Watching Movies for Visual Inspiration

I'm sure other writers watch movies and TV shows for visual inspiration—I can't possibly be alone in that. Heck, I can even watch a movie for other reasons (like, er, entertainment) and be struck by a scene or setting and think, "Hey, that would make a cool location for a story!"

Sometimes, though, I'll put in a dvd just to watch the settings. In that case, I generally end up gritting my teeth and trying to endure the movie to the end, because 9 times out of 10 the movie in question is pretty awful. And I find myself wondering how other people do it. How do other people manage to sit through an excruciatingly dull or just plain crappy movie in the name of research or inspiration?

And then, just by accident yesterday as I was watching such a movie, I hit the mute button when I meant to hit pause.

A whole new world of movie watching opened up before me. Not only was I able to focus on the sets and costumes—the whole point of watching said movie—but I also found myself making up my own story to go along with the images on the screen. Brilliant! (Well, not the made up story so much as the fun I had doing it!)

In fact, it was so much fun that I'm already making lists of movies, bad and good, to watch this way. Yeah, that's right, I plan to watch movies I love this way, too. See, I tend to watch favorite movies over and over again (kind of like I re-re-read favorite books) and it gets easy to multitask and do other things while listening to familiar dialogue. Watching those movies as silent film will require me to actually focus on the screen. I figure there's plenty of things I've never noticed before, just waiting to be discovered. Should be an interesting exercise.

Have you ever watched a movie or TV show without sound? Deliberately? What did you learn?

Oh yeah, the movie that spawned this great discovery? The Shadow, 1994, staring Alec Baldwin—a movie that's really only watchable in one of two ways: 1) with plenty of alcohol, or 2) as a silent film.

Revitalizing the Blog

New year, new resolutions. Last year is dead and gone and good riddance to it. I've got my fingers crossed that 2011 will be much, much better.

The only resolution I'm making is to finish a novel this year. I won't predict which novel, or what genre it will be, but I vow that 2011 will be the "Year I Finished A Novel."

As part of my re-focusing on writing, I'm also pledging to blog frequently. And I'll once again be a regular contributor to the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA Blog.

SATURDAY CHECK-IN

Join me for our Saturday Check-in over at the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA Blog. How's your progress coming?

Where I'm Blogging Today

I'm blogging about Gone With The Wind over at the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA Blog. Come on over and join me!

Where I'm Blogging Today

I'm blogging today about that rarest of magical creatures, the published author, over at the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA blog.

Come on over and join the discussion!

2010 WRITING GOALS REVISITED

My life has changed rather disconcertingly since I posted my writing goals for the year in January and for the last three months I've only been writing in fits and starts. Though I did get a nice boost of enthusiasm attending my RWA Chapter's yearly writing retreat in February. Three days of nothing but writing and talking about writing while staying in a house on the beach at the Oregon coast—fantastic! At the end of the weekend, I'd written a few thousand words and thought I'd finalized my writing projects.

Alas, not so. Characters nagged, plots sagged—or worse, became boring—and enthusiasm waned. Between that and Real Life Stuff ™, I felt myself sinking to a new low. I decided to take a few weeks off and give my subconscious time to work on things. Hey, that approach has always worked for me in the past when things were going to hell with or without a handbasket. I don't ignore a problem; I just give it a rest and let it sort itself out in my back-brain, so to speak.

It worked, too. I've got a new plan—a cunning plan—to get me where I want to be (typing "The End") even sooner. Okay, so maybe it isn't so much cunning as it is hard work. But it is a plan! And I think I'll call it a plan from now on, rather than refer to it as a goal. Plan just seems more concrete to me for some reason.

Without further ado...

My Updated Writing Plan for 2010

1. Work on one project at a time and stick with it to the end. Write a minimum of 7150 words per week.
This will get me to a first draft of Project #1 by July 1st.

2. Start second project in July. Write a minimum of 3850 words/week.
Continue working on Project #2 during edits of Project #1.

3. Edit first draft of Project #1 in September.

4. Edit second draft of Project #1 in October.

5. Complete final edit of Project #1 before submitting to Golden Heart.

By the end of the year, my sticking to this plan will accomplish the following:

1. Two finished novels.

2. One novel entered in the Golden Heart.

In all of this, I'm making one huge assumption—that Project #1 will be worth submitting to the Golden Heart. Of course, I won't know until I've written it, will I?

Back in the Saddle...

Long time, no update! Yeesh.

Lots of things have been happening, some not so great, but I'm back and rarin' to go. In fact, I've taken over the weekly check-in post at the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA blog. You can catch my first post for that today. I'm hoping the responsibility of running the check-in will keep me motivated to make actual progress on my novel.

I've also made a final decision on which project to focus on. I'll be posting about my updated goals tomorrow.

Ah...it's good to be back. :-)