As a soon to be published author I'm excited and terrified of the reviews my book will receive. I'm sure this is normal with all writers. A book is like your baby. You labor over it, help it walk on unsteady feet and then let go and hope it takes off running. But what if it crashes and burns? Oh the fears and doubts we writers experience.
My new book, Defiance Rising, is my baby. I've spent the past 2 years writing and re-writing. Cutting, pasting and hacking at my chapters. My book has changed more times that I care to think about...but each time it's gotten a little better. The ups soar higher. The downs are more dramatic. My characters are more well rounded...I hope!
But after 2 years of laboring over my book...is it enough? Will people love my characters as much as I do? Will they reach the ending and beg for more?
My Defiance Rising book is the first of three. I'm 3/4 through the second book and I've begun writing the 3rd. It's so exciting for me as a writer to see the progression of my characters. To see them stumble and fall, to get back up and press on. I've fallen in love with them and I so desperately want my readers to feel the same way.
Reader reviews are the lifeblood of writers. Their opinions are the only ones that count because they're the ones keeping you going. I told my husband the other night that if only one person, that I don't know, says they enjoyed my book then it will all be worth it. Soon I'll get to see if I was right.
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I've been noticing a trend lately. Movies seem to be diminishing in quality. Am I the only one that thinks this? How many times in the last couple of years have you gone into a movie thinking that it's going to be a great 2 hours out of your life only to leave thinking you just wasted $15? I've lost count of how many times!
So what's the deal? The quality of picture hasn't changed. Well, except for this crazy push to make EVERY movie a 3-D. Not my style. The sound is just as crisp. The actors are just as good, for the most part. So what's changed?
Are we, are movie goers, looking for more than the movie industry can give? Perhaps. Maybe we've all become so desensitized that the romance isn't romantic enough, the jokes aren't funny enough or the blood isn't gruesome enough. Or...maybe we as people have changed.
When I go to a movie I'm looking to be entertained. Most of us are, but in different ways. My husband goes to just watch the movie. I go to pick it apart piece by piece to make sure it all makes logical sense. I want to know "who done it" in the first 25-30 minutes of the movie. If it's too obvious I'm bored. If the characters are too stupid, I'm bored. If the dialogue is too cliche, I'm bored. If they've mixed two movies together to create a "new" one, I'm bored. Why is that?
I'm a writer. Plain and simple. I notice people's actions, their facial expressions, their body language when they are emotional. I want reality when I watch a movie. My husband just laughs at me and reminds me that "it's just a movie" but to me, it's like a book. Writers have just as hard a time making their words believable as a big motion picture does. In fact, it's harder. We don't have the luxury of having some gorgeous couple to imply the emotions that we try to express.
So, dear readers, are you a movie lover of late? Do you go to just watch or do you look for the flow of reality like me? I'd love to hear your opinion!
Happy writing!
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