Another Earth

Has anyone seen the film Another Earth? Ben and I watched it recently and it's been nagging at me. I can't let go of the central idea of the movie, which is what if you did something utterly unforgivable, something that ruined many lives, but then discovered a way to see what your life--and theirs--would have been like if you had never made that mistake? I love love love this concept and all of its inherent hope and heartbreak. There were other aspects of the film that are bugging me, though, and not in a good way. Like, say, the ending. And the "romantic" "relationship."

Anyone whose watched it, care for a spoilery discussion?

I recently watched the 2011 version of Jane Eyre, starring Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland), Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds), and Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot). It was excellent. Mia Wasikowska brought the same sense of presence and understated passion (if that makes any sense at all) as she did to her phenomenal performance of Alice in Alice in Wonderland. And Michael Fassbender was FANTASTIC as Rochester: volatile, passionate, tortured, soulful.

The screenplay adaptation was well done. I brought out my highly scribbled-upon copy of the book and, as I flipped through, was impressed with how much of the dialogue and narrative description were carried out verbatim on the screen. There were a few choices that I thought could have been made a little differently to portray Rochester in a slightly more balanced light--there are a few scenes where he is absolutely irredeemable and every time Jane (and I) fell in love with him in subsequent scenes, I found myself thinking back and wondering how we could fall for someone who could be such an asshole at times (pardon my candor).

Also? The score, by Dario Marianelli, is divine. I've been listening to it both at work and at home. It features British violin virtuoso Jack Liebeck, whose solos haunt my mind hours after I turn off my iPod. The Jane Eyre score just might be the theme music to my new book. :D

I would definitely recommend the movie to any fans of the novel.

How do you feel about reboots?

It seems like everything is getting a reboot lately, especially in the comics-to-movies world: The Punisher in 2004, The Hulk in 2008 after having just been done in 2003, and Spiderman is now being rebooted after a successful franchise that ended in 2007.

It seems reboots are not just affecting the comics world, however. I recently learned that Lionsgate is going ahead with a reboot of Dirty Dancing.

People, you cannot possibly imagine my horror.

Dirty Dancing! Patrick Swayze *crai*! Jennifer Grey's old nose! "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!" "This is my dance space, this is your dance space"! I could quote from this movie all day. So many classic scenes! Such great music! This movie does not need to be redone!!!!!

LIONSGATE, THIS IS CRAZY TALK. JUST STOP THE MADNESS.

And you? Thoughts on reboots?

What's your story about?

We recently watched the movie Hereafter, starring Matt Damon and directed by Clint Eastwood. It was enjoyable enough--interesting premise, good performances (Damon's especially). It was a little slow and definitely character driven but I'm happy with character driven movies so I was content to see where it took me. I think Eastwood is a top notch director. I think some of his work is some of the best out there. I trusted that he would bring it all together at the end.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

***WARNING: Here be spoilers!***

The movie centers around Matt Damon's character, George, who can communicate with the dead a la John Edward or Suzanne Northrop. The way he connects with the particular spirits linked to a person is by touching the person with his hands. In fact, any time he touches someone with his hands, he immediately connects with a related dead person and begins receiving that spirits messages. Awkward! Imagine: poor George brushes your fingers while he's paying you for the coffee he just bought and suddenly your dead mother is in his head, begging him to deliver a message--likely an apology for some intimate, personal moment George really doesn't need to know about you, given the fact he doesn't even know your name. George once made a living doing readings but it consumed him and he quit, instead taking up a more "normal" life as a factory worker. The film does a good job showing how his ability is a curse as well (or instead of) a gift and showing that all George wants is to have a simple, normal life.

This is what Hereafter's story is about: George's struggle to find a way to either accept or overcome his ability and achieve a "normal" existence.

