Block Off

I just realised I haven't posted since Sunday, I actually though it was more recent than that. I've been distracted this week by a mixture of personal distractions and creative ones as well as the Mother of all Writer's block which has moved over from one particular troubled writing project to encompass all of them. Annoyingly this seems to include my blog also but I'm going to work through it by posting today on the subject of writer's block itself and hopefully by doing so it will free up my creative flow.

In 2004 writer and Neurologist Alice W Flaherty argued in her book The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block And The Creative Brain, that literary creativity is a function of specific areas of the brain, and that block may be the result of brain activity being disrupted in those areas. Sounds believable to me as someone who has suffered brain damage it would make sense that it would corrupt my creative process from time to time I just wish it wouldn't do it when I'm on a role with my latest story.


Reason For Writer's Block


1. Lack of Inspiration
2. Distracted by other tasks that need doing first
3. Poor planning
4. Depression
5. Physical Illness
6. Sense of failure both personally and professionally
7. Intimidated by a previous success
8. Stress
9. Boredom
10. Lack of energy




Cures For Writer's Block

1. Outline your story fully
it's amazing how many people don't outline I for one never outline unless I'm writing a script but it can be a valuable resource to come back to later in times of writer's block.


2. Remind yourself that the first draft doesn't need to be a work of art it is just a blueprint for the many that follow.

3. Switch off the phone put on some music to chill out to and relax your breathing take long deep breathes and close your eyes.


4. Stretch as many muscle groups as possible as a way to relieve your body of stress, sounds stupid but is recommended by a very reputable writer and psychologist.


5. Force yourself to write down your thoughts no matter how poorly worded, this is helpful to distinguish between a creative block and a block for another reason such as depression or self doubt.


6. Talk over your project with someone whose opinion you respect not a family member or someone who can't give you creative feedback someone who will tell you straight. This is often said to be the worse thing you can do but I have found this helpful in the past.


7. Break the writing into smaller steps
If it's a novel don't think of writing the whole 90,000+ words think of the first 500 it's a less scary proposition and we all know we got 500 words in us.


8. If it's boredom you are suffering from take time to do something else you enjoy and always remember to break your writing time down into manageable chunks of time to stop boredom creeping in.


9. Lack of energy is usually down to lack of sleep take a break relax and come back to your writing later when you feel refreshed as there is nothing worse than sitting staring at a blank screen and you can barely keep your eyes open.


10. Sometimes if you're working on an assignment and the subject is just not talking to you maybe what you need to do is look at it from a different angle and find something in the genre or subject matter that you can relate to and if the assignment allows go with that.

Anyhoo I'm back writing again so I guess this post has helped me and I hope something in here will help you guys.



Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

Mixed bag part 2 more mix less filler

Just a short post today guys as I have been busy trying to write an E-Book which I'll get back to talking about later but first here is some Movie News I meant to post last night.

Movie News

As I stated a few posts back the role of Bruce Banner will be recast for the upcoming Avengers movie and recast it has been step forward Mark Ruffalo. This to me is a great piece of casting and will certainly relieve a lot of fans awaiting this movie as there had been fears that Ed Norton would be replaced by an unknown for financial reasons but alas it's just as I speculated previously it's due to Mr. Norton's poor communication skills with directors shall we say to not get sued, lol.

I heard the news yesterday evening that a friend of mine named James L. Aaronson has been hired to script a new film for a major studio which is loosely based on the 1970's Italian horror film "Till The Blood Drips No More" which was about a vampire who due to hate of what he had become tries to kill himself only to be saved by a beautiful medical student who he falls in love with. The rest of the film is basically him trying not to give in to his animalistic urge to feed by draining her of her blood. The movie had a great central theme for the time but was poorly executed as it developed into gore for gore sake and that late 70's horror tradition of excessive nudity but I think the new version will be more akin to the modern Vampire tale like in "Let The Right One In" so one to look out for next year, and of course congratulations James you deserve it buddy.

