Inside the Brain of E.C. Henry

Goals for the Summer of 2016

Lately I've been on kind of a goals kick.  Not a soccer goals kind of thing, but a personal acheivement kind of striving.  For the past two months or so I've been listing out a bunch of goals, usually about 14-20, that I'd like to knoock out in a week's period.  

Some of these goals seam to be never achieved.  Like going through all my clothes and seperating them between what I'd like to keep, what is something I no longer wear but may be suitable for someone else (hench should go to Goodwill), and the cloths that just need to get pitched.  Then once this purging is done, I wanna go shopping for new clothes.  Good goal, right?  Well, it's been on the list for about 2 months now, and I still haven't gotten arround to doing it.  Maybe over this upcoming Memorial Day Weekend...   Hmmm...

So am I a goal procrastinator?  Far from.  Many goals I have achieved.  Like clearing out that wood so I have a spot for incoming gravel from which to make road repairs.  YES!  That is something I have to do for my family OR our driveway through the woods will be littered with potholes.  I have also completed the goal of giving away some of that wood I chopped up to a guy at work, who wanted it for his brother-in-law.  Brother-in-law got two pick-up loads of wood two weekends ago.  Goal complete.  Also recently, I went the the DMV (department of motor vehicles) and got my new driver's licence, as my brithday of June 10 is quickly approaching and my WSDL (Washington State Driver's Licence) was about to expire.  1st try at accomplishing this goal had me sitting in line for over an hour, only to be forced to leave before my number was called or else I would have been late for work.  BUT yesterday I perservered and stuck it out the full hour and half wait to go through the line and get my new WSDL reknewed.  Yay!

But sometimes with some goals that's what you have to do, go at it several times and persevere.

Writing wise completing the novel will ALWAYS be my top goal.  But in all honesty that's not going to be achieved anytime soon.  Still, I daily put in the time and world TOWARDS achieving that goal.  

New, exciting goal to tell y'all about.  And that's that at the end of July I signed up to attend the 2016, Pacific Northwest Writers' Conference.  I have posted a link to this in my surf city sidebar, if you're interested in checking that out for yourself.  So the goal of signing up for that conference was achieved.  Now I just gotta attend it.

Goals in attending this years' conference:

• Sell my novel to a publishing house.  (Okay, so maybe that's a little unrealistic right now, but that's ALWAYS going to be a goal of mine
• To get some tips of how to get a professional drawer to draw some intro pictures for my chapters in the epic fantasy novel I'm writing.  I want something like C.S. Lewis had for each of his chapters in his chronicles of Narnia series of book.
• Get some tips on how to sell publish.  Figuring that no publishing house will outright buy my book, I figure this is the route I'm going to have to take.  
• Get some advice in how to hook-up with people who do freelance editing work.
• Link up with some like-minded writers who share pages and proof read each other's work.

Bewtween now and the end of July I now need to come up with a 4 minute pitch for my project.  That should be fun!  Every attendee at the conference gets a free 4 minute block to pitch their project.  Right now I'm thinking I need to draft up a buch of business card reminding those I pitch to what my story is and how and where to contact me: e-mail, phone #, and of course this blog.  I'm thinking right now of dressing up for this event in costume get-up for one type of creature that occupies my fantasy world.  Thinking I'm gunna dress up as Elf. Complete with sword, bow and arrow, magical glitter dust, cape and my trusty wand.  Besides that I also need to supply the 1st page of my book, and a synopsis of the story.  The 1st page of the book is definatly done.  AND I do have a synposis of the story, BUT I'd like to revisit that and make it a little better.

So goals wise I have a lot of things cooking for the summer of 2016.  I'm resolved NOT to be slave to my goals, but rather use them to motivate me to acheive things.

Yes, soccer does SUCK as a sport to either watch on TV or play in real life.  The world's totally got the wrong game selected as its game of choice.  Totally, assine and stupid sport.  If you like soccer at all, I pitty you.  BUT I do like the metaphor of putting one in the net, and achieving victory in talling a new point in accomplishing a new goal.  

