Writing Reviews and Recaps

I love writing.  I love all kinds of writing, from quick blog posts to short descriptions for an ad, to novel and short stories, poems, reflections, reviews and recaps.

Writing recaps is a fun challenge. If I don’t have an advance screener of a show, I try to challenge myself to write the recap as quickly as possible, while the show is airing. It’s tricky, but possible.  This is when you really notice dialogue versus action scenes. The Walking Dead is much easier than Doctor Who because there is more action and less talking.

With reviews, the challenge comes in not giving away too much of the plot while also giving the reader enough of an idea about the plot to lead him to buy a copy himself. Spoiler-free reviews are tricky, but coveted. (Though I do see requests for spoilers every now and then from people who know they won’t read the book but want to know what happens)

Writing reviews is like doing book reports over and over again, except now I’m doing it for the joy of it, and not because I’m in school.

I do recall a time in 5th grade when writing a book report on a book we got to choose on our own. I chose a novelization of Back to the Future II. It took me a long time to write, and eventually I realized I was doing way too much summary.  In retrospect, this was my first recap. It only goes to show that I was born to be a writer!

Writing. A Lot.

Life has a funny way of sorting itself out.  It really does.  Call it fate, cosmic coincidence, or divine intervention.  Whatever you call it, it works.

I needed more time to write, and suddenly the sea parted and the time appeared.  (So, too, did several new clients, which is both fantastic and time consuming–but no complaints here!)  With my new time and schedule, I have spent every morning this week working with clients and then writing during a three hours gap.  This schedule will change next week, as I’m sure it will do for the remainder of the semester, but the great thing is that I’ve had a chance to enjoy the time and to see how helpful it is to have it.

There will always be interruptions.  Last night I was being called upon to run a late-night errand, and as I was leaving I was also frantically trying to capture an idea in my notebook.  But in the end both tasks were accomplished.  I ran the errand and I finished the thought. (Of course, I still need to finish said thought in the article I’m currently working on today, but…c’est la vie)

So…I’m writing.  I’m writing.  There is nothing else I’d rather be doing right now. And it feels great.

Writing with Someone Else’s Voice

Have you ever been asked to wrote something for someone else? I’m not talking about writing fiction and moving between different characters. I’m talking about producing a piece of writing with someone else’s voice and tone.

I’ve written letters of recommendation for bosses before. Those are relatively easy because generally they follow a pattern.

I’m trying to come up with content for a friend’s website. It needs to include information about events and recaps of shows.  She’s a comedian.  And since she’s a comedian she wants everything to sound like her. 

I’m not a comedian.  I dropped out of comedy school because as Freud would say, I’m too anal retentive.  (Ironically, I was a valedictorian and I’ve never dropped out of anything)  So writing content in her voice is an interesting challenge.

However, I feel like it’s a good experience and it will broaden my horizons and all that jazz.

So…(insert humor here)

The Cheat: Battling Writer’s Block with Scheduled Posts

I have tons of recaps from previous seasons of American Horror Story, The Walking Dead and Doctor Who that I’ve never shared on my blog.  I started scheduling some to post, and it hit me that I was lucky that I had them because my brain is so tired that I’m not sure what kind of blog posts I could create right now.

My brain is exhausted, and that has crushed my creativity.

However, the desire to write is strong, so the trick is managing time to write.  If you make time, writing will come.

I was at a panel at Comic Con and it was mentioned that Benicio del Toro spends his mornings writing and his afternoons working.  I think this is the perfect balance. Of course, the first step is to get rich enough to be able to support myself so that this could be a reality.  I’m working on it.

In fact, that’s probably why I am so tired lately.

If Only…Wishing 2014 Technoloy Existed in 1994

I was born in the 80s and I was 14 in 1994. You can do the math on my age now.  (If you can even do math…we Gen X/Y people didn’t get Common Core math…thank goodness…math was already bad enough….) 

I grew up writing.  I used steno notebooks to draft a 50 page story set in the magical world created by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.  For birthdays and Christmas I asked for pens and notebooks.  No one thought I was serious about that until the realized I was indeed serious about it.  I have boxes full of writing I’ve done over the years.

To this day, while writing my book, I prefer longhand to writing drafts on the computer, though I edit only once I have everything typed up. Fiction is easier for me to write on a computer, but drafting articles and materials for my nonfiction book are better left to pen and paper.  To that end, I carry my netbook, a pink Mead notebook, and pink pens with me at all times so I can be ready to write at the drop of a hat.

That said, I wish I had the tools I have now back in 1994. I could have written so much with a super fast netbook, and done so much research with Google, and been inspired by all of the Book and Writing blogs on WordPress.

I have to wonder what life would be like if I’d had those tools all along.  Would that stifle or enrich my creativity? (Be sure to read an earlier post I wrote about the demise of cursive and civilization…) 

My beloved grandfather bought me a Toshiba Satellite laptop in 1996. I still have it.  In fact, I did a ton of writing on it and now that writing is stick there until I can figure out how to extract it.  I remember that laptop as a turning point for me, and even though it didn’t connect to the internet it still opened up a new world for me.  Until that point, most of my computer experience was from dying over and over again from snake bites and “The Fever” when we were allowed to play Oregon Trail on the school computer lab’s ancient Apple IIEs.

