been a follower for a while, a reader, not a commenter, but last night I connected to their post and couldn't contain myself, and posted a comment. When I flipped back to my blog (which I check about 8,342 times per day, I'm an addicted newbie and insecure hahaha) low and behold, I saw that my follower number had gone up 1!!! Wooohooo. Yay! Now I have 23 followers (pathetic, I know. Not the number of followers, but that I would get so damn excited about it). So I look to see who it is and it happens to be the person I just posted to. Like literally, 4 seconds before. I really like this particular blogger and feel they have interesting stuff to offer (which is why I joined their blog in the first place), but at first I was like, wow, what a coincidence. I mean, here I am, posting for the first time on their blog (and hey, admit it...it feels soooooooo good when you see that comment number go up. Even more so than the follower number sometimes), and at the very same moment they just so happened...to...wait a minute. What is going on here? I check my comments on my last few posts and don't see the number has gone up. Hmm....are you thinking what I am? Yeah. It was an automatic something-a-rather that happened. This person is in no way following me because of something I said or wrote or thought (although maybe they will in the future, who knows), but because I hit the post button on their blog.    

And now back to being a Follower (which is totally related imo to being a commenter) As a new blogger (and maybe for some of the older ones), that "Follow Box" has become like my own personal "Security Box." The more that "follow" number jumps up, the more secure I feel. (and of course this ties in with number of comments) The longer those numbers stay stagnant and no one seems interested in following my blog or has anything to say, the more insecure I feel. Now, I'm not saying this because I want everyone to say, "Oh, poor, poor, Melanie. Let's follow her blog, so she can feel less insecure." (Okay, I mean if you really want to join on that basis, I guess I'll take what I can get.  Hahaha, jking...Or am I? No. I definitely am.). But the fact is, when I go to someone's blog and see they have 6 hundred followers, or 1,500 followers or 3,000 plus followers, my brain immediately goes, OMFG, Wow! 3 thousand people are interested in what this person has to say? Okay, granted, this person could have been blogging for ten years already. Or perhaps they have a lot of followers because they are a published author and therefore other writers trust what this person has to say and believes they can walk away with something helpful towards their own dream to become published. Some of these blogs are people who work in the industry and what writer wouldn't want to read and know anything and everything this person has to say? 

I realize this is something that I need to get over. It's something within ME because face it, blogging is a bit narcissistic. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I have learned so, so, so much since I've entered the world of blogging. Things that are greatly helping me to improve in this craft in so many different ways. This morning, I had a fleeting moment of quitting my blog and saying F@@K it, but then I realized that it wouldn't be fair because I do have some people who are following my blog and commenting because they do care about what I have to say or share. So, I will continue to blog, continue to read blogs and continue to try and get over my blogging insecurities and remember the real reason I began blogging in the first place: To chronicle my journey through the writing to published process.

ETA: Just want to re-iterate that I didn't write this blog for sympathy, but for the sole purpose to share with you my feelings about blogging and how it's made me a wee bit insecure. And for the record, I'm not generally an insecure person. I think it's just the fact that I'm very new in this writing business and simultaneously new in the blogging business and I think feeling a bit insecure comes with the territory. I'm just thinking that maybe there are others who feel this way, and wanted to let you know, you are so not alone.

Tuesday's Temtping Teaser #4

This is shorter than my other teasers, but I thought this was a perfect piece to share since it gives you a real feel and understanding for my MC, Sam, and why she is the way she is: tough, guarded, and untrusting. When I first started writing this story and came up with the idea of her power being telepathy, I was very excited with the possibilities of what that can mean for someone. Being able to read thoughts? How cool is that? I mean all powers are cool in one way or another, but as I began to write her story, I realized that if there is good to having these powers then there must also be bad and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that being a teenager and having the ability to hear other teenage thoughts, might actually be quite horrible because the inner minds of people is where the real truth lies and we (us regular, POPless humans :) ) don't have access to people's inner truths. And honestly, after getting to know Sam, I feel really bad for her and I would never wish myself to be a telepath. However, this scene also shows why Sam and Josh (who is also a telepath) have become so close and why she has let her guard down for him.