Mastering the Music Montage; Exploring Issues in Rom-com Movies: Volume 65

Not a big fan of the music montage, but lately there in ONE that's really been standing out in my mind.  It's the useage of Keith Urban's song, "Someone Like You" in the GREAT romanic comedy, "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" (2003, staring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson).   What I'm talking about is the part in the movie where Benjamin Barry (Mattew McConaughey) is teaching Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson) how to ride his motorcyle when the two of them take off after spending some time with Ben's family on Statin Island.

 

NOT your clasic, textbook, music montage.  I say this because of all the dialog being spoken in three scene.  A more, classic montage would hold back the character voices and focus on the acion and then let the song re-inforce the centeral theme of the sequence, which is Andie and Ben have a good and memoroable time when Andie tries to ride Ben's motorcycle.  In the arc of their romance this a time when Ben is trying to teach Andie something, and Andie has fun with Ben in being taught under him.  It's a cute, charcter bonding scene.  

I like the way Christopher Riley describes a montage in his book, "The Hollywood Standard: The Complete and Definative Guide to Scipt Format and Sytle".  From page 34:

A montage is a series of brief images, often under music, used to show the passage of time, the unfolding of chacter's plan, or the evolution of charcter or relationship over time

Then I like to fuse the example that "The Hollywood Standard" and "The Screenwriter's Bible" to come up with the way to format this sequence.  MINUS the dialog.  Here is how I would revese engineer that musical montage from "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days":

 

The GUITAR PICKUP of Keith Urban's song, "SOMEONE LIKE YOU" BEGINS to play and carries us into...

MOTORCYCLE RIDING LESSON - MONTAGE

On a seaside pier.  Ben sits in back on Andie on his motorcyle and whispers some instructions in her ear.  Andie then nods okay, Ben jumps off the bike.  And Andie drives ahead recklessly on her own--untill Ben saves her by jumping back aboard and pulling in clutch and hitting the brakes.

On the side of the road.  Ben brings Andie a cup of shaved ice.  The couple just starts to eat into this treat when a a passing truck hits pothole and SPLASHES both Ben and Andie with a lot of puddle water.  Ben then gets his revenge on this passing jerk by beaing the truck with his cup of shaved ice.

At Ben's parents driveway.  Andie makes the turn off the road and onto the driveway.  She is happy with he accomplishment, and in stopping gets a sexy bump in rump by Ben's pelvis, which she laughs off like a floosie.  Happy and with smiles on their faces both Ben and Andie head towards the door which mark a FADING OUT of the KEITH URBAN SONG and the END OF THE MONTAGE.

INT. BEN'S PARENTS GUEST BATHROOM - MOMENT'S LATER

Andie laughs at the puddle blotching on both her's and Ben's shirt.

 

Okay, so how'd I do?  Never thought I'd reverse engineer a music montage, but there you have it.  Started out each indivual sequence in the monatage with a simple sentence that served as the slug line for that sequence.  THEN in the lines which followed in that paragraph described the action that the actors were to do in the sequence.  Later I cued a dampeing of the music with makes the audience ready for a new scene to start, which it does this time in a guest bathroom.  

Personally, I love music montages.  Music is a great way to convey a prevailing feeling.  And I don't think pre-pros should be told not to use them in their scripts.  Everyone who's ever me not to call out specific music I looked down on and thought they were a dipshit.  Why be vague when you can be specifc?  In production alternate music can always be replaced.  Calling out music is like calling for a certain feeling.  Like the frantic beat in, "Head Over Heels" as played by the Go-Gos in the movie "13 Going on 30" that fuses the fast-pace of life in New York with a young girl's pop perspective of it.  Also loved Hall Oates song, "You Make My Dreams Come True" in "(500) Days of Summer", though is techincally a fantasy dance routine, how cool was it to get to experience the joy that a girl can make you feel.  Ever had a girl make you want to spontaneoulsy break out into dance in the middle of the park?  That's what a good movie can do.  It can help you get a taste for the higher things in life.  That's a reason right there, folks, why you should love this genre.  It has the ability to do some things that no other genre can do.

