Dear Bookworms,
I recently watched the movie San Andreas with my family, and I found it to be a wonderful movie. It exceeded my expectations and inspired me to write, so I thought I'd write a review of it. (Yes, something other than muses and zombies!)
Plot (pacing):
The pacing of the film felt very natural. The set up didn't take too long but emphasized the importance of the earthquakes, giving meaning to some of the concepts that would be introduced further on in the plot. The middle built up towards the finale of the 2nd act, (using the 3 act format) and the ending was not only well played out and one of the tensest moments in the series, but it threw a surprise in that I didn't see coming, and definitely appreciated, and it reminded me that the finale doesn't have to be the biggest event, just the most personal.
Characters:
I won't go into much detail in this, but through most of the film my mom was commenting: "That's what you should look for in a guy!" I think they balanced the heroism of the men with the intelligence of the women, and gave each a chance to save the other. I found that none of the main characters were 'just plot devices' and each of the characters had a unique role to play. Unlike most disaster films where the children just give the main characters something to fight for and the audience a sense of danger, the kid in this film actually had a very important role in the survival of the main characters.
Disaster Scenes:
The main reason that anyone watches a disaster film: the scenes. This film had incredible jaw-dropping cinematography, and while it was noticeable that a few scenes were CGI, the disaster scenes were usually visually realistic. It wasn't just earthquakes, there were...well, I don't want to spoil anything, but it showed some epic shots with a great deal of variety in the destruction.
Accuracy:
There are two sides to this one. On the side of science I've heard that this film had some scientific inaccuracies. I'd have to agree. Here's the thing: writing isn't about accuracy. Writing is about telling your story, and entertaining the audience. If they wanted accuracy they could go watch the History Channel. Though I'm honestly not sure if that would be any better. :) (I've seen some good stuff on the History Channel, but also some REALLY bad stuff.)
On the flip side, their portrayal of human reactions to traumatic situations seemed to be rather accurate. (I cannot fully say, this is just based off of what I've heard.) The way they showed blunt force trauma and how humans respond to stressful situations seemed to be more accurate than most films I've seen. So, spot on.
Story Telling Elements:
Finally, the different elements in this movie were fantastic. They had tension, of course. What disaster film would be complete without it? They also had romance, but it was in its place. The romance was secondary to family. The main romantic interest was more focused on saving his younger brother than on saving the girl. That didn't mean he didn't care, of course he did. But his first priority was his brother. As it should well have been. Finally, it included a lot of something that several disaster films don't have: humor. I understand, if life as we know it is coming to an end, there's not a lot of chances for snarky one liners. But then a movie becomes bogged down and the audience loses interest in the story, and also looses sight of how terrible these events are. By adding in some more light-hearted moments, the narrators were able to pull the contrast on the darker moments and show them for what they were without being graphic. Excellent story telling.
Honestly, I don't know why this movie was as poorly rated as it was. Sure, there's some brief swearing. If I was in that situation, I'd be swearing too. Probably a lot more than they did, and they kept within a PG-13 rating. Anyway. Any other movies you want me to comment on? Anything you want me to write about? Please let me know!
Scribe ergo quae vidiste vivere!
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Writing Block Corner: The Muse Pt. 2
Hello Bookworms!
It has come to my attention that my previous conclusion about muses is...incomplete. So, here are 10 more muses that you might come across! Have fun reading?
1: The Research Muse
This muse has ideas, and want to know if it could happen before it's written down. This muse doesn't lead to a lot of writing, but it is the one that makes sure you've got everything right. It wants to make sure you're getting every detail of your story right. It's unpredictable in its nature, and can show up at the strangest times, then last for anywhere from a few minutes to several days, asking the questions you don't honestly have the answers for at the moment, because who want to deal with that editor muse anyway?
2: The Editor Muse
If you haven't run across this muse yet, you haven't been writing long enough. This muse will come up to you at some point in time and yell at you to go back through all of your writing and fix everything wrong. This word doesn't make sense, you shouldn't use that pronoun in that sentence, and you've got an entire paragraph you need to rewrite. No, scratch that, an entire chapter. Well, why not the entire book while you're at it? This muse won't let you live down a mistake, only live it up. It's annoying as anything, and gives you massive insecurity about your book. Unfortunately it's impossible to fully get rid of, as it is necessary. Sorry, but someone needs to tell you to go back and fix your spelling. It just needs to learn timing. Really, dialogue is hard enough without the wrong voice in your ear!
