writing/ blogs/ Flashback

June 11 Writing: I joined a writing group on LinkedIn called TWO BITS. It's "writing advice to writers from writers." It's good like "How do you end a story?" The advice was like initially your character is like this and at this place in the story.

By the end of the story, they have to change and be at a different place. Others have said they hate cliff hangers. Answer most questions, but leave a little bit of an open ending to leave the reader satisfied, but wanting a little bit more. I get emails saying there have been replies to the forums. It kind of helps my writer's block.

Blogs: I have my blog www.badcb.blogspot.com since Jan. 2008. So it's been 3 and half years and I'm still not famous. I read that the screenwriter Diablo Cody had a blog and someone told her to write a screenplay. She then wrote Juno and became a success. I have read and clipped out the newspaper article "From blog to book in 2 months."

My sister has a few blogs, but each blog is solely on one topic. My blog/ weekly emails is about a variety of topics like TV, movies, writing, music, rants, jokes, my job, my life, family, friends, and flashbacks. Maybe if I wrote solely on one topic, I would attract more people. I have like 137 comments on my badcb blog. I say 50 of them are spam.

I did start www.thevertexfighter.blogspot.com which is solely about The Vertex Fighter TV movie. I plan to write a blog post every day on that site. It's only 4 days old with 4 blog posts and no comments.

I guess I should have started on The Vertex Fighter blog like in 2008 when I was pitching the script, but the script wasn't really finished. I had badcb which proves that I am a prolific writer. It also tells anyone who visits my blog that I love to write.

This new Vertex Fighter blog does make me focus more on my goal of getting this script produced if I make myself write about the progress I make everyday. If not progress, write something about the script everyday so it would stay on my mind.

June 12 Customer service: I was reading the newspaper about how like 70% of people leave a store due to bad customer service. The biggest pet peeve is being put on hold on the phone for too long. It mentioned that Wal- Mart is the worst with customer service, but it's still the world's largest retailer.

I remember talking to this guy Mitch about how my friend Heather said: "I'm sure everything from Wal- Mart is made from some kid in China."

Mitch: Then again, China produces a lot of things.
So you can't totally blame Wal- Mart.

Unpaid work: I was thinking about The Simpsons where Homer was driving Bart.

Homer: That's the thing with being a dad; long hours and no pay.

Rain script: I'm going through my Rain draft 3 that I saved into my email. I'm also looking at my old school agenda that has all my handwritten Rain draft 3, before I typed it up. I'm going to recycle the pages, because I don't need the hard copy when I have the digital copy in my email. This was from Feb. 2010.

It was about a bad guy from Rain's past who's looking for her and finds her. I then looked and saw that my Rain rewrite was in June 2010. That's where I changed the story about how Rain gets revenge. When I read draft 3, it's very mediocre. It's 60 pages of not much happening.

I learn to write by writing. I only used a few scenes and dialogue from the old draft for the new rewrite. I haven't worked on Rain in a month. I was busy with my job, job search, and pitch package. Writing Rain is like my last priority.

Heist movies: In Ocean 11, Ocean 12, and Ocean 13, the movies are about a group of people with certain talents used to accomplish a heist. There was a TV show called Heist in 2006. There were only 7 episodes and it got cancelled. I read a Fast Five movie review that it also about a heist.

June 13 Flashback: I picked up the Metro today and there's a new book called Flashback by Dan Simmons. It will be released on Jul. 1. The blurb says: "This thriller is set in the near future where a bankrupt America is addicted to a drug that allows its population to relive the best moments and memories of the past. Simmons deftly explores how you can lose your future to your past and the inertia that can result from an addiction."

I like the part "lose your future to your past." It's about reminding yourself to live in the present and look forward to the future.

My flashbacks: I got this flashback of going to my friend Christina's birthday party. She was turning 11 and her mom was like 27? Or 28. I was 10 yrs old and I was thinking: "Wow, her mom is young. Most moms are in their 30s." Now that I'm 25, I can look back and see things differently. That means Christina's mom had her when she was 16 or 17. She got pregnant as a teenager.

Christina also had a little sister who was 9. That's the statistic with a teen mom. Once a teen girl gets pregnant when she's teen, there is a 25% chance she will get pregnant within the next two years, and she did.

Step by Step: Then I got another flashback of the old sitcom called Step by Step about a family of step siblings. The parents went to this kindergarten class with their daughter. They meet this other young couple who has a son in the same class.

The parents noticed that the couple is young.

Mom: Where are you from? The local college a few blocks from here?
Man: Well I'm 24.
Woman: And I'm 24 and a half.

I was a kid when I was watching the sitcom. I didn't do the math back then. But now that I'm 25, I'm doing the math that the young couple would have probably had the kid at 19 yrs old and that's young.

Employment article: I got this email through my blog. It's more about employment trends for teachers.

Hi Tracy,

I’m a frequent reader of your blog and wanted to let you know that I just posted an article on my site that I thought you might find interesting, “10 Telling Employment Trends in Academia”. If you think your readers might like it, too, would you consider sharing or mentioning it on your blog? I’d appreciate it if you have time to check it out.

(http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2011/06/07/10-telling-employment-trends-in-academia/)

Thanks!

Florine Church