Couldn't we all use a little more of this in our lives?

Well-p, I think I've written enough for now.  Sorry, I didn't have this post ready to go on Sunday.  Drank too much beer... but that's going to start changing.  You ALMOAST got a post on goals of mine instead of this.  That post is forthcoming.  But for now, just let the power of the rom-com take you away.  Take you away to a place where your with that romantic someone that you love and things between you are going well.  For me, that's the heart of the genre and the biggest attracting factor that it has going for it: showing in brief flashes that romance can work and bring great joy into a person's life.

  Keith Urban and his wife in real life, Niccole Kidman

Building My Writing Pier

Last Thursday through Monday I went on a self-imposed writer's retreat BACK to the same place where about a year ago I went--and came back very disappointed with myself in the lack of progress I made on editing my epic fantasy novel.  Happy to report I did MUCH better this time arround.  Usually hit it hard for 2-3 hour blocks before taking a break.  And this time I didn't hijack the writing by cutting off early and drinking beer.  DID drink 1 beer on two occasions while taking a break in one of the afternoon sessions.  Had to drink a Budweiser and walk the beach, BUT I limited myself to just ONE beer, not 2, 3 or 4, thus WAS able to get back into writing after taking that break and one beer ciesta.  

Really only had a couple of sessions where I was "in the flow" and had a knock-out session of writing where I could have gone 4-5 hours without a break and not even noticed the passage of time.  Those are the kind of sessions I look forward to the most, but they don't come arround all the time.  

Besides making some major progess re-editing the Prolog and chapter 1, which is my main focus right now, I also made a key breakthrough in working through an issue in chapter 16 that had derailed me for some time.  Like I've said before, I've already written the whole story, but in going back over it, some of the sequences in the story were rough, poorly writen and poorly articulated.  A found a vast sequence in chapter 16 really wasn't what I wanted it to be and it needed to be re-invsioned and reworked extensively.  Its a major action sequence, and once written up to its potential, it's going to be real good.  Anyway, I want to totally rewrite it, so I went back the outlining stage, and found that during one writer's retreat session I was "in the zone", and a lot of the new rough-in work came.  

I am very deep person.  One of my strenghs as a writer is that I can jump arround from character to character well and find giving their unique perspectives on what's going on fairly easily.  A lot of key character arc/development happens to my main characters in chapter 16.  

Besides all this I also drew a couple preliminary pictures for the first three chapters of my epic fantasy novel.  This is important because someday I plan on hiring a professional drawer who has a knack for fantasy style drawing to re-draw my preliminaries, which I will then feature in the novel when I self publish.  Yes, someday I plan on self publishing my novel.  That's going to happen, someday, when I bring the novel as a whole up to, what I believe to be (the best I can do), professional level.  

Am I there yet?

Hardly.

But I am having fun working on the story.  TRYING to make it sound and flow better.  

So after my most recent success during my writer's retreat, I'm thinking about going to a PNWA writer's conference is July.  Going to put in for the time off work on Monday, then IF I get approved go to the conference.  The crazy thing about my job is that it could end any day.  The company that I currently work for isn't doing very well.  The aerospace, commerical aircraft business as a whole isn't doing very well right now, and the trickledown affect has already had an impact on where I work.  Thankfully, my seniority date of May 3rd just passed, and under union contract even if the company fires or lays me off, they're required by union contract to pay me for leave time incurred.  That means they're on the hook to pay for about 5 weeks of vaccation.  That's a nice fallback to have--if I suddenly find myself unemployed.

So I'm in a realatively good place right now.  As good as I'm capable of being, I guess.  As good as I can make this bad situation to be.  I played the game by the rules and positioned myself as good as can be expected.  

God is good.  No matter WHAT happens with the day job thang, my hope and trust is in the Lord.  My job isn't my God.  The Holy Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are my Gods.  Speaking of which I just bought a new bible!  Yay!  It's a New American Standard study bible and I can't wait to read it and follow its expounding notes. I love learning more about God, Isreal, and the men in the bible that God used for His glory.  Do you love the Lord?  I do!  And I hope that through this epic fantasy novel that I'm writing I can encourage countless BILLIONS to grow in their walk with Him.  