3: The Auditory Muse
This muse is most helpful with dialogue, but really it can help with anything. This is the muse that has you speak your words allowed, and doesn't really like coming out in public. You speak the words allowed and find yourself pouring more emotions into the words than you had originally planned. This is the muse that lets you play out your situations, understanding how long it really takes to speak a paragraph! And if you give your characters the voices of certain actors, well, that's just par for the course.
4: The Actor Muse
I am not even joking when I say that this muse has taken up a large percentage of my Pinterest pins, and entire board. This is the muse that sees a picture of an actor, and suddenly a completely rounded character appears. Fully grown, and on his horse. The problem: this character has no story. Oh, the character has a story, but there's no story that the character belongs to. We're not just about to write an entire story for one character, are we? We're not that big into his previous works.
5: The Copy Muse
We're that big into his previous works. This muse is the muse that is tired of working with original stuff, and wants to see what it's like to experiment with other characters. This is the muse whose works we fondly keep in a drawer and pull out sometimes when we're sentimental. This technically isn't our own work, but hey. We wrote it, and we learned important lessons while doing so. And yes, it might be called fan-fiction, but we prefer to call it a nowhere story. Besides, did you hear the music for that film? Awesome!
6: The Music Muse
This is the muse that loves music. Not every writer has this muse, but for those who do, they find that they do more writing with music in the background than without it. Music is what gives this muse a sense of purpose. An emotion to key in on during a scene. A sense of epic purpose to help you transform your book for words to adventures. This muse works surprisingly well with other muses, which isn't honestly that common.
7: The Muse Clique
This is a group of several muses who never go anywhere without each other, and it's very hard to write one without writing all of them. These muses will copy each other's emotions. They are very difficult to break up, and usually become very upset if you manage it. Eventually you're just going to have to either try writing all of them at once, or take one of them out at a time and give them each your undecided attention for long enough that it no longer feels the need to band with other muses. Even the principal muse has difficulty ratcheting down on these muses.
8: The Principal Muse
If your mind is a school, then this muse is its principal. This is the muse that oversees the rest of them. Or at least tries to. Your principal muse is the means of communication you have with your other muses. If you have writer's block, it's typically because this muse isn't feeling well. This is one of your most helpful muses, until it decides that you should be writing, only none of your other muses are even awake. You're stuck with a desperate urge to write and no outlet, meaning that you generally end up stuck examining the morph.
9: The Morph Muse
You know one thing about this muse. Whether it's a character, or a general arc, or a world, or maybe even the way three characters interact. But other than that, nothing is known. Everything changes. Is it a Western? Is it a Sci-Fi? Is it in the past or the future? Nothing is known. Everything is suspect to change. It's a very difficult muse to write, and also one of the most addicting. You just want to examine every aspect of it, peel away the surface, get underneath its edges, carve away at it...
10: The Constructive Muse
Unlike constructive criticism, this muse means constructive in a very literal term. This is the muse that works best when you're using your hands for something else. Whether it's drawing, cooking, building, blowing things up, this muse wants you to see that you've done stuff. This muse is also a very logical muse. Not everyone has this muse, but it's a very polite muse to have. Well, polite for a bit of a control freak.
Alright, so please! What experiences do you have with muses? Would you like for me to continue talking about muses? Or is there something else about the insanity of writing that you'd like me to go into?
Scribe ergo quae vidiste vivere!
It has come to my attention that my previous conclusion about muses is...incomplete. So, here are 10 more muses that you might come across! Have fun reading?
1: The Research Muse
This muse has ideas, and want to know if it could happen before it's written down. This muse doesn't lead to a lot of writing, but it is the one that makes sure you've got everything right. It wants to make sure you're getting every detail of your story right. It's unpredictable in its nature, and can show up at the strangest times, then last for anywhere from a few minutes to several days, asking the questions you don't honestly have the answers for at the moment, because who want to deal with that editor muse anyway?
