Writing Is HARD!

OK, so maybe not the writing itself. I took part in NaNoWriMo this year and managed to write 52,175 words in thirty days. I was very pleased with myself, with good reason, and decided to take a couple of months away from my novel and come back to edit it later.

It is nearing the end of March now and I am only 11 pages in with about 69 left to go, and that's not including the scenes that must still be added.

Editing is hard. Well, usually I would edit as I wrote and that would not seem as difficult, though it would delay the finishing of the novel somewhat, but since the aim of Nano is to turn off your inner editor and WRITE I now have a 52,000 word novel to edit in one go and it seems like a daunting task.

Unfortunately, until I've finished editing it (for a first draft anyway, then I can hand it to someone else to look at and tell me whats wrong) I don't feel like I can continue any OTHER stories that I'm trying to write at the moment, or start any new ones.

Basically, this sucks.

Let The Sunshine, Let The Sunshine In

French the llama! This weather is awesome! (and, of course, I'm sitting inside typing on my computer...)

Has Summer come early? Seriously! This will probably be the only sun we will actually see all year so I'd better go out and enjoy it while it lasts. Was out yesterday tidying the garden and planting seeds for home grown veggies. They really do taste better than shop bought, it might be a cliche but it's only a cliche because it is TRUE!

Right, I'm going out to enjoy *puts on sunglasses* the sun.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!

Things I Wish My Mother Never Told Me

I meant to post a blog entry this morning but now I'm glad I did not. This morning I was angry but now I'm more mellow and I'm sure this will be a more reasoned blog rather than a "Blargh! Giant squid of anger!!" one.

Sometimes I really wish I was not living with my parents. And then sometimes I'm really glad of it. I'm nearly 25 and have graduated from university but at the moment there is nothing out there for me. I'm sure this is a common occurrence now and there are a number of graduates still living at home. And sometimes our parents really get on our nerves and "don't understand how hard it is in this economical climate" and I'm sure parents all around the country/world are thinking to themselves "why has my good for nothing son/daughter not moved out yet" and I'm sure that there is something in each sides' argument but, parents, a word of advice. Screaming at your son/daughter that "this is not a hotel and that you are sure they are not actually looking for work and just floating around in a world of their own" is not the best way of managing the situation and will make us, for a while until we both calm down, hate you.

OK, so maybe I am still angry. A little.

Parents,

I assure you we are trying to get a job and we would like to move into our own place almost as much as you would be glad to see us leave but it is hard and you have to give us time. And maybe we are slacking a little in our search but we have been looking for a while and the rejections are getting to us a bit.

Still, we will try to look harder for jobs and widen our criteria if you will get off our backs about it, OK?

And we do love you, really.

This Blog May Contain Traces Of Spoilers

So, I've set up a blog and I'm sitting here wondering what I'm going to do until April starts. I could just leave it empty (save for that first post) until I'm ready for NaPoWriMo but then what's the point of a blog if it just sits there gathering dust (figuratively, of course)?

Then I had an idea. I just went to see The Hunger Games today (a movie adaptation of the first of a series of books by Suzanne Collins) so how about I write about that then?

I can't promise that there will not be any spoilers for anyone who has not seen it or read the books but I will try.


First off, I would seriously urge you to read the books as they are awesome (fact ;P).


The Hunger Games is set in a dystopian future where North America is split into 12 districts. In punishment for a rebellion that happened years ago and to keep the districts downtrodden, every year each district is forced to send one boy and one girl to participate in the Hunger Games as "tributes". Only one ever makes it out. This is the 74th annual hunger games and Katniss' younger sister, Primrose, is chosen as the female tribute from District 12. Katniss volunteers herself to save her sister's life.


Whenever I watch a movie that was once a book I am always saying to myself "that's different", "that didn't happen in the book", etc and for that reason I cannot watch the Harry Potter films (I think I made it up to the third one and gave up) but I enjoyed this film. Of course, there were nits to pick but that will always happen in an adaptation. You just can't fit everything into a moderate length film without cutting some things, otherwise you would be sitting in the cinema all day! I felt this adaptation was well handled and even those that have not read the books could still enjoy it (unless they are the film critic in the Scotsman it seems...).


Some points that I feel could have been done better:

• President Snow should have looked more evil. Full white beard? Seriously? He looked like someone's uncle or grandad.
• More of the Valley song would have been nice but it's not a deal breaker.
• More of Rue's story. As an important character in Katniss' story we had to get more idea of her as a person and I just don't think that came across very well in this film.
• Too much shaky cam: See things done well, below.
• Slightly slow in places, may have been because I knew what was going to happen as have read books.

Things done well:

• When the hunger games begin the use of the shaky, handheld cam was an excellent way to show the frantic pace of the beginning but seemed over used later on.
• Peeta's first interview. 
• Fire forest scene.
• Control room. Excellent add on from the books.

Of course there are more things that I could add to these lists (especially the could do better one...) but I feel this is long enough already.

TL:DR? Good film, bit slow in places, would recommend. 4/5.

Let's Get This Show On The Road

Hi there! Oh my gosh I am now officially a blogger! Yay!! (too many exclamation marks...)

So, as it says in my profile I'll be using this blog to post poems for NaPoWriMo. Hopefully with this public space to post them it'll keep me creating every day, unlike last year when I missed days... Fingers crossed anyway! Roll on April!