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Showing posts from August, 2014

Write what you love, plus chance to win signed print book

We've heard that adage "write what you love" and there's a reason writers are told this. Because writing what we love means we're being true to our hearts. And if we're true to our hearts then our writing won't suffer. Nor will the readers.

We can't kid ourselves. Well, we can but not forever. Whenever we lie to ourselves it's only a matter of time before the truth surfaces. Many books and movies also back me up on this. One big area where people kid themselves is in relationships. We often adapt our beliefs/principals/opinions/behaviour to suit someone else or to keep the peace or so they won't find out that we're not perfect. Invariably our true self comes home with a slam of the door, a stomp of the feet, and a defiant holler of 'honey I'm home'. Sometimes the triumphant return of our true self is to our detriment. If only we'd presented our real self at the beginning of the relationship we wouldn't have to cook food …

Top quotes from movies/books/TV shows

When was thirteen I was in a school play. I had one scene. It was a musical and therefore put on by the music teacher who was more focused on the singing and band that stage direction took a back seat and was kind of left up to the students. Yeah, as if we know what we're doing. Anyway, I was so terrified of forgetting to enter at my scene that I memorised the entire play. Despite shows like X-Factor and Idol portraying confident teens, the truth is that some teens dread the idea of being up on stage, so when the lead character pulled out one week before curtain time I stepped into the  lead role simply because I had memorised the entire play. I wasn't any good (something about lack of stage direction perhaps) but it wasn't a total disaster.

The point is, if you asked me today to recall a single line quote and I'd be stuffed. I have to write everything down now. It's possibly the reason I get a bit cynical when I read or see characters who quote verbatim long prose…





Author's description of the book:



"This was originally an idea about adult characters who die and end up in Purgatory and there they meet…

Good and bad book to movie adaptations

There is sometimes a great divide between the book and the movie. There is sometimes a good reason to be pro one and against the other. What makes a great book does not always make a great movie. Many novel writers hate the movie adaptations so much they refuse to lend their names to the credits (comic book icon Alan Moore has great disdain for the adaptations of V for Vendetta and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).

These are only my top few. Here's your chance to be included in this post. Email here or comment below and include the movie/book title that did or did not work in the adaptation and provide a sentence or two and I'll include you in the post.
When we fall in love with a book we often don't want it to be changed in any way. But that's a bit like decorating a house that we expect not to be changed when the new owner arrives. Even if the house is already perfect, the first thing any new owner does is change something to make it theirs. Even something as simple …