Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 301

Whimper

That whimpering sound you heard yesterday would have been me. After finally figuring out the way the scene was supposed to go, I still couldn't seem to write it. I seemed to come up with every procrastination method in the book. I finally decided to just go back and re-read what came before to build up to it. And then I realized that the real problem with the scene was that I hadn't actually set it up. It was just happening out of the blue for no good reason, with no sense of cause and effect. I

Reasonable Insanity

If there was ever any wonder why writers can be so insane, my day yesterday would thoroughly explain it.

There's a scene I've been wrestling with for days. I wrote it, then realized after I wrote it that it was dull and needed to go a different direction. I had a vague idea of what it needed, but I needed specifics in order to write it, and then I could think of two vastly different ways to go with the specifics. I spent most of the weekend going back and forth on which way to go with it, then ye

Exploring

After a rainy Saturday, we've had absolutely spectacular weather -- sunny, not muggy, cool in the morning and warm but not hot in the afternoon. It actually feels more like my ideal October than May, so I know my body will be whimpering when it gets hotter instead of cooler, but I'll take it while I can get it. I took advantage of it yesterday to go on a very long walk. I'd heard that they'd finally opened up the link between my neighborhood and the riverside hike/bike trails, so I headed out to

Okay, So Maybe I Was Wrong

So, I went with my best buds to see Star Trek today, and I have to admit I really liked it. I still have a few reservations, but if I detach myself from what I know about Star Trek and just look at it as a space-adventure movie, I did enjoy it, and when I allowed myself to retain a bit of my inner geekiness without the nitpicky part, I thoroughly enjoyed all the in-jokes. The wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff wiped out most of the "Muppet Babies" issues, aside from Chekov, and messing with the ti

Thursday Thoughts

A list of random things in no particular order, since I have no coherent theme for the day:

1) I wasn't nearly as productive yesterday, but I did have choir practice. I tried to work some after choir but hit a brick wall.

2) It turns out that was for the good because while in the shower post-brick wall, I realized I was taking a totally wrong approach to the part I was writing, and if I'd forced myself to write more, it would have been wasted time because it all would have been deleted.

3) This is

Happy Endings

I was so very good yesterday -- wrote nearly 5,000 words. Now that I'm done tinkering with the beginning, I may start making real progress.

The last writing question I was asked was about how to finish a book. I already dealt with how to write to "The End." The other side of that question is how to go about ending a book. I don't know that I'd call myself an expert, other than that I have actually ended a number of books. These are just some of my thoughts on the matter and are by no means defini

From Book to Screen

I'm really proud of myself. Not only did I get tons of work done yesterday, but I did it all while at my desk with the computer connected to the Internet. I still ended up in the hole, as I cut more than I wrote (and I wrote a lot), but it's still progress if it's closer to the finished book, right?

I mentioned a while back that I'd made myself watch all of the movie PS I Love You because the screenwriter who's adapting Enchanted, Inc. did that movie. Last week, I read the book so I could get a s

Lurking Ideas

I may have to reconsider my Star Trek stance, given the overwhelmingly positive pro reviews as well as the opinions of just about everyone I know. I've been wanting a good space adventure, and maybe I can overcome my personal biases enough to distance myself from the original and enjoy the new version. I could make that my reward for a week of good work -- if I'm ahead of my target goal, I can see the early bird show at the neighborhood theater on Friday.

Speaking of work, although it's incredibl

Girlfriends Cyber Circuit Presents Lucienne Diver

Last night my quest in ballet was to hold my arms correctly, something I usually fail to do and which takes great effort and thought. That left my upper arms achy in such a way that it feels like someone is grabbing me. And that meant lots of freaky nightmares about being grabbed -- made even freakier by waking up and still feeling like I was being grabbed, so that there was a brief moment of panic before I verified that I simply had sore muscles.

Meanwhile, now that I've rewritten parts of the f

Losing My Geek Cred

Thanks for all the fun science fiction recommendations. That may help me come up with good summer reading. Really, right now "fun" isn't too popular in the publishing world. "Dark and dangerous" are the buzzwords. Romantic comedy and chick lit are pretty much dead except for a few authors -- and even there the chick-lit-like books are mostly about what happens after marriages fall apart. The cover blurbs all seem to go along the lines of "Mary Sue thought she had the perfect marriage, until she