2: The Editor Muse
If you haven't run across this muse yet, you haven't been writing long enough. This muse will come up to you at some point in time and yell at you to go back through all of your writing and fix everything wrong. This word doesn't make sense, you shouldn't use that pronoun in that sentence, and you've got an entire paragraph you need to rewrite. No, scratch that, an entire chapter. Well, why not the entire book while you're at it? This muse won't let you live down a mistake, only live it up. It's annoying as anything, and gives you massive insecurity about your book. Unfortunately it's impossible to fully get rid of, as it is necessary. Sorry, but someone needs to tell you to go back and fix your spelling. It just needs to learn timing. Really, dialogue is hard enough without the wrong voice in your ear!
3: The Auditory Muse
This muse is most helpful with dialogue, but really it can help with anything. This is the muse that has you speak your words allowed, and doesn't really like coming out in public. You speak the words allowed and find yourself pouring more emotions into the words than you had originally planned. This is the muse that lets you play out your situations, understanding how long it really takes to speak a paragraph! And if you give your characters the voices of certain actors, well, that's just par for the course.
4: The Actor Muse
I am not even joking when I say that this muse has taken up a large percentage of my Pinterest pins, and entire board. This is the muse that sees a picture of an actor, and suddenly a completely rounded character appears. Fully grown, and on his horse. The problem: this character has no story. Oh, the character has a story, but there's no story that the character belongs to. We're not just about to write an entire story for one character, are we? We're not that big into his previous works.
5: The Copy Muse
We're that big into his previous works. This muse is the muse that is tired of working with original stuff, and wants to see what it's like to experiment with other characters. This is the muse whose works we fondly keep in a drawer and pull out sometimes when we're sentimental. This technically isn't our own work, but hey. We wrote it, and we learned important lessons while doing so. And yes, it might be called fan-fiction, but we prefer to call it a nowhere story. Besides, did you hear the music for that film? Awesome!
6: The Music Muse
This is the muse that loves music. Not every writer has this muse, but for those who do, they find that they do more writing with music in the background than without it. Music is what gives this muse a sense of purpose. An emotion to key in on during a scene. A sense of epic purpose to help you transform your book for words to adventures. This muse works surprisingly well with other muses, which isn't honestly that common.
7: The Muse Clique
This is a group of several muses who never go anywhere without each other, and it's very hard to write one without writing all of them. These muses will copy each other's emotions. They are very difficult to break up, and usually become very upset if you manage it. Eventually you're just going to have to either try writing all of them at once, or take one of them out at a time and give them each your undecided attention for long enough that it no longer feels the need to band with other muses. Even the principal muse has difficulty ratcheting down on these muses.
8: The Principal Muse
If your mind is a school, then this muse is its principal. This is the muse that oversees the rest of them. Or at least tries to. Your principal muse is the means of communication you have with your other muses. If you have writer's block, it's typically because this muse isn't feeling well. This is one of your most helpful muses, until it decides that you should be writing, only none of your other muses are even awake. You're stuck with a desperate urge to write and no outlet, meaning that you generally end up stuck examining the morph.
9: The Morph Muse
You know one thing about this muse. Whether it's a character, or a general arc, or a world, or maybe even the way three characters interact. But other than that, nothing is known. Everything changes. Is it a Western? Is it a Sci-Fi? Is it in the past or the future? Nothing is known. Everything is suspect to change. It's a very difficult muse to write, and also one of the most addicting. You just want to examine every aspect of it, peel away the surface, get underneath its edges, carve away at it...
10: The Constructive Muse
Unlike constructive criticism, this muse means constructive in a very literal term. This is the muse that works best when you're using your hands for something else. Whether it's drawing, cooking, building, blowing things up, this muse wants you to see that you've done stuff. This muse is also a very logical muse. Not everyone has this muse, but it's a very polite muse to have. Well, polite for a bit of a control freak.
Alright, so please! What experiences do you have with muses? Would you like for me to continue talking about muses? Or is there something else about the insanity of writing that you'd like me to go into?
Scribe ergo quae vidiste vivere!
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