Me News

It's been relatively quite of recent for me not much to report, (hehe) I have been experiencing some major back and neck pain as of late that I'm looking to get checked out more extensively very soon and I had a scary moment the other night when I lost the feeling in my legs for about 45 minutes which caused me to have a panic attack but luckily I remembered the breathing exercises my psychologist has been teaching me and that calmed me down. On the seizure front I've been having less of late (knock wood) and my memory has improved slightly so all these mind numbingly boring memory tests must actually be working for me.

On the productive front I've been suffering from terrible writer's block as of late when it comes to the E-Book I have been writing so I thought I'd tell you guys about the plot to get your feedback and to see if you think it sounds OK or not, I know this is the exact opposite thing every book about the writing process tells you to do. The story is about an ex SAS officer (a UK military special forces unit) who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and frequent seizures due to a bullet lodged in his skull, I know I'm projecting some of my problems onto him but they say write what you know. Anyhoo he is pretty down on his luck when his old commanding officer pays him a visit to hire him to help find a missing teenage girl who happens to be his ex commanding officer's Goddaughter.

He accepts out of loyalty only as he no longer has faith in his previous talents but as the plot unfolds he has to rely more and more upon the things he did for his Country that his Country wouldn't like to know occurred, to find the girl. I weaved in possible culprits along the way I've implicated her father a powerful business tycoon, her step mother a slush and a gold digger and I've implicated various police and members of our hero's own team the problem lies with this, how do I get over the problem of him thinking like me instead of me thinking like him? What I mean is he has started to sound like me I've lost the character's voice along the way and am interested to hear if this has ever happened to any other writer's out there. I think it may have happened when I took my eye off the ball and changed the story from character driven to plot driven around the middle of the story.

Anyhoo I look forward to your comments guys.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Guest Post

Well today's post will be a little break from the norm as it will be written by Ms. Emma Murty, I met Emma online at a discussion board about independent cinema where we discovered our mutual dislike for Paul WS Anderson films and his crazy fans, now Emma's never blogged before so go easy on her guys and all I can say is thank God for spell checker, lol.

Hello to you all,

With an introduction like that the only way for this to go is downhill fast ,lol, well some people who read this blog will know my name from the comments pages on here, discussion threads and an Interview on BlogCatalog but others won't so here's a quick bio for you. I'm Emma, I'm 21 years old, I hail from Hamilton Scotland, I'm the oldest of three sisters and I recently graduated from The Royal Glasgow Institute Of Fine Arts with a degree, yippee, and I'm a very good, good friend of the blog master himself Drew (DB) Carson the DB thing is a private joke don't worry if you don't get it. We talk everyday and share a lot of our lives together, hint, hint.

Now when he double dared me to write a blog post for him I of course said yes but then quickly found myself wondering "what the h*** will I write about?" I won't do the whole film reviewing thing justice compared to Drew and my life troubles are nothing compared to Drew's own so I thought maybe I'll just blabber on and hope at the end of it all something not to embarrassing or off putting to Drew's audience would be created. (wipes sweat from forehead) Man this is hard how do you guys do it?

The one thing I can definitely write about is art well art and coffee I love my coffee, lol, but I think I'll stick to art for now and in particular my photography. I've always had a camera in my hand as far back as I can remember and take my Canon Digital Rebel T2i everywhere I go because inspiration can grasp you anytime and you need to grab onto it.

These two are two of my favourites in my collection because I think there is real emotion on display well as close to real emotion as you can get out of an old boat and a deserted beach, ROTFL, but I think you guys know what I mean.

I always find that the hardest pictures to get right are nature pictures. You get very little time to line up the shot get the focus right and shoot (poor choice of words I know, lol) but they are so worth it when you get a good one.

I like to think these two represent hope and inspiration but I'm not quite sure if they pull it off (another poor choice of words, ROTFL) I think they are at least optimistic in concept and helped me gain that degree I mentioned as I turned both into paintings for my course.

These are two Glasgow landmarks, the one on the left is the S.E.C.C building where many concerts and shows are put on and to the right is the Clyde Arc or as it's affectionately known in Glasgow The Squinty Bridge. I just love the modern design of the bridge which is not far away from the classic sandstone buildings Glasgow is famous for, it truly can take your breath away at the right time of day.

