Wednesday, January 29, 2014

some Disney (boy) loving!

Nathan Bransford offers some advice to writers struggling with their manuscripts:
Force yourself to get going - That very normal hump that you have to get over to force yourself to sit down and start writing when you don't want to can feel like Mount Everest when you're stressed out. So start climbing. Open up the computer, make yourself get started. 
Don't be afraid to cut back - Even if you do power through and keep writing during a stressful time, chances are you're not going to be as productive as you are normally. That's just the nature of being distracted. Plan ahead for this and don't put extra pressure on yourself to maintain the same pace.

Also, more hard but very sound advice from author Charles Finch over at Writer's Digest. These particularly stood out:

PATIENCE 
To me, the single biggest mark of the amateur writer is a sense of hurry. 
Hurry to finish a manuscript, hurry to edit it, hurry to publish it. It's definitely possible to write a book in a month, leave it unedited, and watch it go off into the world and be declared a masterpiece. It happens every fifty years or so. 
For the rest of us, the single greatest ally we have is time. There's no page of prose in existence that its author can't improve after it’s been in a drawer for a week. The same is true on the macro level – every time I finish a story or a book, I try to put it away and forget it for as long as I can. When I return, its problems are often so obvious and easy to fix that I'm amazed I ever struggled with them. 
Amateur writers are usually desperate to be published, as soon as possible. And I understand that feeling – you just want it to start, your career, your next book, whatever. But I wonder how many self-published novels might have had a chance at getting bought, and finding more readers, if their authors had a bit more patience with them?

HABIT 
"Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition."  ~W.H. Auden 
If there's a single idea I emphasize when people ask about writing, it's that there’s no right way to produce a book.  But I do think that whatever you do, you should do regularly, whether it's waking up at midnight and drinking vodka or waking up at dawn and drinking tea ... The more consistent your habits are – and this ties into having your tools nailed down – the more secure your brain will be to run free and create. 
PRACTICE  
There's more mystical nonsense written about the process of writing than almost anything. Inspiration, genius, "the muse". So I want to lay out one huge, comforting, wonderful fact: the more you write, the better you get at it. Writing is like a forehand or driving a car or playing guitar. Practice makes you better. 
That's not to say inspiration and genius don't exist.  Not everyone can become Tolstoy through hard work. What it means is that, wherever you start, you can improve. And the way to do it is to write a lot. 
As long as you produce a little something every day, every week, in time, invisibly, you’ll get better. Trailing behind every successful writer are a million words that never saw the light of day. Sometimes it takes five million words. The most important piece of writing advice anyone can give or get is simple, and therefore can seem uninteresting, but it's true: just keep writing.

Okay, enough of the serious stuff. Time for something frivolous - Disney!

Some life lessons that Tangled apparently teaches.

Some more life lessons that Disney movies teach.

And a few more:








Okay, the last two probably aren't the best lessons to take home!

And this one ... I just find it funny. It's about Flynn Rider from Tangled. He's not my favourite Disney male lead (that would be John Smith from Pocahontas), but he's becoming one of my favourites.

Speaking of Disney boys, ever wondered what they would look like in real life?

I knew I was into Prince Phillip for a reason!

Although I'm not complaining about the Hemsworth brothers and Ryan Pretty-Face Reynolds, I don't agree fully with this list. For instance, wouldn't Ian Somerhalder be better suited for Prince Eric, with his raven hair and electric blue eyes?

Well, hell-o!

Or Jamie Campbell Bower for Prince Adam (aka Beast from Beauty and the Beast)?

I'm hopeless when they have hair like this and a smile like that.
Or Sam Claflin?



And, um, Jared Padalecki for Flynn Rider?

Oh, Moose!

Which Disney guys were your favourites?

I've always been into Prince Eric and Prince Philip (from Sleeping Beauty) because:


Eric's hair! Eric's eyes! Eric in that white shirt!

 photo princeeric_zps0707fed3.gif

TOTAL. DREAMBOAT. Though my favourite Disney princess was Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty), Ariel totally had a sweeter deal.

But Prince Philip wasn't that bad either. He had style - who else can pull off that jaunty cap and cape combo?


Plus, so broody.

 photo princephilip_zps05918de8.gif

Broody boys are a pain in real life, but in Disney, they're just yummy.

Yes, even back then I was a superficial piece of shit. Haha.

BUT.

It wasn't until I got older and rewatched Pocahontas (my all-time favourite Disney cartoon) that I learned to appreciate John Smith.

 photo johnsmith_zpsc80fc027.gif

"I'd rather die tomorrow than live a hundred years without knowing you." My favourite line out of all the Disney movies. Swooooooon! ❤


 photo john_zps25bd21a9.gif

This moment when they first met was pretty darn magical too. Swoon swoon love! ❤

Besides, doesn't John Smith look like a blonde Daniel Henney, especially in the lips?


Okay, I think that's enough male appreciation for one post. How about some male un-appreciation?

You know you should back the hell off when a girl has that reaction to you!

How about some girl talk? Disney/Mean Girls crossover, anybody?


I love how well-cast the Disney princesses are: Ariel the redhead as Cady Heron, spacey-eyed blonde Cinderella as ditsy Karen Smith and Queen Bee Aurora as Regina George!

(By the way, can you believe Mean Girls is 10 years old? I watched it when I was 15! Man, I feel old.)

Happy mid-week! :0)

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