Naturally, part of a "normal" existence for George includes a romantic interest. The movie does devote a fair amount of time to showcasing George's painstakingly careful attempt to embark on a normal relationship with a very cute, sweet girl, played by Bryce Dallas Howard (whom I just LOVE!), and it's inevitable crash and burn when she forces him to do a reading for her. But there is no question that the story is about George's life as a whole--not just his love life.

Interspersed with George's story is the story of a reporter halfway around the world, Marie LeLay (played by Cecile De France), who gets a glimpse of the hereafter (see what they did there?) and becomes obsessed with her experience. We see her relationship and career fall apart in the wake of her search for an answer to the timeless question of what happens when you die.

(There is also a third storyline of a boy who loses his twin brother but that's neither here nor there for the purpose of this blog entry so I'm not going to discuss it.)

Eventually and, I'm sorry to say, quite predictably, Marie and George meet and when George accidentally touches her hand--gasp!--he is not contacted by dead spirits! At last he has found a woman with whom he can have a "normal" relationship! Now, don't get me wrong. My heart broke for George over and over in this film, and even once for Marie as well. I was thrilled to see them find each other. But I was also ready to see the rest of the story.

And then the credits rolled.

Oh, Clint. What were you thinking? You forgot what your story was about. Hereafter was about George's *life*, not just his love life. Great! He found a partner! He's going to get laid for perhaps the first time in thirtywhatever years! I'm so happy for him! But how is he going to make a living? Will he come to terms with his ability? Will he go back to giving readings? Will he ever see his ability as a gift as well as or instead of a curse? Will he repair his relationship with his money-hungry brother, who was so obsessed with the fame and fortune to be gained by his ability? These are the questions that needed to be answered. George's story was not about finding a girlfriend, it was about finding peace within himself. And, unfortunately, that story was never finished.

I found myself thinking about this in regards to my writing, especially in light of my recent revelations about TLOS and the work I'm doing with my revisions. As a reader, the only stories I truly love are the ones where the author really gets what the story's about. As a writer, I'm working hard to get that right. It feels like a lot of blood, sweat and tears sometimes but when I have experiences like I did with Hereafter, I know it's totally worth it.

LOTR Love (and spiders)

First, don't forget to enter to win a copy of Karen Mahoney's fabulous debut THE IRON WITCH!

Last week, Ben and I re-watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He'd gotten them for me for xmas on Blu-Ray. (I already own the extended editions on DVD. Of course. Duh.)

Holy god, do I love those movies.

But one scene in particular grabbed my attention, because I realized I'd lived it when we were in Japan in October. It was this:

In the Kyoto area, there is this super amazingly wondrous Shinto shrine complex called Fushimi-Inari Taisha. It has this really cool hiking trail lined with hundreds? thousands? of torii gates (the red gates that adorn the entrance to Shinto shrines). Here's a couple of pictures from our visit:

Well. Let me tell you. Japan does NOT mess around when it comes to spiders. There were ENORMOUS spiders anyplace remotely gardenish, this place included. Huge webs spanning multiple feet. Between the gates. In the corners of the gates. Across the tops of the gates. ALL AROUND US.

We began to call it Shelob Row because I felt exactly like Frodo in that picture above, except maybe more terrified because I knew the dangers that awaited me. *shudders* So creepy. Interestingly enough, we were the only ones who seemed to be bothered by the spiders. All the Japanese tourists just sailed right by, practically brushing right through the webs, without a care in the world.

Inception

We finally watched Inception last night. Great movie! It definitely warrants a second viewing, though I'm not sure if (for me) it would hold up to, oh, say, ten or twenty viewings the way The Prestige has. (What?)

The acting was good and it was visually appealing. There were some really great, original chase/action scenes. But the coolest thing about it was definitely the story line and the concept. It's nearly impossible to talk about without spoiling something, so I won't say much. Really well executed, though - the one place where I thought I had poked a hole in it, Ben was able to talk me out of it.