I think I've taken up enough of Drew's blog now, hehe, hope this wasn't to painfully bad big man. I would like to thank everybody who reads this and please don't stop following this blog this was a one off trust me, lol, I'd also like to thank Drew this was actually really fun and I'm glad you talked me into it, I'll need to think of something to make it up to you (thinks hard, smiles) ROTFL, see you soon Drew.

Well let's hear it for Ms. Murty's very well written blog post and great pictures to go with it, we'll make a blogger out of you yet girl. I bet you used the spell checker almost as much as me though, am I right?........ Thought so.

Anyhoo

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Aller au cinema

This is the first in what will become a regular feature, not that regular, possibly do it again feature on foreign films. A fellow blogger and outstanding poet Kenia Kris asked me via comment on this blog if I liked French Cinema? And if I would write a blog post about French films well the answer is yes but where to begin on dissecting the film industry of that great Country? If I started a blog post about the influences of French New Wave cinema on Hollywood in the 60s and 70s I would need to start an all new blog for my other topics.

Well thankfully another friend had the answer 'Blog about the last French film you watched and go from there, du'h', the immortal words of some girl named Emma something or other eh, eh.... Oh yes Emma Murty, lol. The last French film I watched was the modern day classic known in France as "Ne le dis a personne" and to the English speaking part of the World as "Tell No One".

Tell No One (from 2006)

The film is adapted from a novel by Harlan Coben, Coben originally auctioned the rights to his book off in Hollywood with director Michael Apted attached but after that deal fell through Coben turned to French actor turned director Guillaume Canet who had been calling Coben up for months telling him his take on the book. Coben was impressed by Canet's vision for the story and his understanding that the book was a romance first and a thriller second something Coben believes Hollywood never truly realised. Starring Francois Cluzet who also appeared in French Kiss and Round Midnight and the always wonderful Kristin Scott Thomas, this is a must see movie and a great introduction to modern French cinema for anyone interested in the Foreign Film section of the local DVD store.

The plot centres around Alexandre Beck still tortured by his wife Margot brutal murder 8 years previously, a murder for which Alex was the prime suspect. Alex soon finds himself the prime suspect once again when two bodies are discovered near where the corpse of Margot was dumped 8 years previous leads the police to reopen Margot's case . The mystery escalates when Alex receives an E-Mail showing Margot older and alive. The supporting cast is fleshed out with familiar faces from modern French cinema including Andre Dussollier, Gilles Lellouche, Philippe Lefebvre and Florence Thomassin.

In my opinion Tell No One is one of the best thrillers of the last decade and has something for everybody, romance, action, twists and great performances all through the cast a real 4/5 stars film and it is also blessed with an outstanding soundtrack.

(oh and if any of those names are spelled wrong just remember I'm Scottish I can barely spell English words right)

Future film reviews in this series will include:

Mesrine

Prophet

36 (Quai Des Orfevres)

District 13

Two Days In Paris (don't blame me, picked by Ms. Murty)

Me News

Today was my weekly visit to the psychologist which I always look forward to, no that's not at all sarcasm. Today we were talking about the "3Rs" Relaxation, Recreation and Relationships and how important for someone in my position it is to not neglect any of these. My homework last week was to fill in an hour by hour schedule of what I did and how stressed it made me to do it. This homework was slightly annoying to be honest but it gives them something to work with to see if stress affects my seizures in any way, shape or form.

The one thing I noticed about this schedule was the amount of time I actually spend writing, the best part of six hours a day not including my blog or my activity on the discussion boards. Scary amount but apparently this counts as being productive towards one of the 3Rs, recreation. The other somewhat startling statistic is the lack of sleep I get, I hadn't ever sat down and tried to work out how many hours sleep I get a night before it turns out on average this is less than two and a half hours a night.

Don't be alarmed if you are in the same boat as me on the sleep front as lack of sleep doesn't really have any long term problems associated with it other than feeling sluggish, moody and forgetful and forgetful oh wait I already wrote that, lol. The other topic discussed today was me getting angry with myself when I'm in pain this adds to the stress levels so when I get angry towards myself I'm to remember and say 'What would I say to a friend that was in this position?' I'm guessing I would say something like 'I'm sorry to hear you're so ill that must really p*** you off, eh buddy?' Maybe that's an answer I'll keep to myself and think of a better one for therapy.