To God be the glory.  The older I get the less worried I am about being right or making it as a screenwriter or novelist.  Rather, I wanna make a difference for His kingdom, in whatever capactiy He alows me to do so.  We're only on this planet in these bodies of ours for a little while, then comes the afterlife.  Do you believe in an afterlife?  I do, and, yes, it does have bearing on what I do.  I want to make a difference for His kingdom.  Sure, along the way IF He grants me my heart's desire to "make it" as a writer, I will be happy.  But this isn't my end-all, way in which I am defined.  Let Jesus define me.  He knows me far better than I know myelf.

But for right now, I am content to construct the best writing pier I am capable of.  I figure if I can get the prolog through chapter 5 nailed down I will have a good place from which to launch the rest of the story.  Yes, it really takes through chapter 5, about 250 pages into the story before the meat of the story begins.  Lotta set up, lot of framing story to set in motion and establish.  I am NOT writng a cookie-cutter story.  This is fairly complex story in which I hoping to bring alive roughly 5-6 characters that I want the reader to invest in and either root for or root against.  I have some A-MAZING villians too.  Know I need to focus more on my three main protagonists, but it's the villians counterplans that real drive my story.  Anywho, I excited about where I am now, and can't wait for the day when I get the priviledge of sharing this story with the world.

Untill then, I write on, and wait to see what God does, and what doors He opens and closes in my life.  To God be the glory!

Sincerely,

E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

Taylor Swift and Just Who are the New Romantics; Exploring Issues in Rom-com Movies: Volume 64

Okay, so I did something a little wacky before I went on my most recent writer's I made a new rom-com oriented playlist to get my psched and in the mood.  In doing so, I remeber getting an e-mail from the Taylor Swift fansite, which was promoting a new music video release for the song, "The New Romantics".  So there I go on iTune, listen to its preview, then buy it for $1.29.   Totally worth it.  I really enjoyed listening to that song on my trek down to, while in, and then traveling back from Long Beach, Washington.  Would have included a link to the video for the song, but it pretty much sucks, it's one of the "concert" videos which are almoast always underwhelming.  

Taylor Swift is such a diva--but a likeable diva.  Didn't mean diva in a derogatory fashion.  HUGE fan of Taylor and at age 46 going to be 47 on June 10, not even close to being the range of her target demographic: hipsters in their 20s and the teen market that doesn't know any better.  

Now in the song, Tayor Swift, claims she's part of a group called "the new romantics" and even invites people to join her.  In this song I thinks she explains her clique quite well, and with fun pzazz.   But I did have a few problems with the lyrics.  NEVER like people saying, "We're on the road to ruin."  That's not cool.  You can be a romantic and NOT be on the road to ruin.  Makes me wonder too if that has a spiritual connetation.  Don't know if Taylor Swilft believes in Jesus or not, given her country music start I gotta belive she knows something about Jesus...  My point is, I don't like that lyric and everytime I heard it in the song I kinda cringe.  

The other problem I have with the song is that it's more geared for explaining Taylor Swift's diva crew then being more broad and ready to be excepted by a wider range of people.  Romance is bigger that Taylor Swift.  It's bigger than E.C. Henry too.  

I believe EVERYONE wants to be love by a member of the opposite sex, it's the expression of that varries.  What I LOVE about Taylor Swift is that she brings attention to romance, brings it to the forefront and gives us something to talk about.  For that I am very greatful for Taylor Swift and her platform.  She is an AWESOME celebrity.  But, if I have one qualm with her it's that her view of romance is too narrow.

Being a "new romantic" doesn't require you to be a famous pop star in her prime.  New romance can be found by people of all sizes, all ethnetisities, and ages.  Case and point:

On of my aunt Denny's friends who flew all the way over from Baltimore to spend a week with us arround the time of Denny's memorial service.  One night I sat down and chatted with my aunt's friend since grade school, and she told me she had a new romance brewing while she was now 67 years old.  67 years old and still gettin' after it with new guys--is that cool or what.  My aunts friend had a couple kids with a husband that she is now divorsed from.  Anyway, my aunts friend asked me what I thought and I told her to go for it!  She was an inspirations to me.  My point is:

You are never too old for romance.

