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!

It’s Monday! What Are You Watching While Gotham Is Away?

I don’t watch a lot of television. I know that sounds strange, given my recapping endeavors. But it’s the truth. I really only watch the shows I write about, and when they are on midseason hiatus or when their runs come to an end, I don’t watch much tv.

So with Gotham and The Walking Dead on break, the only regular show I have left at the moment is American Horror Story Freakshow, which leaves my schedule open.

I’ve been doing a ton of reading lately, which is a nice change.  The Rice Family (Anne and her son Christopher) has kept me busy.

What are you watching? What am I missing?  What do I need to obsess about? (My sister says it’s time for me to binge watch all of Supernatural)

Thoughts?

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.