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So far this spring break, I’m making good on my plan to catch up on movies. I watched Jewel of the Nile and loved it almost as much as Romancing the Stone. It contained more crazy, over the top humor and adventure with a love story thrown in for good measure. I love movies like that. I went to see Fool’s Gold tonight with a friend and it fits the same category. I was laughing through the whole thing. Someone told me it had gotten bad reviews, but I’m not sure why it did. It’s certainly no Oscar winning film of epic proportions, but it was a fun, rip-roaring adventure. I had to suspend my disbelief a bit (okay, a lot) for the plotline, but no more than I had to for movies like National Treasure. And while the plot might be far-fetched, it isn’t riddled with holes and unresolved issues. The chemistry between Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey sizzles just like it did in How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. I’d recommend this one because I thought it was a good movie. Even if it wasn’t, I’d still sit through it because staring at Matthew McConaughey for a couple of hours is a treat in itself.
I’ve finished a couple of novels while on break. ‘Finished’ as in finished reading them, not writing them. I’ve only finished writing a couple of novels in my dreams. My 2008 book log is short--very short. My total for the year is twelve books. This is unheard of for me, but I’ve never focused on my writing this much before either. I suppose it’s a tradeoff since I’ve only got so much time to devote to extracurriculars.
I’m almost caught up on all my 2YN assignments. I let myself get several weeks behind, but last night I made major headway on character development. I have all but assignment 11 for this week posted, and I’m hoping to finish that one tomorrow. My goal is to work ahead a bit, finish all the character assignments, and do some additional character development on my own before starting back to school next week. Romance is so character driven, even in the romantic suspense sub-genre, that it’s going to be hard for me to continue with the world building and plotting until my characters have taken better shape.
I attended my second meeting of the local RWA chapter last weekend. Like the first one, it provided me with tons of useful information. I feel completely out of my league with all those ladies who have so much more writing and publishing experience than I do. I’m terrified I’ll sound like an idiot if I open my mouth, so I just sit there like a wallflower and soak up everything they say. One lady was talking about the importance of practicing writing as a skill and she compared it to playing the piano. She told us about a man in her church who is brilliant on the piano. Then she said, “I want to be able to play like him, but I don’t want to practice that much. I want to write like Susan Elizabeth Phillips but I don’t want to practice that much either.” I took piano lessons for ten years and hardly ever practiced. I haven’t touched the keyboard in years. I’ve been talking about how I want to be a writer for years as well. In the last two years, I’ve started devoting serious time and effort to it. Am I practicing enough to reach the level of Susan Elizabeth Phillips? Not even close. Do I want to practice that much? I think I do. It’s a lofty goal, but I’m all for aiming high. Before I can soar, I have to get off the ground and in print. Am I practicing enough to get published? I’m not sure. A goal evaluation and the implementation of a progress tracking spreadsheet is probably in order. Why doesn’t that sound fun to me?