Son of Linky-Linky
Jul. 23rd, 2006 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cleolindaWrote 3000 words last night without realizing it--I just started typing up ideas I'd had and before I knew it, I'd outlined most of the second half of the story. I'd been struggling with this idea that there are three characters on a journey who each have arcs--lest that sound totally pretentious, they are literally on a journey to somewhere. This is for the fantasy thing I'm writing, by the way--and they each gain something at the end. But I realized there was a slight distinction I was making--I was giving them rewards without actually having them earn it. How had each character actually changed, you know? It's sort of the difference between having a timid character shriek his way through a story and be rewarded for simply surviving vs. having that timid character find some courage inside himself and emerge a stronger person. I realized I was letting characters see too clearly too soon. Having them realize, "Oh, this is what I need to do" is going to clear up the problem too quickly. If I have them realize, "Oh, this is what I need to do, but... aw, hell, I really don't want to do that," we might have something to work with. Maybe they're not ready to change because of greed, or fear, or doubt, or physical weakness; it's different for each character, of course. So I went back through several different points and did some attitude corrections--"No, he's still got to be fairly uncooperative at this point. And drunk"--and I feel pretty good about the whole thing.
"Heaven Can Wait" star Jack Warden dies at 85. Awww, I loved him in While You Were Sleeping.
The new full trailer for The Fountain. It's amazing. I just keep watching it, and watching it...
New pictures: Scoop, The Ant Bully, Little Miss Sunshine, Casino Royale.
A status report on Neil Gaiman's roster of film adaptations.
Wrangler on a Snake:
This is the office of Jules Sylvester, Hollywood snake wrangler and behind-the-scenes star of the upcoming movie "Snakes on a Plane." A professional animal trainer for 27 years, Sylvester has done more than 330 movies, plus countless commercials and photo shoots. "Vermin wranglers is what we are," says the jovial 55-year-old herpetologist, owner of Reptile Rentals. "Everything nobody likes, we've got it."Radical Snake Action is, by the way, the name of my new imaginary band.
"My big criteria on this movie was do not hurt my snakes," says Sylvester, who names all his animals but then affectionately calls them "sweetheart." No snakes were injured during the production, he says but Jackson "flogged the snot" out of the rubber stand-ins.
Fear of Snakes Drove Primate Evolution, Scientist Says. Damn straight.
A fun twist on the anonymous hate meme: you can only express your rage and loathing as someone else's character. "Elmo's not in the mood for your moralizing bullshit, Big Bird."
Look at the rose... then read the description. Amazing. (Thanks, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
alpheratz!)
Late-breaking ETA: 'Pirates' salts away $321.7M over 17 days, remains #1.
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Date: 2006-07-23 07:20 pm (UTC)And if not, I'll make my own Academy Awards to give them. I canNOT wait for this movie. You can probably hear my squeeing from there.
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Date: 2006-07-23 07:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2006-07-23 07:25 pm (UTC)Not that I'm complaining.
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Date: 2006-07-23 07:27 pm (UTC)Congrats on your 3000 words! Pop yourself some champagne or other celabratory equivalent!
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Date: 2006-07-23 07:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 07:37 pm (UTC)And omfg, did that character hate-meme thing make me LAUGH.
I sooooo need that type of a release right now. Maybe I'll go post on there in character. Perhaps that will help me cope with all my 'drama'.
And speaking of crack-teh-F-up, check out the awesome post made yesterday by my dear bibliotech.
http://bibliotech.livejournal.com/448494.html
It's right along that line...
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Date: 2006-07-23 07:40 pm (UTC)The new full trailer for The Fountain. It's amazing. I just keep watching it, and watching it...
I am obsessed, yo. I can't freaking wait, it looks so fantastic.
That rose is pretty freaky. And now I kind of want white chocolate...
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Date: 2006-07-23 07:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2006-07-23 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 08:07 pm (UTC)L o L,
thanks you for pointing it out
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Date: 2006-07-23 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-23 08:33 pm (UTC)xoxxo ash
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Date: 2006-07-23 08:53 pm (UTC)Also, Cleo, a question for you--you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but I was wondering how you deal with writer's block. I used to write prolifically, and for months now I've just been feeling...stuck.
Obviously, if there's some top-secret Cleo method I can't be privy to, that's all right. :) But I do idolize you, and advice would be lovely.
