Showing posts with label The IT Crowd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The IT Crowd. Show all posts
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Reading on the Subway, Balloons, and Being Mean to Characters
My commute every day is roughly an hour and a half each way, which gives me plenty of time to catch up on some reading now that things have settled down. The subway is a great place to detach because who wants to focus on the weird person falling asleep on your shoulder, or listen to the gum-popper or crying baby? Earbuds. Book. Keep your belongings in sight, and have a great day.
I started reading IT by Stephen King because I have a strange fear of clowns stemming back to an episode of Matlock I saw when I was a kid (don't even ask). Anyway, unlike wasps or dentists, I don't come in contact with clowns hardly at all, so I figured reading a horror story about one wouldn't be a huge deal. Thankfully, I was right.
I'm not done with the story yet, so it might get bad really quickly, but for now, I'm enjoying the characterization interspersed with terrifying, violent scenes involving a shape-shifting clown and his multitude of balloons (don't even get me started on balloons!)
Long story short (hah!) this book has given me some great ideas of where to take my current work in progress, Awake. Of course, I won't be copying anything Mr. King has done, but I'll be learning much more about my characters and giving them a lot more background. Because when you care about a character (a lot), it's ten times worse when the author does something horrible to them.
I started reading IT by Stephen King because I have a strange fear of clowns stemming back to an episode of Matlock I saw when I was a kid (don't even ask). Anyway, unlike wasps or dentists, I don't come in contact with clowns hardly at all, so I figured reading a horror story about one wouldn't be a huge deal. Thankfully, I was right.
I'm not done with the story yet, so it might get bad really quickly, but for now, I'm enjoying the characterization interspersed with terrifying, violent scenes involving a shape-shifting clown and his multitude of balloons (don't even get me started on balloons!)
Long story short (hah!) this book has given me some great ideas of where to take my current work in progress, Awake. Of course, I won't be copying anything Mr. King has done, but I'll be learning much more about my characters and giving them a lot more background. Because when you care about a character (a lot), it's ten times worse when the author does something horrible to them.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Not Writing
Inspired by Amanda Hocking's Things I've Done Today That Weren't Writing, here's a list of things from today keeping me from doing what I do:
- Inventory at work
- Chatting with hubby about moving and awesome apartment ads.
- Waiting 15 minutes to connect to the N train.
- Buying Chips Ahoy! cookies and having the clerk ask if I was having a chocolate chip cookie party tonight. Answer: no - went to work on my day off, therefore, they're all mine. He was satisfied with the answer.
- Watching the forced comedy of a recent Simpson's episode. Why do I do this to myself?
- Joined a new forum
- Watched some video clips on YouTube
- Heated up some tempura chicken from Trader Joe's
- Wasted time on various social media (which leads me here).
I had a great run of editing yesterday after work, and I was looking forward to doing it again today. However, counting some 1000+ hair products turned my brain to jelly, and I can't get in the groove. I did buy another proof copy of The Silent Treatment after making some adjustments to the last one I received. Probably not going to change anything else, regardless, because I can't afford to keep buying proofs. I think it's for sale on lulu.com, though, but won't distribute to Amazon until the proof is approved. Will let you know, as I'm sure you're all on the edges of your seats. I've had to price it much more expensively than I wanted to because the commission from Amazon is pretty low. So for now, I'm offering a 30% discount, which brings the price down to a reasonable $11.20.
So before I waste any more time, I'll go read, rest up for a long day of work tomorrow, and then go apartment viewing the day after that.
Please tell me: what did you do today?
So before I waste any more time, I'll go read, rest up for a long day of work tomorrow, and then go apartment viewing the day after that.
Please tell me: what did you do today?
Monday, March 5, 2012
Characters
I wrote a post a little while ago about how I prefer a great story to "delicious words." Today's topic is about how sometimes the story isn't anything stunning, but the characters make it work.
One of my favorites for a long time has been Alan Partridge (you'll find I have a soft spot in my heart for British comedy). In the series, the character is a late night talk show host who routinely insults his guests and generally makes an ass of himself. In this clip, he accidentally shoots one of his guests and carries on with the remainder of the show.
A more recent favorite is Roy from The IT Crowd, because he acts like he doesn't care about anything, but in almost every show, he ends up in some strange predicament, crying over a girl, or overreacting to something seemingly normal. One of my favorite scenes involves him learning (from a website) the exact date and time he will die. When that minute arrives, (in the congregation of a funeral) he mistakes his cell phone vibrations for a heart attack.
Sticking with the British theme, I've also started re-reading High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. (Can we all agree that the movie would have been better if they hadn't made it American? No? Just me?) I'd forgotten how much I like Rob, the main character. What makes him, and all of these characters (and so many others) memorable and enjoyable is that there's not just one side to them. Just like the rest of us, they're happy, sad, their hearts get broken, they're annoyed, they're good and evil, and all a little bit unhappy with the way their lives are turning out. Characters like this let us know someone else understands what we're going through -- that's why we love them.
One of my favorites for a long time has been Alan Partridge (you'll find I have a soft spot in my heart for British comedy). In the series, the character is a late night talk show host who routinely insults his guests and generally makes an ass of himself. In this clip, he accidentally shoots one of his guests and carries on with the remainder of the show.
A more recent favorite is Roy from The IT Crowd, because he acts like he doesn't care about anything, but in almost every show, he ends up in some strange predicament, crying over a girl, or overreacting to something seemingly normal. One of my favorite scenes involves him learning (from a website) the exact date and time he will die. When that minute arrives, (in the congregation of a funeral) he mistakes his cell phone vibrations for a heart attack.
Sticking with the British theme, I've also started re-reading High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. (Can we all agree that the movie would have been better if they hadn't made it American? No? Just me?) I'd forgotten how much I like Rob, the main character. What makes him, and all of these characters (and so many others) memorable and enjoyable is that there's not just one side to them. Just like the rest of us, they're happy, sad, their hearts get broken, they're annoyed, they're good and evil, and all a little bit unhappy with the way their lives are turning out. Characters like this let us know someone else understands what we're going through -- that's why we love them.
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