It’s no secret that Hollywood has cracked the story structure code, or that they’ve refined some of the most elegant and efficient character-building tools in the storytelling business. What you may not know is that all of these tricks can be (and often are) utilized to conquer fiction writing, too. This workshop presents the Top Ten Master Movie Storytelling Devices via a range of great modern films and shows you how to capitalize on them for your own writing! Taught by a Hollywood pro who routinely poaches from great films to better her fiction writing.

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NaNoWriMo

My 2013 experience with NaNoWriMo was a success, even though my official word count  as of November 30th was well short of 50,000. I logged in 22,563. That makes me a winner, because it’s more words than I wrote in the six months before NaNo, and I started a new novel that I’m very excited about.

In addition to the official words, I also filled a couple of handwritten pages with a timeline plan, wrote summaries of everything I knew so far about all of my characters, and worked out the most likely ending for the story (knowing, of course, that one or more characters may intervene and toss my plan in the shredder).

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Other Projects in the Works

I also have two manuscripts waiting for revisions, another manuscript under consideration by my favorite publisher, and two old manuscripts on the shelf that may or may not get major rewrites one of these days.

And I still want to put together the blog posts from the 2013 April A to Z Blog Challenge and publish the collection as an e-book.

I better quit watching all those holiday movies and get back to work. Except for Thursday night’s live performance of The Sound of Music with Carrie Underwood. I’m going to record it because I just might want to watch it twice.

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Katie Cat Caused Me a Whole Day of Pain

When she curls up in my lap when I’m at the computer, she maneuvers me around until I’m sitting a bit sideways and typing only right-handed. Yesterday, I apparently ended up too much askew and something in my lower back got pinched or stretched the wrong way.

I spent the afternoon watching the Broncos game from the couch, loaded up with Ibuprofin and the heating pad on my back. It’s better today, thank goodness. I’m banning Katie Cat from my lap while I’m at the computer, at least for today. I have three critiques to do and blog posts to pre-schedule. No time for any more pinched nerves or muscle cramps.

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Big Plans for Christmas and New Year’s?

We’ll have company at the end of the month between Christmas and New Year’s, including the two darling granddaughters. Quality time with the kidlets means lots of reading books, especially the new ones I’ll be shopping for next week. Buying books for kids is one of my favorite things. Hmmm. That reminds me of one of my favorite songs….

Do you have any special plans for the holidays? Do you go out for New Year’s Eve, or do you stay away from the crowds and enjoy the countdown on television as we do? I usually get one of those little bottles of champagne so we can toast the new year in at 10:00 Mountain Time. Celebrating on Eastern Time means I can go to bed at my usual hour…and that’s a good thing.