Blog Assignment #6 - Now You See It

So I've found myself stuck in a place that is very uncomfortable for a writer; a limbo of sorts. I love to write, but lately it seems more like a daunting chore, than pleasurable. I have to force myself to write, and for a writer that's not good.

It all started when I made the mistake of taking an Intermediate Screenwriting class. It's a good class, don't get me wrong. But I took the Beginning Screenwriting class a year ago, and I didn't get a whole lot out of it. It was a lot of watching movies, and talking about character development. And I became really good a that.

 I can't take a man's smile and build an entire body around it. Then breathe life into him, and give him a personality. He has a past, present and future; dreams and desires. His world is full of family, friends and love interests; and, they too have well developed lives.  It would be incredible, except for one roadblock. With all that development, I tend to forget what the story I wanted to tell was, and why.

So I sit down at my computer, and I type out scene after scene. Oh wait, I have to write an essay for my English class. Back to my screenplay. Darn it, I forgot I said I was going to develop a couple of short stories for this upcoming writing project. And now back to my... personal blog time. I'm really going to put some time into my screen... I almost forgot my blog for my English class. I'm feeling moody, think I'll write a poem about that. I think you get the point.

It's become so bad, I hardly ever open my laptop anymore; not like I used to. When will this semester end, so I could get back to loving writing?

Blog Assignment #5 - Dystopia At It's Finest

It's interesting that we were given a clip from Wall-E to write this blog about. Mostly because it is one of my favorite Dystopias. For those who aren't familiar with what a Dystopia is; it is the opposite of a Utopian society, in which something is seriously wrong with the society at large and it is undesirable for people to live in.

Some of the most recent famous Dystopian works (both literary and film) are The Hunger Games, The Host and Divergent. But Dystopias  aren't limited to Young Adult fiction. No it can be found in almost anything that is Science Fiction oriented.

Disney/Pixar's Wall-E is one of the best ones that I have seen. Not just because it's Disney, but because it shows a society that nobody should want to live in, but we seem to be headed. toward. That's right, I said headed toward. Why?


Imagine a world were nobody walks anywhere, and everything we desire is convenient. It's not hard to picture because or world is already like that in so many ways. We have motorized vehicles that take us everywhere we go. On practically every corner, we an find fast food, drive up banking, pharmacies, libraries, and more. We can work and go to school from the comfort of our home, and having our groceries and food delivered to us. We video chat, share pictures via social networking, text and talk via our phones. With technology, we could almost live 100% of our life in a chair in our home, and not worry about anything.

That is a life pretty close to the life that the people in Wall-E lived. The only difference was that they were travelling in chairs. Sure they got out and about, but they never had to leave the chair. They wanted to change clothes, there was a button for that. They were ready to eat, there was a bot for that. They had fallen, and couldn't get up, a bot was on the way for that. Makes you think of the statement, "There's an App for that". doesn't it?

They had no cares in the world. Heck, when Wall-E snapped Mary out of her conversation, she seems lost. Like she had no clue where she was, and what was going on. Even the children were immobile. It makes for a unhealthy communal situation. And at the rate that technology is taking us, we are headed that way.

Although, I would rather be in Wall-E's dystopia, than have to watch kids killing each other, like in the Hunger Games.

Blog Assignment #4 - Great Sex & Bad Writing

So by now, the whole world has heard of 50 Shades of Grey.
E. L. James wrote a literary masterpiece that will stand the test of time...

Okay, so that was a joke. The truth is, 50 Shades is not well written and the story itself is just okay. So why all the hype... Because James shocked the world by making porn seem literary.

To those familiar with literary genres, this piece of writing would normally have been tucked away in the erotica section, and the lack of great writing skills would've buried it. But that didn't happen. Why?

Because where the story was lacking, James made up for it with great character development and steamy (oddly enough, well written) sex scenes. Hell, I fell in love with Christian Grey.

But the popularity of 50 Shades created a serious problem. More and more poorly written stories are being published, with well written sex scenes. And they aren't being buried in the erotica section. Nope, they're hanging out in the supernatural romance, gothic thrillers, dystopia, medieval romance and fantasy sections. They're veiled as really good genre pieces, then uncovered as smut in literature's clothing.


I recently read a book on my kindle, called Awakened. I have no clue how it got there, but I figured, "Why Not?" I'll tell you why not. Because it was "Crap in Literature's Clothing". As I began, I thought, "This is okay. Characters aren't too bad, and the story has a decent start." About 50 or so pages in, and I started thinking, "Where are the vampires? Isn't this book a part of the Vampire Awakenings series?"

By page 59, I was slightly angry. Why you ask? Because by this page, there is a pretty steamy scene, and yet the first book of the "Vampire Awakenings Series" still hadn't given me an actual vampire. Sure I suspected, but it wasn't until page 172 that the big reveal happened.

So here we have a book with okay character development, the story layout is horrible, and the plot is just okay. So why would anyone ever recommend this book. Because the sex scenes were pretty awesome. I'm not going to lie. Those scene were written very well, just like E.L. James did with 50 Shades. And as a writer, it makes me furious.

Mostly because there are great works not being published, due to a lack of sex. And yet this dribble can get published because someone got aroused when they read the manuscript. It's enough to make any writer worth their salt want to spit nails.

Luckily for me, I can be a well rounded writer. I can write a steamy sex scene, but it's usually embedded in a not so bad story with awesome character. So I hope some day to prove that Great Sex doesn't have to be tied together with
Bad Writing.