Cut It Down

So, I went to see the Hobbit part 2 with my parents today.
And I was disappointed.
Honestly, my hopes weren't that high to begin with, considering how the first movie went. And considering they're stretching that poor book out into 3 movies.
They could have cut out half of that movie, and then it would have been great.
(Billbo was great though).

It all has to do with something we talked about in my creative writing class.
A story is not done when you've finished adding stuff. It's done when you've cut out as much as you can. When you get rid of all the fluff, all the unnecessary details. and have streamlined everything, that's when it starts to get really good. (One of my Red Seeker chapters suffered greatly from this. I deleted a few pages, and now it sucks less)
People don't want to read pages about the description of a character's eyes.
And I'm guessing that most people don't care about a 20 minute fight as a bunch of dwarves are flushed down a river with an elf stomping on their heads and shooting things.
And they just had to add a totally random romance in there. (Yeah, I hate half-ass romances.) You know, in order to make up for all my complaining about romances, I'll go and search out my favorite pair.
I was also really looking forward to Smaug, but I was disappointed in that too. Sigh. TT^TT Just too much. Too much of everything, everything was too long.
Why shove Sauron and Lagolaas in here?

Lesson: Don't stretch stuff out. You'll lose all of your fans that appreciate actual quality, instead of another fighting or fake romance scene.

Oh My Gawd, PUPPIES!

So, tonight was a party for my creative writing class.
I thought I'd go down for a while and chat with people from my class, eat some food, maybe talk about writing a bit. Maybe come home after about an hour.
Didn't happen.
Because I overlooked one very important fact.
Roberta's golden retriever had puppies 10 days ago.
So, I spent over 3 straight hours sitting in the bedroom with ten little puppies, whose eyes weren't even open yet. I ventured out after a while, because I really wanted to get my camera. Kim had arrived and I went "why on earth are you out here when you could be in a room full of puppies?" And she joined me for the rest of the night.
And several other people came in to hold puppies. Alan probably stood there a good half hour, just staring into the box of fluff. (By the way, he just self-published a book on Amazon, and he asked me to help proof-read his next book. I'll definitely post on those once I finish reading them).
After the party ended, they had to move the puppy box back into the other room. So I scooped five of the puppies onto my lap. You know, just to be helpful (oh my gaaaaawd, lap full of puppies!!!)
Aww, maaaaan. I was one happy camper all night.
I'll have to put a puppy picture up. But I'm tired now, so I'll do that tomorrow.

If everyone got to spend time with puppies like that, all wars would disappear.
^-^

And here's photos~

Balloons!

I just finished reading a book about writing.
And there was some very fascinating and helpful stuff in it.
And I thought I'd mention of few of the topics I liked.

Apparently writers form groups to help each other with writing. But in these groups, they don't offer advice. They only meet to tell each other what they like about their writing.
Apparently it's really important for people to hear what they do well. It gives them confidence and energy to continue working.
So people meet for the sole purpose of giving each other positive feedback.
I don't think I've ever seen so much praise about, well, praise.

And another thing she mentioned was something I've thought about a lot (mainly because of some DA journal posts from artists, talking about family/friend problems). I've been pretty lucky in this category, and I wonder what makes it difficult for other people.
What she says is to surround yourself with good people, and try to avoid "balloon poppers." Balloon popers are people that bring you down by popping the balloons that keep you afloat. So, stay with people that make you feel flooaty, not with people that bring you crashing down.
There's a lot of ways that people can be balloon poppers. If they're self-centered, greedy, insulting, or insecure it can take some of your float away. Even simple little comments can pop balloons. Perhaps they don't like how some people are happier than they are and they consciously or unconsciously decide to make you sink. Some people might do it on purpose, but others probably don't even realize that they're bringing you down.
I suppose it's impossible to always avoid balloon-poppers, but do your best. Keep people around you that give you energy and make you feel floaty.
Yaay, floaty!

I think I'll talk about the last thing tomorrow. Because it's all about procrastination (That's why I'm putting it off until tomorrow. Or maybe a few days later. Hmm).

Merry Happy Christmas!

And now that Christmas is practically over, I pop in to say MERRRY CHRISSSTMAAAASSS!!!!!!

(This image has popped into my head a few times today).

I get to order a bunch of books from Amazon cause I got gift caaards~
I feel slightly bad though, because yesterday I read a chapter about how important it is to order from independent bookstores. Next time I want a new book, I'll have to go to one.
I already ordered a book about Tibet. And there's a couple other really nice books that I saw in Portland (big hardcover expensive picture books) about Chinese gardens and Japanese gardens. I might try to get those - or at least one of them. They're excellent references for my stories. I've already got a collection books about Asia.
Come to think of it, I wonder if I can find a copy of that book about Chinese clothes...

