The Review Process

I've been thinking about how to put my own little touch on the movie reviews I'm slated to start writing for this blog. That's the "Opinion" part, you know, reviews of things. I've been trying to pick a rating system and a structure. Then I realized I don't want to write reviews.

That's not really what my training has made me good at. Academia teaches us to hunt for evidence, and to use it to either fashion a context or support a claim (or both). Each text is an opportunity to enrich the catalog of experience--both critical experience and vicarious experience. I love these experiences, crave the challenge of contextualizing and the pleasure of the immersion a good narrative experience offers equally. So I'm not going to review. I'm going to illustrate what the evidence inspires in me, be it the frustration of a poorly-constructed character or the delight of a well-crafted visual vocabulary (Or the sexiness of sex/maniacal laughter of watching stuff explode. It's not all snooty CS BS).

There's very little that I consume that I don't at least respect. Even trashy things. It can take just as much integrity to admit that something's enjoyable because it's cheesecake as to analyze high literature. Sometimes I find lessons in "what not to do," but others' mistakes have a lot of value. It's not fair to say something's terrible and not say why, but I intend to go a step further, if I've got something negative to say. If I read/watch something that's broke, I'll try to offer my fix. It's a rare case, I find, that is unfixable. "What if" is a sick game to play with your own work (once it's complete), but it's a productive analytical tool, when looking at someone else's.

Once you know what you like and why, you can start making what you like. And when you make what you like, your audience will feel your passion. That's what I'm all about.

The Orphans of Blade and Rose

I got coerced into posting a sample chapter. I guess that fits. "I love you, is why," being the stated reason. Well, love and coercion feature prominently in my forthcoming fantasy novel, the first draft of which I finished last night (this morning?)

Here's tasty sample chapter. Hope you dig it!

Cream

It was time to go; it just was. Bevvi was going to pout about it. He was sort of a priss, anyway. Not that I usually minded. He wasn’t like anyone I knew… no, not really, and that saucy mouth of his was plenty of fun. But he wasn’t going to like it.

The Challenges of Everything

I come to this particular revelation often: Anything can happen.

On the one hand, it's paralyzing. I find myself so overwhelmed with possibilities that I don't know which to choose. My mind burns twice as bright for half as long, and then goes dark.

On the other hand, what the hell kind of thing is that to complain about? Too many ideas? Bosh. The gut knows: Write, try, see how it feels.

My characters will tell me if it works or not. Recently, Arlo (from The Wide and Burning World) got angry. I wasn't expecting that to come of all those cycling directions, but it did. It was really comfortable. In fact, even though I never meant to go in that tract, I discovered that in order to keep him from being so angry, I'd need to undo a substantial amount of previous characterization. I'm rolling with it. Just keep rolling, that's the key. Because it only counts as written once it's wrote.