The other thing I liked so much about the movie was that it was almost two movies in one. Part of the story gives it an action movie feel and that story line could easily have stood alone as a good action movie, bolstered by the unique concept of the worldbuilding. The other part of the story is...something else. And that, too, was an interesting enough story to almost have stood alone.

The only complaint I had was about a particular segment of the movie that was dependent on a certain series of actions being performed in a certain time period -- which was, by far, impossible the way they have it set up in the movie. But the rest of the story was so good, it was easily forgiven.

Highly recommended.

Please be careful of spoilers in comments in case others haven't seen it yet. I'd be happy to email with you if you want to discuss spoilery. :)

This is me, not-writing

I can tell I needed a break because it's been a whole week since I've written and I've not even freaked out once. ;) I started to miss it a little over the weekend, but that even faded a little as my focus turned to preparing for the trip to Japan. Normally I get kind of spazzy if I go more than a day without writing. Today some revision ideas tried to creep in, but they weren't anything I hadn't thought about before, so I shut them out. I desperately need this break from the manuscript so I can come back to it with fresh eyes.

In the meantime, I've loved having so much reading time! In case you missed it over the weekend, I posted an early review of Marjorie Liu's next Dirk & Steele novel, IN THE DARK OF DREAMS. It was excellent, and a wonderful reward for finishing my draft. (See, Kaz? I held out!) In the next couple of days I'll have to decide which books to load onto my nook for the Japan trip. I am so excited about this. I can bring as many as I want! I don't need to worry about suitcase space! I can bring 100 if I want! Wooooo!!!! Of course, I have to buy them still... I've got an arc of Jackie Morse Kessler's HUNGER, which I've been dying to read and will be reviewing, and also a copy of THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy already loaded on there. I don't think I'm going to read THE ROAD while on vacation, though. Too depressing. That can wait until I get back.

Have you seen the movie Kick-Ass? Hit Girl is my new hero. If I hadn't already bought my Halloween costume, I would have TOTALLY been her. She's this incredibly foul-mouthed, ass-kicking, horribly violent 11 year old superhero girl. I love her so much. :D I tried to find a clip on YouTube to post here but a lot of them are stupid and/or don't really capture her character. Just rent the movie. It's fun.

Breaking it down

Have you seen the movie Seven Pounds? It came out in 2008, stars Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, and others. It's difficult to describe without spoiling things. Here is the description from IMDB: An IRS agent with a fateful secret embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers. Will Smith's performance is extraordinary and heartbreaking, as is the story itself. It's a movie I learned from, both as a writer and a human being. It's the writer part I want to talk about right now.

The story is told in a very particular way, feeding the audience bits and pieces of information only as they become necessary, so that when the critical moment of the story comes, the audience has everything s/he needs to understand the full impact of what is happening and the reverberations back to everything that has happened before, while getting the maximum punch-to-the-gut, rending-the-heart emotional kapow.

In short: the movie is lean. There are (imo) no extraneous scenes, no wasted lines of dialogue--even the cinematography was what I would term as 'spare.' The story is stripped down to the absolute essentials--to its core--and then laid bare for the audience to see. Perfect.

Don't get me wrong. There is a lot of drama going on--outrageous, tragic, melodramatic circumstances, the sort Nicholas Sparks novels are made of. But the way the story is told is so dressed down, it all just works.

And I've been giving that a lot of thought. About how this would have been an easy movie to dress up in a lot of cinematic music and sweeping shots and minutes-long emotionally charged scenes laden with dialogue between Will Smith and his brother, Will Smith and his friend, Will Smith and everyone else in the movie.

And that movie would not have been perfect. It might have been okay, or even pretty good, because the story, itself, is compelling, no matter how many layers you smother it in. But definitely not perfect.

So I realized...I think maybe I do that--that smothering, that layering on--with my writing. I feel the emotion, the drama, the urgency of my stories so acutely that I wrap the story in words upon words upon words, just trying and trying to get my point across. (Probably like these godsdamned long blog posts.) (Shit, probably like that very sentence.) When sometimes, it's better to break it down, instead. To lay things bare. To leave them raw and exposed. Lean.

