Bad Movies, Good Books: New Rules For Myself

Bad Movies, Good Books: New Rules For Myself

With Spring semester finished, I’m finding myself with an incredible amount of free time. There is only so much time I can devote to sitting in cafes writing, so I often end up laying in bed, watching a movie on my laptop.

All of my friends and co-workers know my love for terrible movies. I’m talking straight up horrible, critically panned films. They make me laugh and feel better about myself… but afterwards, I usually realize I’ve wasted two hours of my life that I could have used to read, write some more, or play with my chinchilla.

As a result, I’ve given myself a new personal rule. Every time I watch a terrible movie on purpose I’ll have to purchase a new classical book that I haven’t read, or haven’t read since I was in high school. This rule doesn’t count if I thought the movie was going to be good, and it turned out being awful, such as The Golden Compass.

I only started doing this to myself two weeks ago, and here’s the movie watched / book purchased list so far.

Skinwalkers / The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
Timeline / The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
PS I Love You / Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Doomsday / The Wasteland & Other Writings by T.S Eliot
10,000 BC / The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

I’m hooked on picking up Borders’ editions of classic books, especially because they look so nice sitting on the bookshelf.

Heather’s birthday party is coming up. Heather and I will be watching Diary of the Dead and Zombie Strippers during the course of the weekend to celebrate, since she’s seen almost every single zombie movie… except these two recent ones.

I wonder, what two books will I buy after that.

Novel Fail: Accidental Pop Culture Icon Reference

writing_fail.jpg

So I’ve been working on my book for two years now. It’s done, but right now I’m editing it, adding pieces here and there, really trying to flesh out some of the more shallow points in the story. I’m also working on creating a better ending. I recently caved and let a few friends (thanks Glen & Helen!) read it, and I’ve been getting some positive feedback.

However, I just caught this.

Here’s the scene towards the end of the book. One of the main characters, the love interest, Hannah, is leaving to go back home to her beloved state. The lead character chases after her bus, yelling for her not to leave in a super cute and highly (but purposely) cliche moment. He screams.

“Don’t go back to Montana, Hannah!”

… FUCK!

Seriously, did I really go two years working on this story, and not realize this?

Alexis: “find–>replace

You sure said it Lexie.