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Monthly Archives: April 2013

I love outtakes and bloopers. When the mess-in-progress is not cooperating, I need a good laugh. It also helps to remind me that other creative people make mistakes, too.

Surfing around on Youtube, I found some good bloopers from the 1995 Pride & Prejudice and the 2006 Jane Eyre.  Note that horses play a major role in each set.

As to bloopers in romance novels, some that I remember are also horse-related. The mare that turned into a gelding in the course of a ride. The phaeton, a type of 4-wheeled carriage, that turned into a curricle, which has two wheels. (Admitted, a lot of readers wouldn’t know that.) The funniest blooper I can recall is where the hero referred to his “bullocks” instead of “bollocks”.

This is what copy editors are for, but they do miss stuff sometimes.

Ditto for cover artists. You may already have heard of the legendary cover for Christina Dodd’s 1993 release, Castles in the Air.  The rest of the story is here on her website.

dodd

As for bloopers I’ve made, I hope most were caught by me or my critique partners, like the scene where a gun mysteriously jumped from one character’s hands to another’s. I’d accidentally deleted the sentence with the handover. Another sort-of blooper is a sex scene in which I had the hero remove most of the heroine’s clothing, except I forgot about her boots. Once I realized, I let it be. Maybe that’s how they wanted it.

What are some of your favorite bloopers, whether on film or in books?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Reading, TV and Film, Writing | Tagged | 6 Replies
david-beckham-nude-026

New for 2012. Gratuitous use of photos of scantily clad men online may incur a penalty. Please consult your hot tax advisor, fireman, cop, or male stripper for more information. Or, call the IRS and request a “special” phone call. They’ll know what you mean. It happens all the time.

A couple of years ago I posted information on Schedule OMG.HEA, and here’s the updated version for  2012. Remember, just like the contemporary hero with his well-stocked wallet, there’s nothing like being ready.

Turn to the Subgenre Definition pages beginning on page 17 and pick your subgenre. You may pick only one. If you write in a variety of subgenres, choose 21, Indecisive wallower, 22, Overachiever, or 23, I’m just a girl who can’t say no. Enter in Box A.

Take your zip code, divide it by the number of pages completed in your WIP and enter the number in Box B.

On the following lines enter the following numbers from the first fifty pages of the book:

  1. Times your h/h have sex. If you are writing an inspirational, you should enter 10.
  2. Times your h/h have sex with another person(s) or being(s) (including, but not limited to, shapeshifters) and multiply by five. If you are writing an inspirational, you should enter 50.
  3. Heroic hair-raking within the first fifty pages.
  4. Mentions of hero’s eye/hair color.
  5. Mentions of heroine’s eye/hair color. Note: if colors for 2 or 3 change, please refer to Publication CE.AA.2012.

Enter your total for Box B.

Note: If your score is less than 2, please make sure you are writing within the correct genre. Refer to Publication WTF.2012 for more guidance and complete the appropriate Genre Form.

Now turn to your most recently published work. Enter its ISBN, page count, and predominant font family used on the cover in Box C.

Please check the appropriate box if your cover contains the following:

  1. Historically inaccurate shirt.
  2. Mullet.
  3. Green or blue eyeshadow (hero or heroine).
  4. Chandelier with lightbulbs instead of candles.
  5. Physically impossible stance.

Write the total number of checked boxes on the next line. On the following lines:

  1. Instances of egregious photoshop art, add 10 for each.
  2. *Extra nipples, limbs or digits (hero or heroine), multiply each by 10 and enter.
  3. Glaring typo on your back cover blurb, enter 20.
  4. Mantitty, enter 50.

* Unless you are writing paranormal romance and this is purely representative.

Enter your total for Box C.

If your cover art contains none of the above, please refer to Publication WTF.2012 as you may be writing a different genre.

The totals for Boxes B and C, plus the ages of your children and/or pets and your agent’s and editors’ heights in centimeters.
Multiply by 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375
Multiply by 10 to make a nice big fat number and round off to the nearest thousand. This is your estimated tax for 2010.

Please feel free to share your tax expertise with the rest of us. It’s never too early.

Posted in Frivolity | 2 Replies

It’s spring break, so I’ve been in Florida visiting family.  I’m supposed to be enjoying the break—and I am, to a degree. But what non-writers (everyone in my family except my daughters, who write fan fic) can’t understand is that what I’d really like best is quiet time to write.  So I smile and go along with the planned activities, and I don’t tell them that there’s a part of me that’s eager to get back to cold and dreary upstate New York so I can write.

I’m finally getting close to the end of the balloonist story (current working title The Height of Desire).  It’s not the best time to take a break, because this is a time when there’s a risk of something Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, calls creative U-turns, i.e. fear-induced backsliding just at the point of a creative breakthrough.

Click to view daily statistics

The good thing is that I’ve been writing long enough to recognize when I’m tempted to do a creative U-turn. The other thing I’ve found is that telling friends my plans can help me stay on track. So friends, this is my plan:

– I will finish this version of the story by the end of April.

– I will go on a writing retreat during the first weekend in May with my writer buddies at a house on Cayuga Lake. There I will do a deep, thoughtful review of the whole thing and very likely a lot of rewriting and polishing.

– Then it’s off to my critique partners, and probably another round of revision and polishing. Meanwhile I can start thinking about cover art. J

Wish me luck.  What challenges are you facing? What helps to keep you from backsliding?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Writing | Tagged | 3 Replies