This has really been circling my brain lately. This idea, along with the importance of using the right words. And how, if I can combine those two ideas, well hot damn. That'd be something worth reading.

A varied collection of stuff (all interesting and important, I swear!)

Tonight, a bulleted list. Hurrah!

> Thanks to

chant_1 and triciasullivan for pointing me to this post, which had some interesting things to say in sync with my post on the Muse.

> This thing is freaking amazing. It's a video of a South African choir performing Toto's "Africa" with no instruments, complete with a choir-made auditory thunderstorm. So cool. Thanks to for sharing it!

> Some really cool creative advice from Ira Glass via mikemartin.

> I watched A Mighty Heart on Friday night. In case you don't know, it's the story of the kidnapping and eventual execution of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan and what the intervening days were like for his pregnant wife, Mariane, and his friends and family. It was, to put it mildly, difficult to watch. I don't cry easily and I barely stopped through the whole thing. Please watch this movie or read the book. I found it to be a terribly, profoundly important story on two levels. First, journalists like Daniel and Mariane Pearl put themselves on the line every day to propagate truth in the world. It's important to recognize the risks they take, on all levels, and to honor the sacrifice of those who have been killed while trying to make sure the rest of us know what's happening in the world. Second--and, honestly, this is what broke me over and over--it's a tremendous story of courage and strength. I'm dead certain that opening and email to see pictures of Ben tied up with terrorists holding a gun to his head would have irreparably broken something inside me. Just the thought of having to endure the tiniest fraction of what that amazing woman has been through opens a great, yawning maw of darkness inside me.

> The third annual Pool Party at my bro-in-law's house was Saturday. Had tons of fun, listened to my friends' band, floated in the pool, ate Jell-O shots (a couple from some rather unconventional locations...), sun bathed for as long as I could stand it (approximately 10 minutes) and indulged in not one but 2 tofu pups. Oh yeah, baby. Livin' the high life. [This poor, poor little bullet. It has no links!]

> Bought Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver yesterday and devoured it in 2 sittings (one giant sitting with a break and then one more hour to finish it off). Amazing. Review coming soon. Have you watched the trailer yet? It's exactly that. {happy, happy sigh}

Are you watching closely?

We just finished watching The Prestige again. Jesus, that's a brilliant movie. This was probably our sixth time seeing it and we still found new reasons to pause it and chatter excitedly to each other. It's based on a book by Christopher Priest, which I haven't read and don't plan to for a combination of reasons (the predominant being that I'm afraid the book will alter my perception of the story, which I am perfectly in love with as told by the movie). But I want to talk about the writing as it pertains to the screenplay. Or, I suppose more accurately, the storytelling as it pertains to the movie.

I'm sure I've blogged about the movie's storytelling before. The tale is told brilliantly, carefully layering brushstrokes on top of brushstrokes so that it's not until the last word--literally--that the whole picture and all of its ramifications are revealed, but so that you see the formation, the buildup of the characters and conflict along the way. Really, just gorgeous.

What really struck me tonight was the movie's opening, perhaps influenced by this guest blog from Carolyn Jewel over at Kristin Nelson's blog.The opening is pretty spare--no music that I can recall; tight camera work; simple visual compositions that make it easy to direct the audience's attention without being heavy handed. The focus is on the voiceover narration: Michael Caine's character explaining the three parts of a magic trick and how they work together to produce the desired reaction in the audience.

The true genius of the opening is that between this explanation and a handful of the images presented during the narration, the whole story is laid out before you. In those carefully chosen words--less than 150 of them, because I've looked up the text online and counted--the essence of the entire story's conflict and the main characters' motivations is completely, perfectly encapsulated.

Wow.