Oh and as it will really annoy my good friend Emma here is a picture of Ms Murty, say cheese!

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Quote 1 Quote all

Recently I was called up on the fact I tend to use quotes a lot on discussion boards to enforce my point of view, to be honest I just use them cause they tend to come to mind at the time and I use them as a kind of title for my comment.

Now a lot of these quotes are from such greats as Plato, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Robert burns, Oscar Wilde and of course Billy Connolly but I also tend to throw a few of my own into the mix and I have decided to make a blog post out of them. Now I'm not a philosopher, great poet or a wondrously funny comedian but as a writer I find that opening myself up to writing different styles helps me in developing my own.

Now most of the sites out there with quotes on them tend to have photographs of amazingly beautiful far off locations to inspire the reader I'm going to go a slightly different way myself and showcase my home town Airdrie, Scotland to the World and maybe up it's profile a little and by little I mean little, lol.

I'll post the quotes and underneath I'll try to give a little info on the subject I used that quote for. "The bravest of them all is the one who asks for help the earliest."
This quote was one I came up with for a discussion on what gets in the way of people seeking help for depression, my opinion was it is often pride and/or lack of self worth.

"A minority is less in number but equal in value."
This is a quote I posted on a discussion thread that I found the author of to have a very bigoted view of minorities in his local area.

"Scotland is a land of faith, faith that the wind will always blow and the National team will always suck."
This was a quote I used for a sport thread, I thought it was quite funny at the time.

"To know the truth ask one friend to know a lie ask three more."
Now I'm not 100% sure this is one of my own but I used it to describe the difference between a true friend and Friends that will tell you what you want to hear.

"To trust another with the truth is to trust yourself with a lie."
I can't quite remember what this was used to represent on my part I remember I was feeling quite depressed when I wrote it.

"The bonnie heart, scented by the flower of spring beats in time with my fretful heart."
This one came from a challenge by a person who thought that no man would have the guts to post a romantic verse on that thread.
"Fortune is to some the frivolous fold of green and ink but to others the joy of a warm embrace."
This was a comment header on another blogger's blog post about greed.

"Scotland is a lot like Heaven, cloudy."
This was first used by me on a comedy thread about describing your Country or town.
"For each a new day and for each new day a smile."
This wasn't posted on any thread but instead on the comments page of a friend's blog where I was trying to cheer her up, I hope it worked.

"To Hope for sun is to ask for rain."
I used this on a discussion thread about people who never have enough and always want more.
I think that will be enough and I thank any who managed to read this far, I'll be getting back to my normal posts about movies and myself very soon, anyhoo....

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Review of the Redeye

I was asked via shoutbox on Blog Catalog by good friend and fellow blogger Juliana Matthews aka Ladygoodwood to review two films she had just seen on a flight as she thought I'd do a good review of them, well ego boosted I set out on my mission to complete this task. Funnily enough I actually believed I owned the first film Invictus on DVD but realised I had just picked it up in a store before but didn't buy it so I took a trip to an online DVD store and then two days later it arrived in the post and eagerly I set about watching the film and I was not disappointed.

INVICTUS

The film tells the inspirational true life story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa's national rugby team Francois Pienaar to help unite their Native Country. Newly elected President Mandela knows all to well his Nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing there to be only one way to unite the people of his Country through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's rugby team as they make their historic run to the Rugby World Cup final against the most dominating force in International rugby of that time the mighty All Blacks, New Zealand.

This is a wondrously well crafted film based on the novel "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation" by John Carlin and expertly reworked for the screen by screenwriter Anthony Peckham whose other screenwriting credits include "Sherlock Holmes" and "Don't say a Word" but it's in the direction of Clint Eastwood that brings this film to forefront of great films of this decade, once again Eastwood has chosen a subject matter that as an actor he wouldn't have been given the opportunity to work with and created one of his best films of his career. His career as a director is vast approaching eclipsing his historic career as an actor with this his 31st film as director and with Hoover and Hereafter which will reunite him with Matt Damon on the horizon there is another Oscar nomination or win in his not to distant future.