Bleh bleh

I just sent the first few chapters of Red Seeker to some friends to read.
And now I wish I hadn't. Because my cousin Sean read it during our family Christmas Eve party and made it clear that I still have a lot of work to do on character development. TT^TT
I wish I could try to fix it some more before having my friends read it.
Well, I guess I'll see if they have similar comments.
And I'm still worried about the opening scene. The first sentences of a book are the most important, because that's what hooks a reader and makes them read on. I re-wrote the first couple pages again. I still don't know if it works well though.
Blehhh.
The never-ending problems I've been trying to fix since I started writing this story.

It's funny how I was somewhat confident about that excerpt until a couple comments from Sean. I suppose that's not an uncommon occurrence though (To make it clear, Sean was in now way mean and is really interested in the rest of it. Though I'll have to fix it up some more. Sean is part of my target audience).

And on a random note, I rented the first season of Sherlock. I've been hearing about it for months, but I'm in the middle of 6 other TV series. I wanted to finish some of those before I started any others. But I'm almost done with 3 of those series, so I grabbed Sherlock when I saw it on the shelf. After all, the books are fantastic. I read all of them.
My parents watched it with me. And it's definitely awesome. Their portrayal of Sherlock and John is a lot of fun, and their interactions make me laugh.
And as always, no matter what he appears in, Sherlock Holms is amazing.
But curses for nasty cliffhangers!

Can't There Just be Friends?

This is another topic I posted about a while ago. I've thought about more I want to say about it.
It seems like there has to be a romance in everything. If there's a guy and a girl, odds are they're going to get together. Everyone has to have some sort of romance.
So when there isn't one, it's really kind of nice.
Like in the TV show, Warehouse 13. Pete and Mica are partners and friends. But as Pete said in one episode "Mica would never kiss me. Not if her life depended on it." Heheh.
And even better, is Claudia and Steve. Claudia and Steve are both very fun characters. I love their best-friends-forever relationship. It seems even sweeter since I know they'll never hook. This is because Steve's gay.
Which makes me wonder... do they now have to make someone gay in order to ensure the viewer that there won't be a relationship? (I'm obviously not saying that's the only reason they'd have a gay character. But I appreciate their relationship much more knowing that they're not going to spring a romance on us at the last second)
And I started thinking... are there any Disney movies without romances?
I don't think Finding Nemo had one. Lilo and Stitch didn't really have one either (though I guess Nani and David were together)
I guess Frozen didn't technically end with a romance. But it's not like there was an absence of romance.
In Treasure Planet, Jim doesn't have a girlfriend. Though there is a romance among other characters (Though that was more fun than most Disney romances).

Studio Ghibli movies don't always have a romance. There are always male and female characters. And occasionally there are hints of something (that's what I do. I hint at things). I believe that Howl's Moving Castle was the first real romance? At least the first actual kiss.

I watched A Girl Who Leapt Through Time with Ellen one night in Japan. And Chiaki's goodbye was a hug and a head-pat.
And it was a very sweet farewell (I already have plans to steal it for one of my future stories XD ).
Ellen was right in saying that a kiss there would have ruined the mood.
Not the case in Epic. In that movie, the hug would have been perfect. But no. They had to add the kiss. Whyyy? They just had to stick it in at the last second, didn't they? It felt so forced and unnecessary.
Sigh.

And then another note about shipping (deciding which characters should hook up). I don't like shipping. I never really cared about that with anime and such. But then I learned that people actually ship real-live people. Which just seems really disrespectful... Not to mention uncomfortable for the subjects.
Maybe that's why I don't like shipping with fictional characters - it's just a small step from fictional characters to real people. And to me, fictional characters always have their own life.
And I started to wonder why some people are so obsessed with shipping. And I did reach one possible conclusion. Maybe they just don't understand that all different kinds of love are equally important and powerful. They think that the only love that matters for a relationship is romantic love.
If people think that, then they're going to miss a lot out of life.


In other words, I tried to find some interviews with Idina Menzel. And I did find a couple. But I didn't really find enough to let me make my decision. So, until further notice, I will continue to love her singing, but I don't know whether or not she's my favorite actress.

~Let It Go~

I went and saw Frozen with my Dad today. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and I think my expectations were rather low.
But it was a lot better than I expected! It was a lot of fun too (Though the snowman's kinda weird looking). I had fun whispering predictions to Dad, most of which were right. Very pretty animation too (even if it is similar to Tangled).
By the way, minor spoilers coming up.
Do you remember when I posted on my blog about the season 1 finale of Once Upon a Time? During that, the "true love's kiss" came about because a mother loved her son (instead of boyfriend/girlfriend). Well, they did something similar here. Which was nice, especially coming from Disney. This time the "act of true love" was a sister protecting her sister.