You don't necessarily know it at the time, of course. You can't realize how you've just heard an echo of the tale you're about to watch unfold, because you don't know the story yet (assuming it's your first time watching). But you feel the importance of it, the intake-of-breath feeling that lets you know to pay close attention, even if you don't know precisely why. And those 142 words are circling your subconscious throughout the rest of the film, being stroked by subtly placed reminders throughout the story as it swells toward the final reveal when every action, every word suddenly comes together and you can finally see.

That's how I want to write.

I'll leave you with this quote from the movie, because it speaks so well to why I write fantasy-based fiction:

You never understood why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple, miserable, solid all the way through. But if you can fool them, even for a second… then you can make them wonder. And you get to see something very special. You really don’t know...it was the look on their faces.

Weekend Recap

Hope everyone's had a good weekend! Here's mine:

Friday night:
**Watched Wanted with James McAvoy (mmm) and Angelina Jolie (double mmm). I'd heard mixed things about the movie, but nothing can keep me away from my girl. Overall, I think it's a great concept with a great cast that was weakly executed. It's worth a rental if you're a fan of the actors and/or if you're interested in the brief scene of Angelina emerging from a bath, dripping wet, naked and covered in tattoos (triple mmm).

Saturday:
**Watched WALL-E. It was very cute and, as a writer, I was taken with the minimal dialogue (a topic explored at length by Richelle Mead here). I've heard some people say it's the best Pixar film yet. I'm not sure I'd go that far. I'd probably put Monsters, Inc. in that slot ahead of WALL-E. But I did like it. There is a pretty heavy thread of social commentary running through the movie, which I found terribly disturbing due to what I perceive as it being a likely predictor of our future state if we don't get our act in gear sometime very freaking soon. Without giving too much away, the movie takes place at an undisclosed date in the future when humans have overrun the earth with trash to the point where it's now inhabitable. To 'solve' this problem. all the humans abandon the planet on a spaceship cruise, where they engage in leisure activities (I use the word loosely) and eat non-stop. For the next 700 years. The result is a horrifying but all to probable future version of ourselves where we're essentially terminally bored blobs who no longer have to do anything for ourselves. At all. Not even walk, as an ad for the hover chairs everyone inhabits proudly proclaims. I'll step down from my soapbox now and leave you with this summary: the movie is cute and a good way to spend a couple of hours on the weekend.

**Went to see Tina Turner in concert. Wow! The music was great and she puts on a crazy good stage show. Six costume changes, all sparkly and accompanied by stilletto heels. She had four smokin' hot female dancers and four equally hot ninja dancer dudes who did a mix of dancing and martial arts to occupy our attention during said costume changes. There was eye candy all around. At the end of the show, she even danced with the dancers! Did I mention she's 69 years old? In case it's not obvious, that's almost 70. I'm in awe.

Sunday:
**Watched Australia. Know which movie I'm talking about? No? Let me refresh your memory:


*happy sigh* I never tire of looking at that picture. Unfortunately, the movie didn't meet my expectations. I much prefer the version of their story I'd dreamt up in my head based on the early pictures I saw than the one in the movie. My disclaimer here is that I've read many reviews online of people who loved the movie and the two friends I went with absolutely loved it. I thought it was okay. It's sort of two movies squished into one, a Western and a War movie. I preferred the Western (oddly). I can't pinpoint exactly what fell short for me, but the whole thing just didn't come together into the cue-symphony moment it was clearly intended to be. There were some spectacular scenes. The Aboriginal kid who plays Nullah rocks. And I'm convinced nobody does romantic longing/distraught romantic longing better than Hugh Jackman. But it just didn't come together as a whole for me. Still worth a rental if you have 3 hours to spare. You might want to see it in the theater if you don't have a nice setup at home because the cinematography is great.

That's it for my very long weekend wrap up. I realized I never got around to posting a Product of the Week this past week, but I'll have one for tomorrow night.