The central performance by Morgan Freeman is as great as you would imagine being that he was born to play this role and play the role he does. He portrays Mandela the man not Mandela the myth which is something I think most actors would fail to accomplish. His performance is filled with grace and gravitas befitting the great man he is portraying my only question is where does Mr. Freeman go from here? He's portrayed God, the President of the United States and now President Mandela what iconic figures are left for an actor of this stature to portray? I had heard of a rumoured Clint Eastwood pet project about the life of the Blues great BB King maybe this would be a great role for Freeman if he is willing to bulk up.

I was skeptical when I heard that Matt Damon had been cast as Francois Pienaar as I could barely remember him as a player and didn't really see a strong resemblance between them or think a non South African should play the role but humble pie I must eat as Damon owns the role completely. As an actor I actually do like Damon's work, The Bourne movies, Dogma, Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan and in the Departed he puts in stellar performances I guess it's the whole Team America thing every time I hear his name I remember the way that puppet said it 'Mattt Daaamooon', and it makes me laugh, childish I know but it was really funny the first time I saw that movie.

I think special praise should go out to another actor who has been criminally overlooked by most reviewers of this film and that would be Tony Kgoroge who portrays Mandela's head of security Jason Tshabalala in the film. With very little dialogue for the length of screen time he has he created an incredibly well rounded character that really sticks in your mind. He also manages to do this while sharing the screen with Morgan Freeman who is putting in a career best performance which makes it all the more impressive.

Invictus was budgeted at $60,000,000 and grossed $124,479,778 worldwide and earned two Oscar nominations and is a great film even if you don't understand the rules of rugby or aren't a sports film fan in general there is so much depth to the film that there is something for everyone.

THE BOAT THAT ROCKED

The Boat That Rocked or Pirate Radio as it was distributed as by US distributor Universal is an ensemble British romantic comedy with a twist as the romance in the film is between the young British people of the 1960's and pop music. The film is very loosely based on Radio Caroline, a popular pirate radio ship with a similar history and style. Directed by Richard Curtis (Love Actually) and starring an amazing cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Nick Frost, Gemma Arterton and a surprisingly short appearance by Emma Thompson the film is about a group of rogue DJ's that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined that era and standing up to a government that believed such music was almost pornographic.

With a script written by Richard Curtis who wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, the Bridget Jones movies and Love Actually I was slightly hesitant of this film at first. I'm not a big Rom-Com fan and found the movies mentioned above to be to sappy even for my taste but as he also wrote such classic British works as Blackadder, Not the Nine O'clock News and French and Saunders I was willing to give it a go.

The film has it's moments Hoffman, Frost and Nighy are on top form as always and the rest of the cast do their best with what they are given but I felt some of the other characters where underwritten and the plot dragged a little in the middle, the 2 hour running time could and probably should have been cut to closer to 90 minutes but on a whole I found it to be very charming in a very British way. It's a 6/10 kind of film for me, I like it, just not loving it but I will watch anything with Bill Nighy in it the man is a genius.

The Boat That Rocked made $29,800,000 worldwide which is very healthy for a British comedy as British humour often doesn't translate well into other languages or other regions. If your looking for a no brainer with a couple of good laughs check it out if you're looking for something with a bit more meat on it's bones I'd go with Invictus.

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Mixed Bag

Today's blog post is a bit of a mixed bag and contains movie news I meant to post last night so it's no longer new news so to speak. The reason for the lateness of my blog entry is actually a good one I was busy writing a guest post on a friend's blog and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank her for allowing little auld me to have that honor, so thank you Jazz.


Movie Not So New News


Ed Norton will not be appearing in The Avengers movie after Marvel revealed they plan on recasting the Bruce Banner role with an unknown actor. This has caused a very split response amongst fans of these kind of movies online on the message boards. People either don't Care as they didn't like his performance in The Incredible Hulk or they are mad at Marvels' cost cutting on their dream movie.



