As I write this post, I grumble about as/ing constructions.

There are other blog posts on this topic. I’m sure of it. I just feel the need to address it because as/ing constructions bug the sh*t out of me.

What’s bad about them? Nothing, if used sparingly. When overused, they present the same problem as any other craft element. Repetition is annoying.

The reason I hate them has nothing to do with their actual existence. I’ve seen them used well. It’s just that 99 times out of 100, they don’t do anything. Consider the following.

Holding my breath, I contemplated the situation.

This feels like a sword strike on my ears. Not only is nothing happening, it’s drawing attention to thought processes. In a nut shell, this sentence is stagnant. Just cut it.

The following is a bit better.

Standing tall, she entered the room.

We’re moving now, but it’s very mechanical. First I did this. Then, I did this. This could be rewritten to give more.

She straightened her spine and strode into the room.

Now we have a lot of active, well, action. Our person is doing stuff, and we’re seeing her actually straighten—stand tall. Then we replaced the not-so-showing “walk” with the much more informative strode.

As she walked into the room, she took in the painting on the wall.

Personally, I think as constructions are worse. Absolutely nothing interesting happens in this sentence.

She entered the room. A painting of a ship at sea dominated the left-hand wall.

Look at all that information!

Case and point, 99 times out of 100, there is a stronger way to phrase as/ing constructions.

Happy writing.

-See you on Twitter: @desantismt

MCS #13 - The Black Cauldron

The Black Cauldron (1985)

The Black Cauldron is based on the first two books in Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series—The Book of Three and The Black Cauldron. The movie, as you can see, was very originally named.

Before I get into what it’s about, this movie is Lord of the Rings meets Star wars, which is hilarious because it came out before the LOTR movie adaptations. Think I’m nuts. Below is the beginning of the Wikipedia plot summary. The stuff in brackets is what I’ve added.

Taran [Luke] is "assistant pig-keeper" [assistant farmer] on the small farm [planet] of Caer Dallben [Tatoowine], home of Dallben [Gandalf] the Enchanter. Taran [Luke] dreams of becoming a great warrior [fighter pilot/jedi], but must stop daydreaming because his charge, the oracular pig [droid] Hen Wen [R2D2], is in danger. The Horned King [Sauron], a fearsome, skeletal, undead king [floating eyeball] who wears antler horns on his head, hopes she will help him find the Black Cauldron [one ring], which has the power to restore a kind of life to the dead [his full power/existence], as Undead slaves called "the Cauldron-Born" [[nasgul/ringwraiths], which he will use to rule the world. Dallben [Gandalf] directs Taran [Luke] to take Hen Wen [R2] to safety, but the lad's daydreaming results in the pig's capture by the Horned King's forces [the empire/Sauron’s guys].

Taran [Luke] follows them to the Horned King's stronghold [Mordor] and acquires the small, pestering companion Gurgi [Golem] along the way. Taran [Luke] leaves Gurgi [Golem] to sneak into the castle and rescues Hen Wen [R2], who flees, but he is captured himself and thrown into the dungeon, soon to be released by Princess Eilonwy [Leah], a girl his age who is also trying to escape. In the catacombs beneath the castle, Taran [Luke] and Eilonwy [Leah] discover the ancient burial chamber of a king, where he arms himself with the king's sword [lightsaber]. It contains magic that allows him effectively to fight the Horned King's [Sauron’s] minions and so to fulfill his dream of heroism. Along with a third captive, the comical, middle-aged bard Fflewddur Fflam [Pip/Merry], they escape the castle and are soon reunited with Gurgi [Golem].

No really, especially Gurgi…really Gurgi.

Don’t believe me? Check this out.

All we need is a “my precious.”

Okay, super cool moment here. Eilonwy is voiced by Susan Sheraton. Who, you ask? The voice of Trillion in the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio show.

*insert fangirl scream type sound*

Anyway, I recommend this movie at least once. It’s rather cute with a fun ending. I also recommend the books. They are something of a classic.

Writer’s Lockbox

After some thought, I’ve got nothing from the movie specifically. So I’ll reiterate what I said about reading the book because it’s somewhat of a classic and expand on that to say read all the classics in your genre. As The Sound of Music says “Start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start.”

Last week: Belle’s Tales of Friendship

And join me next week for Cinderella.

Thanks for reading.

Mary
@desantismt on Twitter

Follow My Blog With Bloglovin

-Kit ‘N Kabookle
My book blog

What happens when plotting and pantsing fail?

It’s happened, and I’m at a loss.

One of my novel-length projects refuses to cooperate no matter what I do (or don’t do). It hates my plot ideas. So I tell it to come up with its own idea. Then it sits there and doesn’t talk to me.

Help?

I feel like the answer is “walk away for a few days.” Problem is, I just walked away for a week, and I’ve still got nothing. What’s the next step? Is it time to get the pitchfork out and make threatening gestures?

Suggestions welcome.

Many thanks!

MCS #12: Belle's Tales of Friendship

Belle’s Tales of Friendship (1999)

[IMDB blurb = non-existent]

Yes, believe it or not, this was a thing. It was a thing I owned on VHS (you know, those things that are now practically in museums). It was a thing I enjoyed watching, though now I don’t remember as much of it as I once did. So far as memory serves, there were two mini stories. One was about a bird that the beast wanted as a personal music-provider. The other included conflict between Lumiere and a chandelier (that may have been named Chandeleera) over providing light.