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Date: 2006-07-23 11:16 pm (UTC)Sometimes, I feel like my creativity is tied to hormonal cycles, and there's usually a week in there I don't feel like doing shit (and it's not the week you'd think, either). There's another week when I usually feel extremely creative, so I try to make hay while the sun shines and not beat myself up too hard over the off week.
Other times, I feel like I write myself out and I feel kind of empty, even though there's more I'd like to say. I've come to believe that writers need a balance of input and output, so if you feel kind of empty, maybe you need stimulation--a book, a movie, something like that. Reading biographies (queens, mostly) often helps me. Something that's in the vein of what I'm trying to write also helps--partly because you can see what's already been done, and maybe play off that and go, "What if my characters did the opposite of that? What if..." and so on.
Sometimes it's a matter of confidence, which it sounds like it might be with you, if it's been several months. I have all kinds of old tricks for getting around that--I'd write on white printer paper, diagonally, in red ink, type in Arial font--anything I had to do to convince myself visually that whatever I was writing Did Not Count. It was just notes, you see. Not Real Writing that had to be Good. And I'd write--I still write, mostly--in sort of a sketchy present tense, like "She walks down the stairs, I don't know what she sees when she gets there--maybe So-and-So?" and kind of talk myself through it. Often I'll slip into proper narrative past tense after I've written a while. Other times, it just helps me to block out what I want to describe later.
(This is why I was so up a creek writing the 15M book, by the way, because you can't do Narrative Sketchy with humor.)
In what way do you feel blocked, though? You have ideas and feel uneasy about trying to write about them? You can't think of the ideas in the first place? You have your idea but you don't know where to go next?
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Date: 2006-07-23 09:22 pm (UTC)As for the chocolate roses, I've seen things like that before, but they still amaze me every time. How anyone could actually bear to eat them afterwards is beyond me. ;)
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Date: 2006-07-23 09:37 pm (UTC)The Fountain website, however, is so bad it actively pissed me off. It's just a series of lava-lamp-like screens with music playing. Now, me, I have a novel idea: how about putting the movie's release date on the official website, since... that's what 90% of people will be looking for.
Whereas I don't know what percent of the potential audience is hoping for a lava-lamp soundscape, but I'd have to guess it's around 0.0000000000000000001%.
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Date: 2006-07-23 11:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2006-07-23 10:01 pm (UTC)1) Yay for fantasy progress!
2) The character hate meme is the new best thing ever. I love it and will share it with others.
3) I think your new band name of Radical Snake Action beats mine, Robot Suicide. Shoot. Back to the drawing board.
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Date: 2006-07-23 10:23 pm (UTC)Also: CRAZY CHOCOLATE ROSE!
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Date: 2006-07-23 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 04:23 am (UTC)Damn, that's cold. And stupid.
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Date: 2006-07-24 04:29 am (UTC)-Good Omens: Terry Gilliam, who was originally asked to direct Stardust, is back on the project, though it is still in the early stages of development.
My gut reaction? YAY. But after a second thought, after how long this movie has been in Development Hell I can't even muster enough to be cautiously optimistic. :(
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Date: 2006-07-24 05:53 am (UTC)I'm just hoping THE ANT BULLY gets the entomology right. I *still* can't watch A BUG'S LIFE without throwing things at the screen and yelling "Just eat the $^^@#! grasshoppers! You're insectivores!" and "A baby ant?! Auuugh!"
Don't even get me started on CHARLOTTE'S WEB *g*
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Date: 2006-07-24 10:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-24 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-25 12:06 am (UTC)The graphic novel is really good if you don't mind spoilers.
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Date: 2006-07-25 12:17 am (UTC)I did hear that the graphic novel is a different version of the story--the original script which has since changed, so it doesn't *completely* give away the movie. At the same time--I keep hearing that the movie/story is going to Blow Your Mind, so I kind of want to see what happens in any version of it.
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Date: 2006-07-25 02:21 am (UTC)I've just discovered/realized that spiderman 3, shrek 3, and potc 3 are all coming out summer 07. And my head is spinning with 'what does this mean?' and 'what's going to happen?' and 'who's going to win?' and 'OMG justin better not screw up pirates!'. I would love to find some messageboard or lj comm that just shoots the shit and discusses that stuff, however, I have no idea where to look for one of those, since my pop culture expertise lies more in the socialite gossip blogs area than box office numbers. Do you have any recommendations for places that wouldn't mind a newbie?
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Date: 2006-07-28 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-28 01:31 am (UTC)