What would I have blogged about in 1994? Today, even 8 year olds text.  For a teen in 1994, I’m not sure what would have been important.  Carson Daly on MTV’s Total Request Live, perhaps? That was back when MTV was on the verge of phasing out the M in its moniker. Yes, MTV used to play these things called “music videos” all the time.

Regardless, I have to think that technology came at the right time.  But it still makes me wonder….What if?

Demise of Cursive and the Decline of Civilization

One of my students told me that I have nice handwriting.  I realized very quickly that she was referring to the fact I was writing in cursive, which isn’t taught as ardently in schools as it was when I was in elementary school back in the 1990s.  I remember sitting in Mrs. Labastida’s second grade class practicing my letters.  Capital Q always got me.  That, and capital Z and sometimes the L.  And heaven help you if you didn’t form your letters exactly as they taught you.  

Cursive is on its way out of the curriculum.  It’s seen as a waste of time given how much time we spend on our computers.  I watched another student struggle to write two sentences in cursive on an exam.  She is 17, and it took five minutes to write two sentences in cursive.  I look at how students (and some adults) form their letters with a variety of upper- and lowercase letters.  It’s strange that so many people have arrived at the same writing style independently of each other.

The fact that this student thought my handwriting is nice is amusing.  When I was in 6th grade, my father teased me mercilessly because I received a “Needs Improvement” in handwriting on my report card.  I had straight As (and went on to graduate valedictorian in high school) but I had issues with handwriting.  My father thought it was funny that I had a low grade in handwriting; handwriting was the only thing he ever got an A in (of course, he went to school with Catholic nuns, so go figure).  My hand can’t keep up with my brain, hence the shoddy penmanship.  However, it’s still cursive.  Friends begged to use my notes in college.  Not only were they thorough, they were very nicely written.

I think that the demise of cursive being taught in schools has greater and more far-reaching implications.  I think it’s great that students are allowed to develop their own writing styles.  But the next step in this evolution is to transition everyone into using computers to such an extent that they won’t have a need for handwriting.  I know it sounds extreme, but in a few decades, cursive will be a thing of the past the way calligraphy is now.  How many people do you know who can successfully use a fountain pen with the little quill-thingy at the tip?  I’ve seen them in fine pen stores (because yes, I do shop for nice pens…that’s a whole other story) but I haven’t a clue as to how to use one.  I remember seeing my grandmother’s phone book.  Her writing was beautiful.  In fact, everyone in my grandparents’ generation had good penmanship. It’s sad to think that will all go away.

We all develop our own writing style, but our style tends to develop out of a customization of cursive and regular handwriting.  Without learning cursive, future students will lack that piece of the puzzle. There will be very little by way of notes, letters and handwritten documents that future generations of historians can refer back to.  It will all be digital, and if it is written, it most likely won’t be the kind of penmanship you see when you read letters exchanged in the 1940s.  As a history major, this is sad to me.  Watching a 17 year old struggle to write two sentences is sad.  

With all of this in mind, I’m basking in the fact that my student thinks my crappy penmanship looks nice….

 

 

 

 

 

On Writing: From Page to Screen

I think I’ve mentioned here that in writing my book I haven’t been able to really focus on writing when writing on my laptop.  I’ve had far greater success writing things out by hand in my pink notebook with my pink pen.  (Pink is very important!)

I’ve blown through more than one pen and I just finished filling a notebook, so now it’s time for the transcription to begin.  I’m sure some editing will take place during the transcription, which is good.  I’m still figuring out a system to get things into order given that I didn’t write anything chronologically in my pink notebook.  However, I’m sure that system will come organically as we undertake this…ah…undertaking.

On Writing: Productive Procrastination

Sometimes my procrastination can be productive.  Today I wrote a few blog posts (business and personal), Tweeted (again, business and personal) and sent a dozen business emails.  I got a little writing done, and I’m mostly satisfied with it.  Perhaps procrastination isn’t so bad when it’s done in a productive way.

Of course, if I keep procrastinating, I’ll never get the book done.  *headdesk*  The vicious cycle never ends….

On Writing: The Author’s Bandwagon

I think I’ve fallen off the bandwagon.  Lately I’ve been so pressed for time that writing has taken a backseat to everything else.  This is not good.  

I’ve considered things like daily page goals, or word count goals, but generally I feel that with writing nonfiction, trying to work toward a word or page count goal could lead to a bunch of crappy writing.  Instead, I’ve tried to write something solid, and if I’m satisfied with the quality, then I’m happy with the progress.  However, I suspect that I’ll never get done if I keep this system going.

Perhaps there is a happy medium that I’m not seeing.  For now, I’ll consider any progress to be good progress.

On Writing: That Spark of Inspiration

I confessed to my coach last week that I was frustrated with my book’s outline.  I need to prepare the first four chapters to submit to a agent.  From my perspective, the first four chapters are the least interesting, and yet they’re absolutely critical.  

My coach stepped in and pointed out that by subtly changing my viewpoint, I can make those dull chapters more interesting.  It was almost too simple.  All of a sudden I looked at my outline with a new set of eyes.  I didn’t need to rewrite the outline or change things around in the book–I just needed a new approach.  

And just like that, I was back on track.

Thanks, Coach!