First, progress:

110,192 / 150,000 (73.5%)

Last night, Ben and I watched the movie Gone Baby Gone. It was great. It's based on a Dennis Lehane novel, which I haven't read. But after seeing the movie, I really want to. I'm going to assume that the screenplay is closely enough based on the novel that I can attribute all of its genius to Mr. Lehane. Anyone who's read the novel and seen the movie, please chime in and correct me.

This is a writer's movie. You've heard me say that before, about The Prestige. If you haven't rented The Prestige yet, please stop reading this, because I can no longer speak to you. I'm not kidding. Go. Now. Rent. Love. Come back and thank me and then we'll be back on speaking terms.

Where was I? Oh, yes. A writer's movie. I think this is the most perfectly balanced plot I've ever seen in a movie. Twists and turns that lead us right where Lehane wants us, questioning everything, with no clear picture of who's right and who's wrong. Seemingly simple characters that peel away layers of themselves like onions throughout the film, revealing a mirror-like symmetry that is as perfect and satisfying as it is disturbing. And the opening lines! I actually made Ben pause the movie so I could rant for two full minutes about their brilliance.

Pure fucking genius. Dennis Lehane, I bow to you.

Goals for tomorrow: twice as much wordage and half as much book hate.

P.S. I post more often on my LiveJournal account, including snippets of my current WIP sometimes (like today). Check me out there, if you're interested: reneesweet.livejournal.com

Phew!

The fight scene is done! *does end-zone dance* It took about three times as many words as I anticipated. I think I'm writing long, but even then I didn't think there would be so damn much to say about it!

All in all it was fun to write. And I learned more in the last two days about how gorillas, wolves and rats fight then I ever thought I'd know in a lifetime. Yeah, I know. Bizarre combo, right? But doesn't it kinda make you want to read the scene? ;)

I met my writing goal yesterday, but didn't have a chance to post before Ben and I left for the evening. My grand total for the weekend is 2,987 words, putting me ahead of schedule. Woo-hoo!

12239 / 60000 words. 20% done!

69100 / 120000 words. 58% done!

A few other tidbits...

I had a coupon for Barnes and Noble that was expiring, so on one of my breaks today I ordered this little collection of lovelies:







It seems kind of silly since I'm on a 70 day book diet but...but...I had a coupon. There. Perfectly justified.

Ben and I watched a superfun movie this morning. Shoot 'Em Up, starring Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci and the oh-so-tasty Clive Owen.



Mmm, mmm, mmm. A couple of years ago, Angelina Jolie was asked which of her many scrumptious male leads was the best kisser. Her answer: Clive Owen. And yes, this was after she'd filmed Mr. and Mrs. Smith with her man Brad. I like to keep that in the back of my mind while watching Mr. Owen on screen. And not only is he hot, he's a great actor. But I digress.

Shoot 'Em Up is a hilariously fun film. Clive Owen plays a mysterious carrot-eating vigilante who involves himself in an attack on a woman about to give birth. The woman dies and he spends the rest of the film fighting off hoardes of bad guys who are trying to kill the baby. There isn't a fight that takes itself seriously and I can only imagine the fun the writers had coming up with the screenplay. Each battle tries to out-do its predecessors by combining even more unlikely but hilarious action moves and super-hero-like abilities. Running beneath the campy action scenes, the mystery of Owen's character unravels into a genuinely poignant tale. In a word: fan-fucking-tastic.

Well, time to go check in with Sven. Have a great night, everyone!

Peter Jackson, oh how I love thee

Renee's Progress

Hello!

Just a teensy little pile of new words. Between holiday distractions and my recent discovery that a new season of CSI has been released on DVD, I'm getting very little done. But I'm getting something done which is much, much better than nothing done. Enough to keep the story running in my mind, anyway. I'm still picking my way across the dialogue minefield of the scene I mentioned in my last post (or was it two posts ago?).

