Dogsled Dreams - Terry Lynn Johnson

Last night I finished reading my friend's novel called Dogsled Dreams by Terry Lynn Johnson. I will be the first to admit that I usually don't read YA novels but I am glad I did with this one.

This is Terry's debut novel about a young twelve year old girl named Rebecca. She has a dream of wanting to become a famous musher. Throughout the novel she struggles through training her beloved dogs all the way to battling blizzards on the trail.

It is certainly a great book for both children and adults a like to read.

I highly recommend reading this book. I felt as though I was brought back to my child hood days with the excitement and adventure Rebecca was having. Now I have put on my bucket list to give dogsledding a try.

I CHALLENGE you

It is Script Frenzy month here and I thought it would be fun to share some famous movie scripts.

My challenge (and it's an easy one) is for you to choose one of the four scripts below and read it while watching the movie itself. (Beware that there may be some changes done in the movie that were not included in the script)

See if you can notice what makes a scene important, why they kept that dialogue, and what was done differently to better the movie.

Try to choose one of the movies you have not seen before. It helps to see the difference between the vision of the writer and what the director has done with the piece.

1. Casablanca
2. Toy Story 3
3. Knocked Up
4. Inception

For television scripts I will give you two links for you to try to find some episodes to read:

• Simply Scripts
• Script-o-Rama

Let me know what you think about the different style of writing, how the script and the movie/t.v show compares etc.

Have fun!

Blogging: Why is it so difficult?

I apologize for not posting anything for the past few weeks.

To be honest, I had no idea what to write. Can you believe that? A writer who doesn't know what to write! I know shocking right, but we all get some sort of block at least once in our life right?

I have learned something quite interesting which I am sure many of you have experienced before. Blogging is much more difficult than it looks. I personally try to write a post at least once a week and find it difficult to come up with topics that help you, my readers as well as being interesting. I seriously do not know how some bloggers are able to write 3-5 posts a week and keep it interesting.

If you're reading this, you might be a blogger like myself. How do you do it?

How are you able to find and write creative posts as much as you do?

Inspirational Writer - David Seidler

David Seidler you might have heard of him before. If you click on his name you will find an article about how this man, at the age of 73, won his first ever Oscar for writing The King's Speech.

Reading the article alone is inspiration in itself, especially when you read his life story.

My favourite quote from the article is, "Too many of the young writers haven't lived any kind of a life but film school and watching TV and movies," he says. "They're very good at their craft, but they don't have much life experience to back it up. I came at it the other way."

As a young writer I agree with that statement. I'm a movie hog. Most of my free time is spent watching one movie or another, but it does not give me near the amount of experience to write something as marvelous as the King Speech. (If you have not seen the movie, I urge you to see it. It's a simple story line but the message of over coming your biggest obstacles, makes it worth while to watch along with Colin Firth's amazing acting abilities)

What I found to be quite motivating in this article, is in the writing community it does not matter how old you are. Some industries once you become a certain age, you're basically done. Not in this case. You could write your heart out and become successful at the age of twenty five or eighty five. It does not matter what so ever. I just love the writing community!

For You:

Have you seen The King's Speech? If so what did you think of it?

Do you believe age a factor in the writing community?

Ever Wrote a Song?

FAWM is turning out to be a great challenge that I am going through for this month. To be honest I actually thought I was going to fail miserably and have cheap poppish songs that are only good for baby's to listen to. I am so glad I proved myself wrong.

I like to share with others anything that I can share and for this week I decided I shall share one of my songs that I wrote. Today in my community, there is an anti bullying campaign going on where many people have bought and are wearing their anti bullying pink shirts.

I can only speak for myself, but I personally know what it feels like to be bullied. I thought that it would seem fit to share a song I wrote about bullying with you all based on a story I saw on the news along with a bit of my own personal feelings.

It is called Someone Someday, sung by the lovely Leslie Hudson.

If you haven't guessed yet I wanted to ask you all if you ever wrote a song? why or why not?

Inspiration for the day

Have you heard Born This Way by Lady Gaga yet? If not click here to hear the song and click here to read the lyrics.