It's a need we have as men and women.  Romance isn't just for mega hotties like Taylor Swift, it's for all of us.  That's one of the things I like about studying the rom-com genre, it re-inforces the hope that romance happens to a bevvy of different people at varried states in the life.  Take Steve Carrell's Dan from "Dan in Real Life" (2007), where Dan is middle aged widdower with three young daughter and yet his interests in romance get kiddled by a new woman who joings his family over the course a weekend, fall gathering.  Take Nia Vardalos' Toula from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (2002), where Toula is attempting self-transformation out of the drone drudgery of her family waitress job when she finnally starts to connect with a guy she likes.  Of cource you can always go Golden Grey, where I site several examples of those of the older generation taking their own foray into romance.  

Baby we're the new romantics / Come, come along with me

Well, where we going, Taylor?  How open is your invitation?  Is it totally faux?  Is it just to expand your impressive cadre of frinends?  Ah, even when I want to I can't rip on Talyor Swift.  Not when CONSTANTLY puts herself out there opeing dialog on converstaion topics so fun and juicy.  

Everyone is welcome to be a "new romantic" in my book.  That's one of the cool things of life, is that in studying the life and stories of other people you see that most people have a romantic bend to them.  Even my recently diseased who at one point actually applied to be nun in a cloister, at couple points in her life expressed interest in men.  NEVER rule someone out romantically.  Maybe they're not the one for you, but that doesn't mean that they're not out there looking too.  They probably are.  

Baby, we're the new romantics / The best people in life are free

Now THERE is a lyrical phrase I can wholeheartedly get behind and support.  I love seeing people shed their shackles and move into a highter state of living.  Dancing, taking a chance, and putting yourself out there is part of.  Amy Blunt's "Ruthie Drapper" from "Dan in Real Life" is a shinning expample of being free and taking chances.  For a minor character, with limited screen time Ruthie's story really shines.  Her she is a sucessfull surgeon, and yet in past people who knew he joked that she was Ruthie "pig-face" Drapper.  Extreamly cruel.  And yet Emily Blunt's character wanted romance so took a chance and got sexy in chooiing Inya Day's "Nasty Girl" to dance to and try to get a phyiscal romance brewing with Steve Carrell's "Dan" character.  Okay, forget the whole Marie (Julliette Binoche) chacter play here.  Because what I want to you to focus on is Ruthie's story, because there's something there that I don't want you to miss.  

Ruthie Draper took a chance.  She put herself out there and TRIED to change a guy's perspespective of her.  How cool is that?  That the spirit of being a "new romantic" in my book.  Love it.  Absolutely love.  It's stuff like that where you see women's need for love and their attempts at trying to get it that is one biggest sources of attraction that kept me interested in the romantic comedy genre for so long.

We show off our different scarlet letters / Trust me mine is better

You may or may not believe me, but I actually don't like talking about my romantic failures.  I know I've done that here on my blog, from time to time.  But I'm not proud of my mistakes.  I just hope I het the chance to meet the "right girl" so I can have experience, than just being left with the hollow feeing of a guy who a shot with some pretty cool girls, but I blew it somethere along the way.  Yes, almoast invarriably I blame myself for my romantic failure.  And it hurts me that along the way I mistreated some real princesses that I should have treated as such.  

So in closing, thank you Taylor Swift I really enjoyed your song, "The New Romantics".  You never cease to amaze me, and I hope that wherever you are in life that your are happy.  The new romantics can just be Taylor Swift and her clique of friends, OR as I hope it to be it all of out there whose beats red with romance and interest in the opposite sex.

P.S. The writing retreat to Long Beach went pretty well.  Definatly better than past trips down there.  Will probably post more about this later in the week.  Till then, stay well and keep tuning and coming back here.