Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Wednesday and 30K!

I did it, I hit 30,000 words.  *Happy Dance*  It's not even remotely halfway in the book at this point, but it's still almost halfway to my initial word goal of 70,000 words by the end of 80 days.  My actual word count is 31,051.  Good stuff.  I think I'd like to hit the halfway point (35,000) by the next check in.  Then I can start to feel better about my end goal.  Right now, it's feeling like it might be in jeopardy, so let's hope I can make some major head way in the next 30 something days.

Sunday I did some really great outlining of where I want this book and the next book to go.  I did this in Compis and it really paid off, even when things changed (Luka's whole story!) midway through the book.  I try to be flexible in my outlining, but having a story with some spice and snap is essential for my creative process.  I'm very pleased, at this point, where all the characters are going to end up at the end of Aeris.

On a totally different topic, is anyone as disappointed as I am by the season finales this year?  I can think of only ONE that I liked, and several that made me so disgusted, I might not be returning as a viewer in the fall.

Bones: The writing in that show took a hideous toward the end of the season.  First there was the awkward confession from Booth that he'd like to try having a relationship with Bones only to be turned down flat.  Then the inevitable separation which left everyone questioning where the show could possibly continue come fall.  Well, I'll tell you how: by introducing the most contrived and unbelievable plot in the history of the show, and that includes one of their interns becoming a SERIAL KILLER.  I almost stopped watching then.  But I love Bones' character.  She is so refreshing.  So I stuck it out and as a writer, knowing that Booth would break up with Hannah from the get-go, I hoped that things would settle back into normal.  But NO.  Bones had to go and have a revelation, and be in LOVE and now we cut to this season's end, where she is PREGNANT.  Seriously, how can they possibly make this work with the storyline?  This has got to be the last season.  No question.

Grey's Anatomy:  This show lost me when George slept with Izzie.  BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER, Shonda.  Seriously, that's when I realized that Shonda Rimes was NOT a good writer.  And I should have taken that lesson and stayed away from everything else she put her hands in, but some how, I got sucked back into Grey's after Alex and Izzie broke things off.  And the show was going great, until it just sort of fell to crap at the end of this season.  Seriously.  Walking away for good this time.  You suck, Shonda.

Fairly Legal: This show started as one of my new faves for the season.  I love the main character (Sarah Shahi) from the previous show I met her in: Life.  She was fantastic on that show and again on this one, as a mediator with a life that is far from together.  I put up with her horrible relationships because I liked the interplay between her and her clients.  Then the season finale aired and I thought, OMG, change this woman's job and location, and you basically have "In Plain Sight" which I stopped watching in disgust a couple years in.    Seriously, if I wanted a season like that, I'd just reread Gone With the Wind.  Which I won't, because I HATED it.

Castle:  This show has been a secret fave of mine for a while, because I love the snappy reparte and well, I've had a crush on Nathan Fillion since Firefly.  But the "love story" between Rick and Kate has always felt FALSE to me.  They just don't do it for me, and the constant, "I love him, I don't love him," "I want her, but I'm going to pretend I don't" crap just makes me irritated.  Cut to this season's finale, where Kate gets shot in the most horrible cliche scene in the HISTORY OF TELEVISION and Castle tells her he loves her.  First of all, how can anyone actually believe she is going to die???  Seriously, I know people who are worried that she won't be coming back next season.  Uh... she's the main star.  That's just silly.  And obviously, she's not going to remember the love confession.  To which I say, THANK GOD.  Maybe they can just move on now.

I haven't seen Glee yet, but my hopes aren't high.  The shining moment for me was Community, which had an awesome spaghetti western / Star Wars homage.  It made my fan girl happiness go sky high.

Obviously, these are only my opinions, but seriously, if these season finales were books, I would have given them 2 stars apiece.

Happy Reading!  

3 comments:

Nadja Notariani said...

Glad you have passed the half-way mark on the latest novel. Hitting those milestones during a project keep me from feeling overwhelmed. I started a second project (I've just about finished the novel....less than thirty pages to go! ) and this time, I plotted out each chapter before beginning. What a difference! The writing is flowing much easier, and I have to give full credit to the pre-planning. I'll employ this ever so helpful strategy for all my future works as well. Good luck in breaking 35k this week. ~ Nadja

DarkWyvern said...

Awesome work on hitting 30,000 words! At 20,000 words I'm only a quarter of the way through my novella, and I'm always wondering how I'll crank out the next 10,000.
The only two shows I watch on your list are Castle and Bones, though I've gone off Bones a bit as well (especially after reading a review about the episode introducing the spin-off series, which I admittedly haven't watched yet). The finales haven't aired here in Australia yet (or if they have, I missed them :|)

Deniz Bevan said...

Woo hoo, congrats on the forward progress! I'm exactly halfway through the novel in my edits...