How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

When "The Boys of Summer" by Don Henley first came out, about a hundred and fifty years ago, because I am old , people, I didn't really like it. Perhaps it was because I was a teenager at the time and didn't want to think about the melancholy idea of losing love or the regret you can feel at the end of summer (both actually and metaphorically). Perhaps it was because I was a proto-goth and "The Boys of Summer" wasn't melancholy enough for me. Perhaps it was because the song was on the radio ALL THE DAMN TIME, so much so that I had learned all the words, even though I didn't like the song.* Now, though, I sort of love the song. Don Henley is, simply put, a phenomenal song writer, and "The Boys of Summer" is a perfect example of that. Of course, he's famous for a bunch of songs he wrote or co-wrote for The Eagles,** but the thing that's fantastic about "The Boys of Summer" is that it doesn't sound anything like an E...

Agent Nathan Bransford posted a blog entry recently about figuring out what your characters want , and I have to say that this is the thing that I find lacking in a lot of things I read, especially YA. Because there are so many conflicts inherent in a teenager's every day life -- school demands, and cliques, and parental demands, and Big Emotional Milestones -- sometimes what the characters actually want gets lost in the noise of the plot and doesn't come across clearly. But it's not enough for things to happen to a character--the character has to want certain things and try to make certain things happen, and then react when they do (or don't). Since I'm at the beginning of about seven SQUILLION projects right now, I'm figuring out what motivates my characters. This always happens for me in layers, like so*: 1. The superficial motivation. When I first find a character, I already know something of what motivates him or her. That's how they come to me. ...

Colleen Lindsay has a post here about lessons to be learned from Dollhouse, namely, you can't wait too long to hook your reader, which makes sense and is true, but is not what I want to talk about here. Dollhouse is only an okay show. There, I said it. I've seen all the episodes thus far, and Whedon is right--the show did take a huge leap forward when we got to episode six, which was the first episode he really had a hand in (blah blah, compromises with the network, blah blah), but for me it still suffers from the same fundamental problem that it did when it started, namely this: I am not in love with any of the characters. I'm not talking about having a "crush" on a character (CALL ME, TIM RIGGINS), I'm talking about being in love. Like, on Friday Night Lights, I love Tim Riggins ( obviously ), but I also love Tammy and Eric Taylor, and their daughter Julie, and Tyra (OMG, I heart Tyra), and Matt Saracen, and even, sort of Buddy Garrity, God help me. The...

1. I saw the ABC Comedy Better Off Ted last week while I was in Washington D.C., and it was pretty good. I will put it on my DVR list and see if I still like it a month from now. 2. I also saw Chuck again for the first time in months last week and, is it just me or is this the same show every week? Seriously, NOTHING has changed in six months? He still freaks out about spy stuff, he still thinks Sarah is hot, he's still nice to his sister,* he's still able to know stuff from the computer in his head, and he's still jealous of his former college roommate the spy. There's consistency and then there's "isn't this a re-run?" 3. There's talk that Friday Night Lights may get picked up for another season. I'm of two minds about this news. On one hand, YAY, because FNL is an amazing show (and the third season shows no signs of letting up on that). On the other hand, hmm, because some of the characters are graduating from high school** and,...

The last few days I've been traveling for work, which usually leaves me with ample time to write (thank you, Transportation Security Administration!), but I haven't been. And it's not because I'm having trouble with a project. I'm not. I have the TNP in first draft that I could restructure. I have the SENP, which I am totally in love with right now. And, to make matters worse, I just got another idea while watching the airport CNN network,* which I think is ripe with possibility. (Let's call it RWP, for now.) In other words, my cup runneth over with stuff I would really enjoy writing.** So why am I not doing it? Why am I procrastinating? I don't know. It could be any one of a number of reasons. Like, maybe I'm stuck on something (except I have three projects at top of mind right now, and I'm not stuck on at least two of them). Or maybe I'm just really busy. But I'm not any more busy than usual, and yesterday I spent three hours doi...

The dilemma a lot of writers have, including me, is how much character description to put into a story. Too much, and the reader's vision of a character in contradicted at every term. Too little, and you're not giving the reader enough to work with.* So what to do? 1. I feel like it's important for a reader to have a general idea what a character looks like. I try to sketch a general physical impression of a character--height, weight, body type. 2. I find that if I describe one character whose appearance is important, I can describe other characters in relation to her. Is character B taller or shorter than character A? Wider or slimmer? Darker, or more fair? 3. A description of a character's movements can give a reader an impression of the character just as well as a detailed description of physical traits. Is the character quick or slow? Graceful or awkward? Athletic or something that is the opposite of athletic? :) 4. Physical description should reveal...

1. This season on The Real World ,* the cast is having a prank war. It's involved shaving cream and show laces and rearranging furniture and all the normal stuff that prank wars usually involve. And this week, one of the cast members, Chet, decided to make a life-sized cutout of himself and put it on the wall.** And then it was defaced. And Chet was angry and felt it was because of his political views (he's a Republican and the season was shot during last year's election). But I don't think the cutout was defaced because you are a Republican, Chet. I think the cutout was defaced because it's a life-sized cutout of yourself that you put on the wall during a prank war. *** 2. I am now the proud owner of a new HVAC system. This is the fourth most expensive thing I have ever purchased, after my house, my education, and my car. It better be awesome. 3. I have now seen 6 episodes of the new Joss Whedon show Dollhouse. Thoughts to follow. 4. It is less than ...