Story Within Story

Have you seen Inception yet???

I absolutely loved it. What a well-woven story! And, like all really good stories, it inspired some thoughts that could be relevant to the stories we have yet to write. I'll try and tell you about them using only the trailers and the first few minutes of the film. Don't want to spoil it for anyone. :)

In the movie, they mention the concept of a dream within a dream. But let's look at a slightly different idea: a story within a story. From the trailers, we discover that the movie is about the power of dreams. In the opening scenes, we find out that the MC is trying to get home. It's a story within a story, and only as the film goes on do we discover the depth of meaning of each of the elements and how they relate to one another.

After finishing the film, I realised what an important concept this is. A good story is like a piece of cloth: a series of interwoven threads. Some threads are more important than others, but every thread strengthens that piece of cloth. Take Harry Potter, for example. That story could have been told with any random kid as the hero. But it's so much stronger because Harry's parents have been killed by Voldemort. Or let's look at The Hunger Games. The Peeta/Gale scenario is not neccessary for the distopia, but it makes it that much better.

That is story within story. Why do the characters want these things? What drives them? What makes them who they are? What's on their mind when they can't sleep at night?

These are the things that pull us into the film, or book, or song. That connection, where we feel like it could be us.

In the end, Cobb is just a man yearning to get home, Harry is just a boy yearning for his parents' love, and Katniss is just a girl who's confused about boys.

And that's why we love them, because we identify.

Is there a story within your story?

Taylor Swift - TTT

The Time Machine isn't going very far back today. Partially because I'm exhausted, and partially because I had the most amazing concert experience this weekend.

Taylor Swift had her start back in 2006. Or rather, that's when she started singing. She'd been writing since she was 14. It's probably not cool to be 28 and totally love Taylor Swift. Whatever! I do. So there :P She's about a lot of the same things I am, and her music makes me happy. She makes me believe in horoscopes, because we are that much alike and born 2 days (and 8 years) apart.

Today Was a Fairy Tale is her most recent single. It's on the soundtrack of Valentine's Day, and it totally encapsulates how I felt after seeing her live!



Taylor wrapped up her set on Sunday with her fourth single, from 2008, Picture to Burn!


Our Song (2007) was the first Taylor Swift single I ever heard, and I was hooked!


I'm such a romantic! How could I resist the ultimate Love Story (2009)?


It's not every day you get to ride off into the sunset on a White Horse (2008)


Sometimes I fly so high, I'm Fearless (2010)


One of my faves, because I love the concept and I love jumping around like I'm crazy!!! You Belong With Me (2009)


By the way, I'm back in my town now, so I should be back poking around on your blogs soon. Yay! But I'm off again on Friday... lol!

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways!

Time for another Monday on my Mind.

What's on my mind this Monday? You guys! You rock!

I didn't have the best day on Thursday. In the end, it all did work out, but it looked a bit shaky for a while. And then I posted about it. And you guys were all over it. Bad day??? No bad day is badder than my Bloggy Buddies!

And that's not all you do. You're on here, some of you every day, reading what I have to say.

I am not an expert on writing. There are tons of subjects I'm qualified to talk about- Japan, languages, personality theory, the Caribbean... writing is not one of them. And yet, you guys come here and read my musings. The craziest thing is that I only actually know two people who read this blog. All the rest of you have just wondered in on your own. And you've stayed!

I can't tell you how much of a vote of confidence that is. Maybe the madness I spew isn't quite so crazy. Maybe I do have half a clue what's going on!

I have to thank you guys for being such an inspiration. The fact that you come here makes me try my hardest to give you something worth reading every day. And your support makes me know I have to succeed. Because if I never polish a book, and have agents and editors backflipping through flaming Froot Loops to sign me, then what does that say about you choosing me?

And so for all that you are to me, and all that you do for me, I say thank you!

First the Bad News

It's been a tough two weeks.
I've worked 14 or 15 hours more days than not.
I managed to get some unpronounceable thing in my neck inflamed, and was pretty much disabled on the only 2 days I had off.
I've spent way more money in Tokyo than I intended to.

And then, today happened.

Yesterday, I mailed home some of the things I wouldn't need: my formal clothing that I used at the conferences, the books I was reading (including Catching Fire which I bought in the huge bookstore in Shinjuku- can't wait for MockingJay!), my handbag- the zipper's stuck anyway. I came pretty close to mailing home my house key. Wouldn't have been that big a deal, because I can get in the house without it.

What I did mail home was the key to my lock box. And my lock box contains my Summer Sonic Concert tickets :(

I spent an hour on the roof of the hostel, trying to be MacGuyver and pick the lock. No luck.

Step 2- I went down to the front desk and explained that my key had been mailed 600 km away, and that I needed the tickets for Saturday. I explained all in Japanese, even though the staff speak English- I had no intention of letting the English speaking guests hear my idiocy!

Eventually, they found me a lock smith (the first guy was charging $100!!!) and I set off for Ueno, which is only 3 stops on the train. Of course I got hopelessly lost. So I called the place, and the guy kept telling my left instead of right and then grumbling when I ended up in the wrong place. So I gave up on him and walked into the store in front of me. It turned out to be a casino. Bad! As a government employee, me being in casinos is frowned upon. Anyhow, casino guy walked me to the locksmith, who was right next door. Now if only he could give directions, and all maps in Japan didn't suck. (I had a map, but maps in Japan are pretty much unreadable.)

The locksmith took 37.5 seconds to open the lockbox. I kid you not. The criminal in me SUCKS!!! I'm spending all next week trying to pick that lock. At least he only charged me ten bucks.

So, I got my tickets, but now I was severely late for my doctor's appointment on the other side of Tokyo. I barely made it in time. After my ten minutes of electro-massage, I decided to treat myself.

Baskin Robbins' Fantastic Island started the ball rolling. Then I mailed a friend in Tokyo and arranged to hang out tomorrow night. Then I watched the new Naruto Shippuuden movie.

1. I love Naruto so I was floating on a cloud just from purchasing the ticket.

2. Then I discovered a stack of movies I want to see. Inception, Salt, and the new Ghibli (I don't know the English name) are all on, and I might go see all of them tomorrow :), plus Resident Evil 4 (Biohazard in Japanese) and Karate Kid come out soon. I love movies.

3. Then they showed the trailer for the Bleach movie, which comes out December 4- I also love Bleach :) especially the movies!

4. Then they showed a hilarious short about Naruto and a genie. It was from Naruto's first series, and it was fun to see the whole crew as kids again. Plus, I was proud that I understood almost every word.

5. Then the Naruto Shippuden movie was AWESOMESAUCE. And I realised my friends might have to wait 6 months to a year, but I can watch it now when it's 5 days old because I can (kinda) understand Japanese. And I thought that was so KOOL!!!

So all's well that ends well.

PS. This post is completely random. Maybe life will go back to normal when I go home on Monday.

PPS. Naruto's last name is Uzumaki- whirlwhind, and Minato (his father's) last name is Namikaze (wave-wind). Random cool Japanese fact! :)

PPPS. Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder this weekend- provided there's no more drama.

Vonnegut's #4

Firstly, since it's a Write Away Wednesday, I had to share this post from the fantabulicious, Sarah Enni. ">YA characters as defined by Nintendo! Check it out!

And on to tha biz...

Kurt Vonnegut presented 8 rules of short story writing. This is one set of rules I actually like. (Y'all know me and the rules.) Maybe some day I'll examine them all, but for now, let's look at number 4.
"Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action."

Can you sense that that rule's got me spastic?

To be fair, these rules were written for short stories, but still, some authors seem to have convinced themselves that 12 pages of desription or worldbuilding or some other background info is fine.

It's not.

Background is just that. BACKground!

The whole story may be dependent on it, but in the end, it's a base, not the story. In my opinion, a page should not go by, without some character development or plot development. Some people might think that trying to develop plot or character on every page is limiting. But for sure, you can't afford to have an entire chapter where neither the character or the plot moves. Leave out exorbitant descriptions of landscapes or houses or mythical animals. When we want that sort of detail on those things, we watch National Geographic or the DIY channel. NONfiction.

Add background to your stories like you'd add baking powder to a cake. Sprinkle lightly and mix throughout. That's the same way we notice background in real life. We don't ask someone to stop speaking so we can note the colours of the walls and layout of the kitchen. In real life, we notice actions and people. In fiction, we read for plot and character.

And every page without it is a reason to put a book down.

Headliners: Stevie TTT

The Headliner on the second day of Summer Sonic (THIS WEEKEND! AAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!) is Stevie Wonder. As promised, today, we're heading back in time with Stevie.

Perhaps his most successful song, I JUST CALLED TO SAY I LOVE YOU, 1984


My favourite version of the birthday song, which appropriately came out in the year of my birth, 1981!


I'm being totally biased and picking my faves, because really, how do you choose Stevie Wonder's biggest hits? This next one, TOMORROW ROBINS WILL SING, is from 1995.


I will be completely OVERJOYED (1986) when I get to see this man LIVE!!! ;)


And I guess I should let you guys know that YOU ARE THE SUNSHINE OF MY LIFE (1973)!!!


SHELTER FROM THE RAIN is from 2006. The man has been charting for 5 decades! That is greatness!


Time to wrap it up, because I could post Stevie forever. Let's take it back to 1970. SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED, I'M YOURS!


Hope you enjoyed it. I'm off to continue my attempt not to have an aneurism. STEEEEEVIEEEE!!! AAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!!! :D

Pain in the Neck! Monday on my Mind

THE PARABLE OF THE PARTS

Once upon a time, all the body parts had an argument about which part was the most important.

"We couldn't walk without us," said the legs.
"We'd starve without me," said the stomach.
Then Bot-Bot (the butt) started, "Well, I-"
The hands interrupted, "Why you don't hush? All you do is stink up everything!"
The parts all laughed.

But Bot-Bot's feelings were hurt and he shut up and ignored the other parts.

No waste could pass, and after a while the other parts started feeling sick. The legs couldn't walk straight, and the stomach started to churn.

"Bot-bot! We're sorry!" called the hands.
"You are important!" added the heart, who was beating irregularly.

Bot-Bot was so angry, he didn't hear the other parts for quite a while. But by the time he finally calmed down and let out the waste, all the parts had realised that it didn't matter which was the most important, they all had a role to play.

Disclaimer: This is a re-telling of a tale I found in a newspaper in Barbados years ago. "Bot-Bot" is one of the many pet names we have for "butt."

So, I managed to do something to my neck between lugging around a huge backpack and working three 14-hour days.

It was bad! Any time my shoulders got out of alignment, I would experience a paralysing pain shooting from neck in every direction. It's no easy task keeping your shoulders aligned. Any time your hips or knees get too far out of alignment, the shoulders go too. I spent two days walking around, trying to move my entire body as a unit. You have no idea how hard it is to put on pants without moving your neck and shoulders. Bet you've never noticed you even use neck muscles to sneeze!

Afterwards, I got to thinking- because I was very incapable of thinking during the pain, I'm really bad with pain- that there are lots of times life is like this. I mean, you never hear anybody praying, "Thank God for the use of my neck," do you?

But there are lots of times when little things we've never thought about go wrong. And even though they're tiny enough that we've never thought about them, they make our lives miserable. What's it Joni Mitchell said? You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

Let's look at it from another angle. We love to put things in hierarchies. Y is more important than X but less important than Z. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of times that hierarchies are important. If you've got a broken leg and your heart has stopped, you best believe that the doctors are going to deal with your heart first. But it's all too easy to get so caught up in hierarchy that we forget that the little things matter too.

THE WRITER'S PERSPECTIVE
We hear arguments on all sides about what we should develop more, and what we should work on first: plot, characters, language, etc. But at the end of the day, it all matters. Because you favour characters, that doesn't mean that your plot can be non-existent or that your language can be painful to read.

Whichever matters most, all of your elements have to work together. Otherwise your story will be nothing more than a pain in the neck.

And that's what's on my mind this Monday.