Lots of providing.

Well, friends provide and compromise and such. And the entire point of these two shorts was to teach friendship lessons. I’m sure they did. Just don’t ask me to say exactly what they were.

If anyone was wondering, these had none of the original actors. I’m not sure I knew that at the time (at least not for all the characters). If there’s one thing Disney is usually great at, it’s providing replacement actors that sound similar to the originals.

And finally, related to this, does anyone remember the live-action Belle’s story time show that was on the Disney channel a while ago? It reminded me of Out of the Box.

Because why not?

Also, yes, this show partially inspired the name of this blog.

Writer’s Lockbox

Side novellas are a big thing right now, especially in ya. Take almost any popular ya series and look for the “.5”s—the stories between stories, often from different characters’ perspectives.

Belle’s Tales of Friendship is like the .5 novella before .5 novellas were a thing. Regardless, .5s need to be relevant to the main books, stories in their own right, and, perhaps most importantly, not repeated in one of the main novels. They shouldn’t be necessary to the main storyline because not everyone will read them.

Take this information and run with it (not into oncoming traffic, please).

Last week: Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas

And join me next week for The Black Cauldron.

Thanks for reading.

Mary
@desantismt on Twitter

Follow My Blog With Bloglovin

-Kit ‘N Kabookle
My book blog

No Rest for the Wicked

Hello folks,

Two weeks it was working on thesis. Last week the thesis was due. This week I have a giant paper of doom.

As this title says, no breaks here.

Hopefully this will be the last week of nonsense blog posts about my life being busy for a while. Contrary to how I’m feeling now, I really do enjoy exploring writing and other stuff on here.

Saturday will be up and running, though. So I’ll see you then.

Cheers

MCS #11: Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997)

IMDB Blurb Belle prepares the castle for Christmas against Beast's wishes, trying to bring him happiness for the season. Forte, a pipe organ, fears that Belle's plans may eventually bring about an end to the curse... the curse that brought him more importance in the Master's life. Forte uses Fife, a flute who desperately wants a solo, to destroy Belle's plans and get rid of her.

K, I have not seen this movie in a very long time. That said, I remember parts, so here goes.

All the original, awesome voices were back (except Chip—kids and such), and we even added some new, talented faces. Forte is played by the amazing Tim Curry, who has been in so many movies/TV shows I love that I can’t even count.

-Muppet Treasure Island
-The Wild Thornberrys
-Scooby Doo and the Witches Ghost
-Disney’s Gargoyles
-Spamalot (the Broadway version of Monty Python’s Holy Grail)

There are more, but those are the big ones.

Bernadette Peters also makes an appearance as the Christmas angel…Angelique (more original naming here. Cogsworth the clock, Mrs. Potts the teapot….) Anyway, Angelique seems like a perfect name for a character voiced by dear Bernadette. Now, I have no problem with Ms. Peters. Her singing voice drives me a bit nuts, but she can also deliver quite the beautiful song. Behold.

That’s just lovely, and the harmonies with Paige O’Hara only make it better.

Randomly, I wanted more time with the prince in human form. I can’t help it. I’m a sucker for guys with long hair, and he had long hair. I’m also torn, though, because I have no idea what kind of plot would revolve around Belle and Prince Adam (apparently that’s his name) as a human. Much as I love his hair, I don’t want a nonsense movie for the sake of it.

All in all, this is a touching story about Christmas, the meaning of family, and home. It begins with everyone as humans and Mrs. Potts telling the story. According to her, this takes place after Beast rescues Belle from the wolves (that he only had to rescue her from because he went all…

Yes, I just wanted an excuse to use that graphic again). Still, it’s a fun movie, and I need to hunt down a copy and watch it sometime.

Bonus Points: The Broadway musical of the original movie I forgot to mention two weeks ago

The original actress who played Belle (Susan Egan) is the voice of Meg in Hercules and the singing voice of Angel in Lady and the Tramp II.

Carry on.

Writer’s Lockbox

“The missing years.”

When inserting events into an already-told story, make certain they fit both logically and time wise. This story works where Mrs. Potts says it fits. That was winter in the original movie, and the entirety of Enchanted Christmas takes place (unsurprisingly) during winter.

Last time: Beauty and the Beast

And join me next week for Belle’s Magical Tales of Friendship (yes, that was a real thing).

Thanks for reading.

Mary
@desantismt on Twitter

Follow My Blog With Bloglovin

-Kit ‘N Kabookle
My book blog

Thesis = Submitted

Yes, you read that post title correctly. I passed in my thesis!

Final specs:

Pages: 384
Words: 101,101 (no, I did not cheat to get that number. Cross my heart)
Chapters: 31
POVs: 3
Body Count: 5 named characters, lots of unnamed ones
Tears shed throughout process: too many to count
Total of cut words: I have no idea, and I cannot count right now. I will, though. And I’ll report when I get there. I’m very curious. Heh

So now I wait for overall feedback and the final verdict. Part of me wants to hide under the bed. The other part thinks that’s silly. And then there’s a small part that thinks I should be dancing on the roof…except I’m just too freaking tired.

K, signing off for a day of doing nothing, and I do mean nothing.

Cheers

Thanks for reading.

Mary
@desantismt on Twitter

Follow My Blog With Bloglovin

-Kit ‘N Kabookle
My book blog