What Do I Write Now?

Dear Friends and Readers of my Blog,

I'm... so lost. You see I can talk about stories, I can form pieces of ideas. I can form scraps of characters that I like, I can do all sorts of stuff.

Let's be honest. Writing is tough and I'm not all that good at it.

You see, I've completed two novels (first drafts) had my sister read bits and say. "This is good, but you're going to have to throw out most of it." Which is both encouraging and infuriating. My brother has had his own problems with my story. So... I have decided to let the ideas settle for a bit. Let my mind recuperate for the next battle.

But now that I'm here... what do I write? I tried brainstorming a few days ago. I tried coming up with ideas half of which I threw out immediately, I can't latch on to something that I love. Something that I want to explore and convey to my readers. Why?

I'm desperate and I need to get my creative juices flowing. Who has ideas? Who has some good creative techniques to help me come up with some epic ideas? And why don't we have a writing party? I just want to start something new. Something I usually wouldn't try, you know?

Riva was supposed to help me get an idea of the flaws in my writing and in my characters. I did learn a lot about myself even and about how I view people. So I'm trying to branch out, but this is hard. Just hard. Help?

TV Shows... Why are you so addicting?

First... These stupid shows suck up ALL my time. Fortunately I do homework while I watch them... doesn't really make me the most efficient.

This post will contain my thoughts, critics and sassy commentary and all that good stuff. Please comment, I like hearing what other people think. The only reason I'm posting this is because this has been what I do when I'm not working or studying. Let's be honest, I'm bored...

To begin... Once Upon a Time. I think the writers are very clever. I love to see the twists they put on these stories. I think it gives these two dimensional characters something more. You know what I find interesting? That they don't really have a timeline. They jump around and fill in the blanks as they go. Smart but scary. The only episode I have to complain about is the Beauty and the Beast episode. I didn't feel that the "true love" was there. I totally saw the Red Riding Hood thing coming. What? I felt pretty special.

Before I say anything I must put out a viewer discretion... This show is... kind of sketch and AWESOME. It embodies the theater world and it really captures how modern society is... well. Not much fun, let's just say it's the best and the worst of society. But I'm telling you, this show is real. I WORK with people like this. This is real life drama, this is theater. If you don't like singing and dancing don't watch the show but... These people have flaws, they are so interesting and you hate them and you love them. SUCH good characters. I LOVE this show. GOOD show. If I could write something as good as this, I would be content. I ask you to give it a chance, this is the one show I feel very strongly about. It's good, but there is some serious... materiel. Seriously though, one of my favs.

This is a pretty good show. It's like a detective show, plus time travel, plus crazy science-y stuff. Just so you know it's from J.J. Abrams. The guy who did Lost, it's SO much better and actually has organization. It's only pretty good though. I could take it or leave it. Hurley's in it. He's really funny.

The Voice. A guilty pleasure, again, you kind of have to be into singing. But I'm a little obsessed. Seriously I've got it all planned out. I try and guess who's going to win before the battle rounds. I've got my own team on Facebook and I've got the winner all planned out. Yes... PLUS! Why is Kelly Blake's adviser? Nobody likes Blake. No one. Went to Kelly's concert. She does NOT disappoint. I would die happy if I could sing like her.

I am loving this show. So new, so different. You've got this guy with two lives and you aren't sure which one is real. It's another detective one. Sorry. I'm a sucker for mystery.

There are SO many more that I've been watching. I don't know where to begin. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Touch, Nikita, Burn Notice, Psych, Endgame (This one's fun), Leverage!, New Girl, Breakout Kings, Castle, Missing, Bones, Face Off... Why? So addicting?

Sooooo Predictable

Guess what...

I read a book yesterday. I read it in 5 hours. It was a good 300 page book too.
The False Princess.
It's surprisingly like my story, BUT this lady, by that I mean author, does a few things extremely well.

First, she captures the thought process, emotions and logic of a princess very subtlety. She does it in a way where you think that what the character is thinking is completely normal. And her actions make complete sense. Even though her actions were nothing like my own, I found myself agreeing with this character. I was very impressed. I kept thinking. "This is EXACTLY what she would think and exactly how she would do it."

Second, while the story was pretty straight forward and clear cut. Very cliche and very predictable, she did throw me for just a second in the middle of the book. It was like... two books in one. Very nice.

So while I was distracted for five hours and while the book was better than I had initially expected. I was NOT satisfied. While I had very little to complain about I was not really happy with the book.

She does this... I'm not gonna tell anyone my plans, which is not what she would've have done. It didn't fit with her character. A princess who had been brought up learning to respect elders and councilors would have known that the BEST action would be to TELL someone what was going on. Or at least bounce off ideas of people that she trusts. It bugged me the entire time.

The last problem... it was WAAAAAY too predictable.Within the first four pages I knew her secret and her love interest. I knew she was going to use a certain... thing(s) to save everyone. After the first "book" the characters and been established nicely and the romantic tension had been released, the second book had begun and I had been intrigued by a new plot twist. After I had figured out the plot twist... I felt ready to put the book down. I knew who the bad guy was, I knew how she was going to save everyone and it was just... blah....

Better than I expected... but only worth maybe three hours of my time. I'm determined NOT to let my characters and my story be like this. You will be blown away. Just wait.