Entering my room, I shut the door behind me and fling my brand new journal across the room like a Frisbee. It flies through the air, ricochets off the wall and lands on the bed with a soft thud. Not my bed. The bed that is unoccupied by a roommate I never have. The staff got tired of hearing them complain that I was always in their head, responding to things they were privately thinking. Of course I did it on purpose.

And it worked.

Suckers.

            I like being on my own. I’m used to it. I’m not here to make lifelong friends—well, except for Josh maybe. I’ve tried several times to have meaningful friendships, but they never seem to work out—at least not for too long. Being friends with someone when you’re a telepath is no easy task. It’s astounding how superficial people can be to your face. Including the ones you believe to be your truest friends.

"Hi Sam, how are you? I love your shirt." As if she could afford it. She probably shoplifted it.

"Hey, Sam, you look so pretty today." Skinny ass bitch. I bet she pukes up everything she eats.

"Sam, I was wondering if you’d like to come to my birthday barbeque next week?" Please say no. Please say no. God, I can’t believe my mother’s making me invite her. Just because our mothers are friends doesn’t mean we have to be. POP freak."

 Sometimes I’m not sure which is better: knowing what people are thinking or not knowing.

At least with Josh the friendship is on even ground. There’s no hiding and no faking with each other. To think it is to say it. There’s a strange sort of comfort in that—a sincerity that I’ve never found with anyone else.

Writer's Brain

Wow, I've come to realize that I now have writer's brain. It's not like Mommy's brain in which you can actually feel your neurons dissipating from your brain and oozing out your ears every time you sit down with your young children to play Candyland or Chutes and Ladders for the 4,587th time...that day. No, I'm talking about the kind of brain where the wheels are turning...NON STOP. Ever since I started writing, which is really not that long ago, everything around me flashes through my head as a story idea. Sometimes it's a fleeting idea. You know, like when you have a sudden memory/vision of something you're sure you dreamt about, but the more you try to pull the info out of your memory, the faster it fades away and then you can't remember crap? (Okay, so maybe that's due to mommy brain? Or maybe it was that time in college when someone told me to put that tiny little square piece of paper on my tongue, let it dissolve, and listen to The Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cd. Hmm...)

So, what was I saying? Oh yeah. Everything lately is becoming a story. Sometimes it's the weirdest thing that happens or occurs or that I see and I think, "that could make an interesting premise." Immediately my brain starts trying to puzzle things together. Yeah, yeah and then this could happen. Oh! And this could happen to cause this to happen, which in turn...makes...no wait. Okay, so this happens to this persona and then...that person...ummm...Wait...shit. Forget it. It's like those dreams. The ones you can't quite grasp the memory of. It's there one second, but the harder you try to make sense of it, picture it and put it together the faster it's gone.


That's kind of the process my brain goes through when I have these strange fleeting ideas, but they happen all the time. Once in a while I'll get one where the pieces are actually fitting together and those ideas go in my notebook with a quick summary of the overall premise. But most times I walk around and I swear people must think I'm a complete wackadoo. I talk to myself in the car, I'll tell someone to hold on in mid-conversation so I can try and complete a sudden thought/idea, or I'll momentarily blank out when someone is talking to me on the phone. You know, when your friend is on the other line and you know they're talking, but you've just thought about an idea for a story based on something they said and you quickly realize that you've just said "Mm hmm" but don't even know if it's a proper response to what they just said?

It's a little frustrating to be honest. Having all these ideas and momentary story thoughts floating around constantly in my head. Hell, they even come to me in my dreams. I got a complete YA Scifi novel idea based on a futuristic structure I dreamt about. At two in the morning, I took out my notebook in my nightstand and tried to draw the picture of what I saw so I wouldn't forget it.

What's my point of this post? I don't know. I ramble. Wait a minute. Hold on...no never mind. See it just happened. Some weird twisted thought for a story about people who blog that somehow turns into a murder mystery/thriller.

Does anyone else out there have writer's brain? Please tell me I'm not the only one with this bizarre condition (even though it can be a great thing to have, when a great idea sticks)