Clichéd J is back... 

What to blog about? Well I thought I would talk about tv because it does fill some of my life. HBO programming in particular, Sex and the City, Entourage, Six Feet Under, Hung, True Blood, Big Love, The Wire and Rome, the list goes on but there does seem to be a trend with my regular viewing... setting aside Dexter, an old favourite in Friends and new in Grey’s Anatomy.
 
So what cliché can I conjure from television.  Is this a rhetorical question?
 
Writing and television or movies for that matter go hand in hand as they do with the novel, just a different kind, the screenplay.  
  
I’ve contemplated this for most of my writing comes from a scene or place in my mind with two players hammering it out in many forms. So would screenplays suit me better? Perhaps. Maybe I should do a course.
 
My question today... how many authors would be better screenplaying? I know that there are some authors who awe inspire and astound me. These are true artists who know there craft. Then there are writers, like me, who create the stories in their head on paper... which is kind of like screen writing?
 
Narration isn’t my strong suit. I can create a scene and tell a story but the in depth descriptions and creating a bigger, longer narration is the thorn in my side (cliché!) and I do struggle for the most part to get past
70k words. So is this an avenue I should pursue? Jury is still out on that one.


 
 

I thought I would do a quick little ramble about something that is a ‘thing’ that is part of my writer’s quirks.   

I set aside time.  I choose something to work on.  I sit down... crickets.  I have all of this wonderful free time and I can’t type a single word.  The muse is off running in a field or sleeping, wherever it is s/he goes. 

Yet when I have ‘real’ work to do or I have children with demands to be met I have this screaming in my head.  The movie is running and I cannot reach the laptop to get it all down.  At times like this I use my dictaphone but sometimes even that is not an option.  Why oh why can I not work to a ‘schedule’?  Why is it that when I find time I am as blank as the page on the screen?

My friend JB suggested I use this time – as he so eloquently put – to formulate and clarify your ideas.  A wonderful suggestion and something I probably should do but if I write anymore notes for anymore book ideas I would have enough notes to make a book about notes. 

It’s probably the rebellious streak in me.  When I have time, no work, no children, nothing else but that... I do something else.  I try to open my mind and get those ideas out... but NO!

I am unfortunately a sporadic writer.  I write when the mood strikes.  When I’m ‘feeling’ a certain project or the scene or idea appears in my mind then I can whip out the words easy and smooth.  When I sit down and force... I can tell and I will usually send this to the cutting floor.

So I wonder how others work like this.  How they can write by a schedule.  I admire their drive and ability to pull up the muse and words on cue.  I don’t think I could work like this because I get distracted by shiny things like a magpie does... oh pretty... where was I?

Now I don’t know if I managed to squeeze a cliché in there so I’m going to finish with... if life hands you lemons, make a sour face.

OK so I’m in a kind of limbo at the moment. I am supposed to be rewriting and I have been and I’m over 10k in now but I have hit one of those... hmm moments. Self doubt is a nasty little creature that claws inside, burrows in and refuses to let go. The swinging pendulum of belief and doubt can play havoc with a writer. Well it does for me anyway.

So as I wait for the release of Fire Starter and I ride the ups and downs of Spoilt, I wonder what will happen. Spoilt is still being downloaded and as I pass 95,000 copies and head towards 100, I can’t help be amazed. It is still unreal to me and the belief that I have a book that people may actually like creeps in. Then doubt rears its ugly head (cliché?) and I wonder... when they have to pay, will they? If I can ‘sell’ a quarter of the freebies then I’ll be amazed.

It is all about the ying and yang thing again.  Do you believe you have all your ducks in a row? (Is this a cliché?) Or just when one area of your life is going particularly well (when you feel you aren’t drowning but treading water) then another part of your life pushes you back down.