Some very exciting news: Peter Jackson is officially signed up as Executive Producer for The Hobbit!! Yahoo!!! My love for his work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy is virtually bottomless and I was crushed when his disagreement with the studio led to him leaving The Hobbit. The article I read indicated that he had an idea to split the book into two films which gives me pause. But I trust Peter. He'll do it right, I know he will. I also found it interesting that he is the Executive Producer and not directing. I wonder who'll be cast... Aha. I just checked IMDB and apparently he can't/won't direct because of his unresolved lawsuit with New Line over unpaid fees from LOTR. Also per IMDB, many of the LOTR actors are eager to reprise their roles. Hurray!

Okay, I'm off to early bed (naughty naughty, stayed up late watching CSI last night!). It's likely I'll be scarce over the next few days but I *will* still be writing (dammit!) and I'll still be thinking of all of you, faithful readers. I hope you are finding a moment or two of peace and meaning from the season.

Time off and a goal completed

Hello again! I took a couple of days off. Friday night I was just plain wiped and needed to spend some time with my husband and dog. We watched 16 Blocks with Bruce Willis and Mos Def. It was pretty good -- definitely worth a rental if you like action movies. Mos Def is positively adorable. He cracked me up through the whole movie.

Yesterday was the second annual Sweet Pool Party, hosted by Ben's brother and his wife. We had a great time at last year's and this year's was no exception, despite the crappy weather. I confess to being slightly hungover today (gee, who would've guessed after a trillion jello shots on top of the beer and Jaeger?) which led to a slow start. But, it's 10:00 pm and I'm very excited to report that I made my 2,000 word goal for today and my goal for this week which was to catch up to the word count I'd reached with the other book I'd been working on. So, here I am, at the 15,000 word mark after only two weeks of writing! Whoo-hoo!!!

15,103 / 100,000 (15.1%)

I'd promised myself I wouldn't read anything until I hit the 15K mark, which means I can start the new and *sniffle* final Harry Potter tomorrow. It was a very tense week trying to avoid spoilers at work, on the bus and online. Now, I can only hope to get through the actual reading spoiler free! In somewhat related news, I did some planning and I pretty much have to stick to my 1,000 words a day goal in order to finish the first draft by the end of the year. I think I'm writing long, so even though my goal is really still 100,000 words, I did my planning based on having to actually write 150,000 words to finish the book. I think--nay, I *know*--I can do it. It just might be a little challenging. And my TBR pile might not shrink as quickly as it used to. But damn, it will be great to write 'The End' in time to ring in the new year. :)

'proh-kras-tuh-neyt'

pro·cras·ti·nate [proh-kras-tuh-neyt, pruh-] -nat·ed, -nat·ing.
–verb (used without object)
1. to defer action; delay: to procrastinate until an opportunity is lost.
–verb (used with object)
2. to put off till another day or time; defer; delay.
[Origin: 1580–90; < L prōcrāstinātus (ptp. of prōcrāstināre to put off until tomorrow, equiv. to prō- pro-1 + -crāstināre, deriv. of crāstinus of tomorrow; crās tomorrow + -tinus suffix forming adjs. from temporal advs.); see -ate1]

—Related forms
pro·cras·ti·nat·ing·ly, pro·cras·ti·na·tive·ly, adverb
pro·cras·ti·na·tion, noun
pro·cras·ti·na·tive, pro·cras·ti·na·to·ry, adjective
pro·cras·ti·na·tive·ness, noun
pro·cras·ti·na·tor, noun


I am feeling sluggish and lethargic today. In a strange contradiction, I want to write but don't want to write this scene and don't want to skip ahead. Which leaves me dragging out each sentence kicking and screaming.

Ugh.

We saw Oceans 13 last night. It's much better than Oceans 12 (That Julia Roberts pretending to be herself thing? Trainwreck.) but still not as good as Oceans 11. The plot was decent, the dialogue witty for the most part and the cast was good. Definitely worth seeing, but maybe as a rental.