I actually got very excited at one point, though it really had nothing to do with the movie itself.
There's one song called Let it Go.



The whole scene is awesome. I want to keep watching it...
The first time I saw it, I started thinking about how the character Elsa was similar to Elphaba from Wicked. And then I started thinking how this song is very similar to Defying Gravity.
And then I started paying more attention to her, and realizing that she sounded familiar. And when the credits rolled, I found I was right. Elsa's voice is the same actress as Elphaba! No wonder she's such an amazing singer!
She really has an amazing voice. I just love listening to her voice, no matter what she's singing. There's not many singers like that for me. I'd never seen her in anything else, so I got very excited.
And on the way home, I started thinking. She might actually be my favorite actress. Since I started planning my blog post about female characters, I've been thinking about female characters/people that I like. And I do love Elphaba. She's awesome. And now I think I might have my favorite actress too.
Though I want to go find videos of interviews with her. I like to choose my favorites based on what they're like in real life in addition to their acting/singing skills.
My favorite actor falls into that category too. I first saw Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. And I liked him, but didn't single him out among the other X-Men. Then one day, Mom calls me downstairs, to where a version of Oklahoma was playing on TV. Lo and behold, there was Wolverine on stage, singing. Which was so unexpected after seeing him only as Wolverine. I started to take more notice of him after that (what can I say? I like singing along with people).
I also love watching the making-of films, and interviews of people involved in films (not just films, but anything). Those making-of things are very inspiring to me. The Les Miserables ones were fascinating, and I wonder if there's any I missed.
These interviews are where I discovered that Wolverine was a really funny, nice person in real life. I don't think there was an "aha moment" where I discovered he was my favorite actor. It just kind of happened gradually. Though Oklahoma was a major turnign point. It's fun to have a distinct moment for discovering my favorite actress. (I did have an "aha moment" for discovering Kenshin as my favorite character though. ^-^).
So now I must go and find some interviews with Idina Menzel. ^-^
As I try and fail to get this new song out of my head... Or maybe I'll just listen to it several more times. After all, I can only ever get songs out of my head once I've learned them.

Last Days of Classes

On Thursday, I read another chapter for my creative writing class. I skipped way ahead to an out-of-order chapter, just to confuse everyone in class. I kinda jumped around with my chapter readings... Anyway, I didn't want to read chapter 5 because Katani's a jerk. So instead I read my third Kazuhi chapter. Just because I read his other two chapters during class already.
I don't think I'll be able to sign up for creative writing next semester. Though I will go and visit whenever I can. Since I have friends there now.
And I don't think I'll be able to do band next semester either. One of my grad classes is at the same time. I've never not been in band. Not since I started middle school. TT^TT I'll try to go to the first couple classes. I'll need to find other motivations to practice. Maybe I should do some more lessons with my teacher.

On Saturday we went to see Finding Happiness again (the movie I was an extra in). It was at a different theater, nearer home. My grandma, aunt, and uncle came too. It's the first time anyone else in the family has seen it (including Dad). They liked it. Rob especially appreciated the cinematography and such, since he's made documentaries before.
It's out on DVD too. Do any of you guys want to borrow a copy?

Off to go add more stuff to Red Seeker. There's still a lot of stuff that isn't clear enough, and more things I want to add. That's not even including all the character stuff I still need to sort out.

Female Characters

So, as I was writing that post about moments that I can't get out of my head, I realized that none of those characters were female. I did a bit of digging, and found that Midna fit into that category, but it got me thinking again about how nearly all of my favorite characters are male.
There are several tough female characters, but I don't think it's just a matter of making strong female characters. They seem to be lacking... something. I'm not sure how to put it into words though.
Maybe it has to do with so many charcters just fitting into certain slots. Like this person is comedy relief. That guy is the brains. Maybe this is just stickign more to female characters now thatn it is to males?
I think I covered some of this "character awesomeness by gender" in a previous post, but this Youtube video got me thinking more. Especially about how very subtle sexism influences us without us even being aware of it.



And as I think of this, I keep thinking about how I can make my female characters deeper and more interesting. In Red Seeker, the main character is a boy. But I have a lot of heroines in other stories that I have planned. In fact, I think most of my main characters are female.

What do you guys think about this? (Trying to bring more people to post on my blog...)