It seems that fate believes that we require a challenge. That everything cannot go well all the time. There are a few things for me at present that are better than they were. There are couple of aspects in my life that I felt were pushing my head under the water and holding me down, almost like a test of strength and inter fortitude. Life does appear to be random. Good people have bad things happen and not so nice people keep on going. But is this more to do with the fact that not so nice people don’t care what others think. They don’t care what happens to others so go through life easily because they have no conscience.

There will always be someone who wants to tear someone else down. So just when you think you break through the surface and take a deep breath a different hand clamps down and pushes you down again. As though being happy needs to be counteracted with sadness. Perhaps I need to rise above it all. Be strong and ignore the haters but unfortunately I am far too sensitive. I let things bother me far too much. Being nice isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I wonder whether I will find that middle ground and just tread water.

Then I remember that there are people far worse off than me. People who have lost their homes, family members, their whole life ruined and I think I am lucky. I’m healthy and more importantly my kids are. We have a roof over our heads and we are happy (mostly) so really the other little things in life aren’t worth the worry or stress... yet I do. It is all relative I suppose but taking a look at my life occasionally put things back in perspective.

So is it all about balance? Finding somewhere between belief and doubt. Finding somewhere between the good and bad. Treading water. Not allowing yourself to drown in either swing of that pendulum but to stop it in the middle. Having too much belief will lead to ego and delusion, having doubt breeds depression and defensiveness. Have you found your balance? I’m still looking for mine.

I wasn’t going to blog today because I had nothing to write/whinge/rant about. That is until I was driving home after I picked up my daughter from school. 

Manners. They’re free. They cost you nothing except feeling good about being nice and polite. My Nana had one of many favourite sayings which I think applies here. You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. Now of course I don’t want to catch flies but you get the drift.

You are far more likely to get what you want if you use your manners. Alternatively to this, how difficult is it to say thank you when someone does something for you? Now the reason this came up as I was driving home; there were roadworks and one lane was closed. I got into the open lane early and waited while others pushed their way in. I let one of these impatient pushers in and not a single acknowledgement. I could have speed up and kept him out. I could have refused to let him in but I did and got donuts. Big fat ziltch. No wave, nothing. Now perhaps it is wrong of me to demand this but if the roles were reversed I would say thank you. I have noticed this happens a lot when driving. No thank you. No courtesy. If I happen to be one of these ‘pushers’ when I need to merge, I always give the wave... sometimes I get abused for being pushy even when using manners.

Now manners is one thing I drill into my kids.  A lot. Whenever they ask for something and don’t use the ‘magic’ word, I remind them. To me it is all part of being considerate. Perhaps I’m wrong.

Maybe I take manners too far. To the opposite extreme. If I’m out to dinner with a group of people I always wait till everyone has their meal before I start eating mine and then don’t leave the table till everyone is finished. Even when it is just me and the kids, I always wait till they are finished.

Perhaps I am simply too nice and think that manners should be second nature. But then again would I want someone to thank me and not mean it. This is another thing altogether.

So as I said... you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

Well I am still being cliched J even though I didn't get any further prompts :(
So I've decided I guess I'd better come up with my own.

I had a different blog written for today but I decided not to post. However it was good to vent and to consider sharing it. So instead of boring you with drivel about ducks in a row and my attempt at a metaphor regarding drowning and treading water I’m going to ramble about love at first sight.

Now some of you may scoff and with good cause but the romantic in me believes in it wholeheartedly. Sure it probably isn’t ‘love’ so much as lust, instant attraction or other such chemical reactions. Yet I believe that you can find that connection, that certain something, after one meeting. We all need something to believe in.

I’ve seen it happen. It’s happened to me. It exists but not necessarily as flowery and romantic as it can appear in books or movies. Cynics liked to bah humbug any hint of instant love. To them I say... (well it isn’t worth repeating...) Yet rom-coms, ballads (think Celine Dion’s song from Titanic) and romance novels are popular. I admit I am one of the popular. I love a good (albeit perhaps over the top or farfetched) fictional love story. Fictional being the key word here. I like the fact it may NOT be realistic. That is the point. If I wanted real life I would watch the news or read a biography (and I do... but I know what I would prefer.)

