The GSRWA had a wonderful workshop last Friday, provided by Blake Snyder, author of Save the Cat: the Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need.
Reviewing the 15 Beats from his book helped many in our group see how these movie milestones could be applied to the world of romance writing. I'm excited to see what Beats I already have in my WIP and where the missing ones will come from.
Thanks Blake, for opening a whole new box of tools for me (us) and HUGE thanks to the fabulous Pat White for coordinating it all.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Resolution - Recycled...
Resolved not to Resolve – does that mean I did??
I’m not sure why it is that friends and family expect you’ll make a resolution at the beginning of each year. What is the purpose?
Folks often resolve loose weight, for instance, at the beginning of the year. They make an attempt at it for the first couple days, heck even a month, and then they forget or become to busy and *poof* gone is their resolve.
It’s that way with many things that people think they should do, but don’t want to, or don’t have the strength or will power to follow thru with. Over the years I’ve seen many a friend make a resolution only to watch it go down the toilet. As I’m writing I think hard to find ONE, my own from the past or even one belonging to someone else, I’m aware of that actually was seen through to the end. Not the frivolous mind you – but a heart felt resolution that was completed. Sad to say, I’m at a loss for an example.
Among the many resolutions tossed into the ring each year (see if you recognize any of these) are:
Loose – Weight, baggage (boy or girl friend), clutter, chocolate craving, drinking habit, smoking habit and all other bad habits
Find or Make more time – or family, to read, to write, lost friends, the garage (the inside – of course) and journals
Do’s - finish projects, exercise, correspond, organize, limit TV time to 4 hours per week, cook at home, begin Christmas shopping in July, find a new job, and clean house every week
Do No More – drink (so much), smoke, over eat, stalk the ex-boyfriend, eat out every week (night), spend all free time playing video games, charge all gifts to the credit cards next year, complain about the job and attend gatherings as the wall flower.
My biggest questions or complaints – call them what you will – with the concept of resolutions are:
I’m not sure why it is that friends and family expect you’ll make a resolution at the beginning of each year. What is the purpose?
Folks often resolve loose weight, for instance, at the beginning of the year. They make an attempt at it for the first couple days, heck even a month, and then they forget or become to busy and *poof* gone is their resolve.
It’s that way with many things that people think they should do, but don’t want to, or don’t have the strength or will power to follow thru with. Over the years I’ve seen many a friend make a resolution only to watch it go down the toilet. As I’m writing I think hard to find ONE, my own from the past or even one belonging to someone else, I’m aware of that actually was seen through to the end. Not the frivolous mind you – but a heart felt resolution that was completed. Sad to say, I’m at a loss for an example.
Among the many resolutions tossed into the ring each year (see if you recognize any of these) are:
Loose – Weight, baggage (boy or girl friend), clutter, chocolate craving, drinking habit, smoking habit and all other bad habits
Find or Make more time – or family, to read, to write, lost friends, the garage (the inside – of course) and journals
Do’s - finish projects, exercise, correspond, organize, limit TV time to 4 hours per week, cook at home, begin Christmas shopping in July, find a new job, and clean house every week
Do No More – drink (so much), smoke, over eat, stalk the ex-boyfriend, eat out every week (night), spend all free time playing video games, charge all gifts to the credit cards next year, complain about the job and attend gatherings as the wall flower.
My biggest questions or complaints – call them what you will – with the concept of resolutions are:
- Why wait until the first of the year to resolve to do something you may have known about for the last 6 or 9 or even 12 months and should have been resolved to do all along?
- What is so damn special about the first of the year that makes folks want to ‘be a better person’? Shouldn’t we want to be that better person when we realize there is a problem, instead of waiting until the beginning of a new year.
- Do the many cocktails ingested during the celebration on the even of the new year make it that much easier to face the unpleasant task, therefore making it easier to resolve?
So this year (as I have done in the past) I resolved not to make any resolutions.. but again I have to ask, in doing so.. have I then made a resolution?
And would it be better stated, that I resolve not to make a “New Years Resolution” but resolve to make the changes during the year, as needed, instead of waiting 364 days to do something about it?
Food for thought? Happy New Year!!
This post (or most of it) was recycled from a now lost blog post in 2005.
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