Home from the Snow

Got home today.
It's so much quieter here. XD At my aunt and uncle's house, there's lost of people. My three cousins - Two teenage boys and a younger girl who gets really hyper with company. And I'm company. She loves playing with me, so when she's home I don't get anything like quiet time. She was in school though. There' a little dog too, and they have two foster boys who are also teenagers. And my cousins had friends over pretty much every day.
So, yeah. Lots of people. And we did lots of stuff too. We went somewhere every day (Yaay for the City of Books!). I got a red Tibetan-style shirt. Now I can match Katani!
And yesterday it snowed! I was sooo excited, since I usually only get to see snow once a year. And yesterday was probably that day.
Sera took the day off from school so we could play in the fresh snow.
Yaaay~

I did get some stuff done in Portland, despite there always being stuff going on.
I read an entire book on the drive up (though it wasn't a big one), and read another book during the week. The second book was written by a vet about her experiences in vet school.
I did some more black + white sketches from Twilight Princess. I'm still going slowly through chapters of my Midna fanfic, and every time I finish a sketch from one of the chapters, I edit that chapter and put it on fanfic and DA. It's a very slow process since there's so many pictures I want to draw, and so many other thigns I want to write. I think I accidentally may have skipped a chapter too...
I also did most of the lineart of the next Retriever pair from Red Seeker. This time it's Garrett and Nase. I had to redesign Frilled Dragons, so I now have a much better idea of what Nase should look like.
Read a bunch of a manga that someone recommended to me (The title translates into Animal Land). Manga is easier to read than a book if the TV is on.

I did some more touch up work on Red Seeker, of course. There's a bunch of stuff that I still need to add to make things clearer. I have a very long list of those things. Plus more lists of stuff I'd like to research to help the story along.
And my cousin, Tashi, is helping me put Dominic's song to music. I've tried to fix some things about it to make it fit to music better. I should go through the lyrics again. He's going to continue to help over the internet. He's good at writing music. I'm not. --_-- I've written many poems, but have no idea how to put them to music.

I did start 3 blog posts... and I only finished one. But at least they're started!

So, there's my general update of stuff.
I should actually talk more about books I read than movies I watch. Considering this is supposed to be a writing blog. ^-^'
Aww, man I'm tired. I had to get up early this morning, and my brain is reaching the shut-down point.

Images That Don't Leave my Mind

I was thinking about what I mentioned in a previous post.
Every now and then, there will be a small piece of a movie or manga or something that gets stuck in my head. The only way to get rid of it is to go back and watch/read it a couple times.
I tried to list out all the ones I could think of. I wanted to figure out what they had in common.
Turns out they're all pretty similar. I'd never tried to link them, so I never realized how much they had in common. And once I found the reason, I was able to fish out some more things that fit into that category.
And there are spoilers involved, so if you notice something you don't want spoiled, skip it.

The one I mentioned a little while ago was from the Les Miserables movie - the non-musical one.
When we see Javert tied up in the Revolution's camp.

Another one is from a TV show I've been watching with Mom, called Fringe. In Fringe, there are these guys called Observers, and the main one is named September. This one actually takes place through the course of a few episodes (they travel through time, hence the confusion of the timeline). He shows up, shot in the chest and nearly dies. Then we see him actually get shot later on and he collapses.

Then, surprisingly, there's one in the Pokémon Adventures manga. It took place during the finale in the Ruby/Sapphire series (around chapter 263-265). But Steven dies, I think? And Wallace carries him around. (Then they take it all back by saying that someone went back in time and saved everyone... bleh. They don't have the guts to do any lasting damage)

And then in season 2 of the Merlin series. Arthur lets himself be drugged, so that he'll look like he's dead. And then he flops down to the floor.

In Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess when Midna gets hurt and almost dies.


Pretty obvious what these have in common, huh? Characters getting hurt or almost dying.
But not just any character. It seems to go with the tough characters. The ones that seemed like they were always strong, and always above getting hurt. The unflappable ones. But if they do get it, and it's done well, I go "Oh mah Gawd! Oh mah Gawd! He's dying! He dieeed! TT^TT "

There are some other instances that fall into this category. Like in one of the Legend of Zelda manga (the short one in the art book, about the very first Link and Zelda).

And some that should fit, but don't fill all the qualifications. It doesn't seem to happen as much if I know what's coming. For example, Jean Valjean at the end of the musical film. And there are plenty of character injuries/deaths that make me very sad, but don't hit quite the way these do. Like in X-Men. Lots of injuries/deaths there.
Or if I've seen them enough to be desensitized. Like Mik at the end of Crocodile Dundee 2. Or Han Solo frozen in Carbonite.