Monday, May 6, 2013

Write! Like A Boss!


So one day you're on top of the world, with a glowing 5 star review  and a successful turn on the the top 100 bestseller lists on Amazon, and you're feeling like you could be a real writer after all... the next day you're slammed with a 2 star review, and the reviewer doesn't seem to have found any of the good points of the 5 star reviewer... Happens to the best of us, right? "There really is no accounting for taste." That's why this blog post comes at the perfect time. Love the attitude. And, by the way, my favorite scene from the Incredibles involves Edna, the super hero costume designer. As she says, "I never look back, darling! It distracts from the now!" ~Jeff
The following is reblogged from ChazzWrites.com
Write! Like a Boss!
One of the movies we love here in the secret bunker is The Incredibles. I love a good Bond movie and The Incredibles is superheroes in a Bond movie. It’s a lot of fun, though, for me, the most effecting scene is where the missiles close on the plane with kids on board. Having kids makes you cry easily and I’ve cried during that scene several times over.
Kind of a Spoiler
In the original plot for The Incredibles, the plot called for the plane to be piloted by an ordinary human — a sweet old man and friend of Elastigirl — who gets killed in the explosion. That was revised when they decided it was too dark a turn for a kids’ movie.
The best scene
For my wife, She Who Must Be Obeyed, the scene she always brings up first is the attack on the city.
Samuel L. Jackson, primed to defend innocents and come out of retirement, really sells it when he sees the devastation and shouts, “Honey! Where is my super suit?!” 
His wife’s reply: “Oh, no you don’t! I have been planning this dinner with the Robinsons for weeks!”
Honey! Where is my super suit?!“ 
The juxtaposition of the mundane with a superhero’s clothing needs is funny, but it doesn’t stand out as much for me. She Who Must Be Obeyed is not wrong. (That can never happen.) However, it underlines that we can’t predict how our writing will be received. We must write for ourselves and hope others of like mind will find us (or we must find them). When I wrote for magazines, I was often surprised which bit of a column provoked outrage and what spurred letters of admiration. People won’t necessarily unpack your book the way you thought you sent it.