Let’s Go To The Movies…

by | Apr 21, 2020 | Inspiration, Life

Actually, let’s don’t and say we did. Please stay home, stay well, help keep others well, too.

But… We can watch movies and from everything I’ve seen online over the last few weeks, people have definitely been watching movies and television shows and streaming the entire catalog available on Netflix.

I haven’t done that, yet, but I have been watching movies. Or, at least listening to them. I have a small television mounted on the wall in my office and I turn on movies sometimes when I’m writing blogs, putting together newsletters, doing revisions, setting up pre-orders, etc… You know, the busywork of being an indie author or really any author at all who doesn’t have a virtual assistant.

When I’m writing, I listen to music, and sometimes when I’m doing the other stuff I’ll listen to music, too, but a lot of the time, I’ll put a DVD in or find something on Netflix or Amazon Prime to watch/listen to and recite the lines word for word. Don’t judge me. You do it, too.

Below I’ve listed some of my favorite movies that…comfort me, bring me peace of some sort in hard times, soothe when I’m depressed or creatively challenged, inspire me to keep going after my dreams when I falter, or are there when I just need to get lost in a world that is not this one…

The Lord of the Rings trilogy… I mean, anyone who knows me knows this.

Wonder Boys

Something’s Gotta Give

Stranger Than Fiction

Julie and Julia

You’ve Got Mail

Music and Lyrics

Pirates of the Caribbean (the first 3)

Mission Impossible (all of the Tom Cruise ones)

Skyfall

Draft Day

Major League

Ford vs. Ferrari

Moneyball

Avengers, Iron Man (1-3), Thor: Ragnorak, Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy (1&2), Captain America: Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War… I haven’t watched Endgame since I saw it in the theater last year because I’m still not over the death of Black Widow and still unhappy with how they undid everything Thor had accomplished up to then, and honestly, I prefer to pretend that Endgame never happened. One day, I’m sure I’ll feel differently, but not yet.

Harry Potter

The Expendables

Red (1 & 2)

John Wick (1-3)

Charlie’s Angels (with Drew, Cameron, and Lucy)

As you can see, I like sports movies, writing movies, fantasy movies, and kick-ass action movies. I like some romantic comedies, too.

Movies, like books, allow for escape, allow us to live in another world and another time for a little while. Some movies eventually become a comfort, a place we can go get lost for a couple of hours and revisit characters who’ve become like old friends. Movies that we already know the ending to and find comfort there because the real world often has more questions than answers, and sometimes we need a little hope that things can get better.

What are some of your favorite movies?

Lissa

 

Music Monday – Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed

by | Mar 6, 2017 | Music Monday

Yes. I know. Y’all are tired of hearing about my love and obsession with the Wonder Boys movie, but tough… I love it. It helps me. I can’t explain it. It just does.

I’ve been listening to the soundtrack and there’s a lot of Bob Dylan on it. Some Leonard Cohen and John Lennon too. But there’s quite a bit of Bob Dylan. I’ve never listened to him a whole lot, but lately it seems I am. I like the sound and all.

Anyway, this is one of the tracks. And in many things, from the publishing business to politics… Things have definitely changed.

~lissa

Dear Readers… January 17, 2017

by | Jan 17, 2017 | readers, writing

I think I’m going to take a page put of Kathleen Kelly’s book in You’ve Got Mail and begin as though we’re in the middle of a conversation… Or, maybe I’ll just talk. Or maybe… Who knows…

I’ve been writing and wondering and second guessing every word, every phrase, every scene. Time is really of the essence and I don’t have it to waste. This is a busy writing year. Or supposed to be.

See, I’m going to end something in a way that will pass off the majority of people who read it. That’s just all there is to it.

It’s like in Stranger Than Fiction. Emma Thompson’s character Karen is at a point in her novel where she doesn’t know how to kill off her main character. She doesn’t believe in writer’s block, but she’s struggling to land on the death of this man.

I was struggling, too. Not on how to kill a character, but on how to end a book.

How do you end something when you never intended it to be what it became? How do you do that without passing people off? The truth is, you can’t. I can’t.

People will hate it. Readers will be disappointed. Upset. And that’s rather daunting for me and perhaps other writers as well. To know that I’ve written a tale that has made someone else FEEL something.

But if those who read it, dislike it… Then I’ve done my job. Then I’ve stayed true to what had evolved across the pages. Do I want that? To have my words disliked, my work reviewed harshly? No. I’d rather people love it. It’s much easier when they love it than when they hate it. At least, that’s what we tell ourselves.

Staying true to the work, to the words, to the characters… That’s my real duty. And once I freed my brain of the knots holding my creativity hostage, the What if’s, the Maybe I should’s, the Oh no, I can’t do that’s… That’s when I landed on what I am supposed to do, what the characters and events are leading me toward.

After all, it’s their story. Not mine. Not yours, the readers. But the story belongs to the characters.

One of my favorite lines in yet another movie, Wonder Boys, a classmate says of another’s writing, “He respects us enough to forget us. And that takes courage.”

I’ve quoted that line before on the blog and it has relevance here again.

I respect everyone who reads my books. I respect their opinions, whether good or bad. But I can’t write the story anyone else wants. I can’t only write the story that belongs to the characters who’ve come to life through me.

~lissa

 

(Movie images courtesy of IMDB)

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