My take on it is there is only three reason for casting a different actor:
1. Financial
His character doesn't appear on screen enough to warrant Norton's pay check and with Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth (next big thing), Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston already in the impressive cast you can see why cutting costs is on the Studio's mind.

2. New Direction
Marvel want to take the character in a different direction or concentrate more on The Hulk than on Banner.

3. Difficult Actor

It's well documented that Ed Norton can be a difficult actor to work with unless you like your actors to confront you when you have a different take on a scene than they do, frankly I wouldn't see this as a problem myself a confrontational actor is a passionate actor and worst case scenario I would just lamp him one.

The Plot

The plot is a closely kept open secret as Marvel will neither confirm or deny Internet rumours. I see the recasting as a clear signal that the plot will centre around The Hulk as the villain controlled by Loki, a plot device that Ed Norton has been vocally against for some time but Marvel see big bucks in an on screen confrontation between Thor and The Hulk. The only problem is with casting a new actor it will be the third actor in as many movies to play the role and isn't continuity something Marvel preached about when setting up this franchise gatherer?



Me time


Today was my weekly visit to the psychologist and for the second week in a row I have come away with homework, I didn't get this much homework in High School but every little piece of the puzzle we can find can help determine a way to improve my stress and depression problems. I still find it kind of funny that a person who sits at home all day doing SFA can have stress problems but I'm told it's all part of a vicious circle of get depressed which stresses me out which makes me more depressed yadda yadda yadda anyway I got this timetable thing to fill in with every hour of the day on it. I fill in the blank spaces with what I was doing and how stressed out of 100 I was doing it. It humorously starts at 7am in the morning which is funny to me as I tend not to get up till 11am. How many of these boxes are going to be filled with "was online" or "was watching TV" do we think poeple, 1/3 or most, lol.


I went for a family excursion to a shopping mall today after dinner, parents were buying a silver wedding gift, my Brother was going to look at the magazines and X Box 360 games so I thought as my back has been calm today I would tag along. We separated into two groups upon arriving, parents went one way us kids (me 28 him 33) went another. We went to WH Smiths which I don't think will be a name my overseas readers will know, let's think how to describe it? Eh, a hell here's the link they sell this stuff:


http://www.whsmiths.co.uk/


I think that will work anyway back to the story. We were looking at the magazines my brother the video game magazines me the blues music and film magazines and when we had found some that looked interesting enough to buy, which is harder than it sounds I find, I went up to the checkout to pay. The cashier was staring at me constantly while the line was decreasing in front of me and kind of freaking me out, I was thinking have I got something on my face? Have I knocked something over? As I approached the checkout I handed my soon to be purchases over to the short smiley girl behind the counter and fished nervously into my pocket for my bank card, damn magazine prices have gone up, lol. This was our brief conversation.


Smiley Girl: Your that guy right?
Me: Whit? (I'm always so polite, lol)
Smiley Girl: Yeah yeah your that guy, right?
Me: I'm a guy yes, how much for these?
She scans the magazines and then picks up a bag.
Smiley Girl: £13.32
I place my card in the chip and pin and nervously await my pin request.
Smiley Girl: I know you.
Me: Do you? That's cool.
Enter pin, get card back.
Smiley Girl: You got a blog don't cha?
Me: Yeah that's right.
Clapping her hands.
Smiley Girl: I read your blog, I read your blog.
Me: Cool thank you.
I reach out my hand to receive the magazines.
Smiley Girl: Say it.
Me: Sayyyy What?
Smiley Girl: Your catchphrase.
Me: I have a catchphrase?
Smiley Girl: Yeah you do, at the end of every new one you write it.
Me: What thanking you?
Smiley Girl: That's it, that's my favourite catchphrase I use it all the time.
Me: Oh OK.
She nods towards me.
Me: Thanking you!
She giggles.
Smiley Girl: Haha that's manic, love it.
Me: OK bye.
Smiley Girl: Thanking you!
I smile then leave quickly, my brother finds this very funny.

As the weather has turned from sun splitting the trees to the trees getting washed away down the street in Scotland I thought I'd finish with a picture of Oscar to cheer myself up, here's one with him wearing his favourite hat.

Anyhoo here's a special one for Smiley Girl

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer