mix and mingle

There’s lots of discussion about what Disney princess movies teach little girls, but has anyone thought about what they teach little boys?

Yes, yes they have.

This article talks about a study done on how Disney Princess movies affect young children, specifically, young boys.  I don’t want to give spoilers but the affect these movies had on boys was exactly opposite of what I thought it would be.

Writers are told to read, read, read. But does what we read matter? According to this article it does. I’m not 100% sold on its conclusions but I will agree that reading ‘good’ writing is better than reading ‘bad’ writing, no matter the genre.  Though why someone would purposefully read something they think is ‘bad’ is beyond me.

On a happy note. We’ve finally broke ground!  In six or so months we’ll have a house again. 

Finding the end

I'm 20K words into a new book and I'm having some problems.  I like the idea, I like the characters and the world I'm building, but I don’t know where I’m going with this book.

I have lots of ideas for the end, but nothing feels right, I don’t yet know what the end should be. I’m not a plotter. I don’t like to know everything before starting a book, but usually about 10k words in I have a pretty good idea where the story is going. I stop and write the end, then I know what I’m shooting for. All I have to do is figure out how they get there. 

This book isn’t working like that. 

I feel aimless. Part of that is maybe that my character right now is aimless and doesn’t know what she wants. Part of it may be the difficulty I've been having writing due to stress the past year or so. Either way, I need a goal. I need something to shoot for, so I know how to write this thing. 

What do you do with an aimless book? How do you find your goal?

Celebrate

Happy fourth of July to those celebrating. Happy Monday to those not. Hope you all have a great day and I'll see you next week!