I have become a terrible blogger

I have been a terrible blogger lately, and I promise, I'll write something real soon. But I've put everything else on hold right now to work on revising my novel.

Seems like revision just boils down to getting your hands dirty and doing.

(Oh, and I've revised half my book at this point. That's really exciting.)

Current Projects?

So, I wasn't sure what to write about this week. Plus, this post is already late.

As I mentioned, I've been really sick. So between work and sleeping, I haven't had time for anythign else. Being sick has not been productive for me. So I have nothing new to add to my revision talks. But I will say I'm about a month behind where I want to be with my novel. (Huh, look, that corresponds exactly with how long I've been sick.)

Of course, I've had new projects piled on to my already busy schedule. I've got my "Secret" Script Frenzy project - been keeping up with the research for that. I've got an idea buzzing around for two scripts (my ideal goal is to have three), and one of them I think I can add some personal "Katrina" symbolism too. I'm excited.

Then I've been gearing up for Script Frenzy. I'll be acting as Muncipal Leiason again this year. I love being the ML, and I love the SF community, so, again, much excitement. I'm working on coming up with exciting plans, but I haven't quite done that yet.

Since my last post, I did get to see Hugo. I really enjoyed the movie, but found it an odd interpertation of the book. Hugo is more about film history (and if you are a film buff, you'll absolutely love Hugo), than about the story. It's also really interesting Scorsese didn't utilize the images from the book, instead using his own vision.

Being sick has given me much time to catch up on lots of TV shows I've been missing, including all the of the series Face-Off. This also means that I've started a new hobby with special effects make-up. Totally unrelated to writing, but hey, so far it's been fun. I'm working toward getting back on track with my writing goals, so hopefully next week I'l have something relavant to post about!

Head Casting of our On Call Zombie

Showing and Tell - The Invention of Hugo Cabert

I'm going to start this off with an apology. This post is two weeks late, and I'm sorry. I've been really sick and am just starting to get on the mend. Please forgive my inconsistancies.

Working at a library gives me interesting insight into book popularity. I always know when a movie is based on a book, even when it doesn't seem as obvious. The movie Hugo is based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabert by Brian Selznick (something I didn't realize at first). I did not make it to the movie, but the popularity of Selznick's book meant you couldn't get a copy for three months. Well, the book finally came back without a reservation so I picked it up.

I read the book over the course of a day, and what I took from it (besides being a rather lovely story of a boy, some clocks, a famous filmmaker, and a mystery) was it was an ideal example of when to show and when to tell.

The adage "Show, don't tell" is know through out the writer world, and it's good advice. But sometimes, it can lead to pages of boring conversations about breakfast eating. It's better right?

Cause I'm showing, not telling? Well, sometimes telling is better.

Finding a balance between when to show and when to tell is difficult, but if you look at The Invention of Hugo Cabert, it can help figure out when the time is right.

How does Selznick's story do this? Well, over half the book is literally showing the story with illustrations. Between the illustrations bits of text are peppered, filling in the gaps between the story and the pictures, or just the dialogue the pictures can't communicate. The story doesn't reiterate the pictures with text, but rather uses the pictures to explain what the text cannot. It shows us the most important parts, and tells us the rest in a way that weaves a beautiful story.

Basically, the best parts of the book are very visual, while the less important, but still important, bits are explained. The scenes that Selznick chose to illustrate, the illustrated for a very particular reason. By looking at his choices, we can see why having those scenes visualized made the story more impactful. Then we can look at our stories, and see where we can show more and tell less, or where we can tell more and show less.