Perhaps I walk through life with blinkers on as I would much rather not know about all the horrid things people do to each other. I don’t want carnage and death, well sometimes I do but with a happy ending ;). I want love and the kind that isn’t real... that is the POINT.

If you don’t believe in airy fairy ridiculous love at first sight romance... then by all means don’t but please also don’t expect it to be something else when you do go there.

I decided to use Soooz’s prompt word for me today – Survival. 

There has been so much happening in the world lately.  Floods in Queensland, earthquake in Christchurch and a tsunami in Japan, could Mother Nature be angrier.  Probably.  I hope that she has no more in store for the people of the world.  There has been too much devastation, loss of life and homes. Cities, towns, countries in ruin.

Yet there are people, despite the odds, who have survived and some with their strength intact.  I have a friend in Christchurch who after living through two earthquakes can blog about her experiences with tenacity.  Authors banding together to raise funds for Japan.  These things are heart warming and remind me that we, as humans, do everything we can to survive.  It reminds me I have much to be thankful for and the next time something trivial gets me down that I am lucky.  That there are people out there who have faced much worse than me and can hold their head up and keep moving forward.

Then there are the others who through child abuse, rape, domestic violence and death of loved ones can keep on keeping on (is that cliché – though I am trying to avoid it with the serious subject but I did give my word...) and SURVIVE.

If you would like me to keep being Cliched J then please contact me with your words and I’ll keep on blogging... if I don’t get those prompts... well ... then I won’t ;)

OK I’ve had a few takers so I’m gonna try Tuesday and Thursday... see how we go.  If I keep getting prompts, I’ll keep on going.  

Thanks to JB for my first prompt, naughty.  This little paragraph popped into mind.

Stella paced the length of the hallway.  Once.  Twice.  She soon lost count staring at the worn carpet on the floor.  The patterns had smeared together so that they were no longer distinguishable and this kept her mind from wandering as she tried to decipher them.   With her shoulders hunched over hands on hips, she worked with ferocity at her lower lip.  Would she be punished for being naughty?   One part of her worried about the consequences but the other part, the dirty girl part, wanted to feel the sting of an unexpected hand on her rear.  Feel the tingle as it worked down her hamstring right to her toes.  The sound of skin slapping skin sent moisture to her loins... in fact thinking about it now, she felt a trickle of excitement.  Is this why she continued to break the rules?  Is there really a fine line between pleasure and pain? (Is this a cliché?)  Stella completed another lap of the corridor outside his office.  When the door opened and his face appeared, she abruptly halted, lifted her head, pulled back her shoulders and dropped her arms.  The anticipatory smile pulled at her lips.  Being naughty was definitely worth the consequence.

Next word... stay tuned.

I have two things I’m going to blog about today. 

The first is what is going to become (if I get the response of course) my weekly Thursday blog, like a column but it is going to be up to YOU what I write about.

You may or may not know I’m pretty good at using cliché.  I am a walking romantic cliché so I’ve decided to call the column Clichéd J and will try and incorporate one each week.  So the prompt... one word only.  It can be whatever you like and I will try and write something about it, fictional or non-fictional.  If you would like to nominate a word for me to select from (this is of course if I get more than one prompt or any for that matter) then either comment on this blog or contact me via email.

The second thing today, is about writers I know.  Now it would be very re-miss of me not to tell everyone about my good friend, writer buddy and beta reader, Tom Sharp or T S Sharp as he is calling himself.  He has a short story on Amazon called Unfamiliar Country.   I have read it and like Seven Seconds it is brilliant, well I think it is anyway.  It is a unique, dark tale which surprised me with the ‘big bang’ ending.  Tom manages to make excellent writing look easy and he is an inspiration to me.

So that is it for Topical Thursday or what is going to become Clichéd J, if I get those entries of course!