Now love it or hate it, when I first heard this song and read the lyrics I had tears in my eyes. Why? Well it greatly inspired me. We live in a world where we are constantly comparing ourselves and I just love how this song (through my interpretation) basically says it's okay to be who you are because you were born and destined to be who you are.

Lately I have been having the winter blues that has affected my abilities to work on my writing. I have been having self doubts and I even reach the point where I did not want to write anymore. This song came right when I needed it to and has made me think "hey, I was born to be a writer I was born to shine" which has inspired me greatly (I have been writing non stop since this song came out)

It's funny in a way how one little song can inspire one being so much. So I wonder about all of you out there reading this. What/who inspires you?

FAWM

Today is official second day of February which means it is the official second day of FAWM.

What is FAWM? I hear you ask?

February Album Writing Month is what the abbreviation stands for. It's a month (okay the shortest month of the year) long challenge where participants write an album worth of songs in 28 days. FAWM considers 14 songs an album worth, so if you do the math about a song every two days.

Sounds easy enough right? Haha nope. If you listen to some of the people who have already completed many songs and have recorded them for us all to hear, I am blown away by the amount of talent out there. However I will not let other people's great talents compared to my somewhat lacking talent get in the way of this challenge I am facing.

If you would like to check out FAWM click here

Have you ever wrote a song? If not I challenge you to try it, just once and let me know what you come up with.

Your Writing Space

Have you ever walked into Staples or some other office supply store and just go ga-ga over all the office materials available at your finger tips?

Okay perhaps that is just me and believe me when I say my family and friends try to keep me away from those stores.

I was thinking about office supplies the last few days and wondered what other people's work spaces looked like. I thought I would share a picture of my work space. I couldn't get everything into the picture. Excuse the mess and for those who want to ask about the posters, they are of John Cena (I have been a wrestling fan for 20 years).

I like the location of my "office" but the functionality of it has been driving me insane. No matter how I rearrange things, I just cannot find the right je ne sais quoi about my office space.

What does your writing space look like? (you're more than welcome to send pictures and I'll add them to this post mindy299 AT gmail DOT com)

What would you like to do differently to your writing space to make it better?

Personally I wish I could find a set up that would work for me. I have changed this area about five times and am still not satisfied. I will just have to keep trying right?

Until next time, have a great week. Can't wait to see those pictures!!!

Do You Really Learn From Reading?

As a writer, I am constantly told to read. Read this. Read that. You will learn so much as a writer if you read, read and read some more.

But do we? Do we really learn from reading so much?

For me personally I don't learn anything from reading. Then again I don't like to read. Yes I am serious. I have to force myself to read any sort of novel with great dismay. Oh and don't get me started on why. Okay get me started.

Reason being? Simply because I am picky. I want something to grab me by the neck and hold on tight until I read the final word. So far I have yet to find a book that intrigues me in that way. My favourite book Intensity by Dean Koontz almost did that for me. Almost.

So how do I learn about honing my writing craft if I don't read much?

Those who know me, know I am a movie junkie. Those are my books that I read and it shows in my writing. I tend to find dialogue easier to write than description. I could and have tried before to write an entire story with nothing but dialogue. (It's a great prompt to try if you need to work on your dialogue).

Question for you: Do you learn anything from reading?

Be Inspired!

Hello to you all out there!

It is FINALLY 2011 and I personally could not be happier to begin a new year with a clean slate.

By the way Happy New Year to you all. How were your holidays?

My holidays went by way too fast but I am trying to get back into my usual routines before I go back to work next Monday.

The beginning of the year brings on the beginning of new things (like trying to accomplish that New Years Resolution). I don't know about you, but I personally find this time of year to be the most inspiring and motivating part.

Why?

It's a new year. A refresher of everything that has happened during the past twelve months. We feel we can do anything and have the confidence to carry on through.

So why do so many people break their New Year's Resolution so quickly?

I do not know why. I am only twenty two and still am learning everything there is to know about life. All I do know is that from personal experience, I either do one out of two things; I forget about it or I lack inspiration/motivation. Usually it is both with me.

With that jibber jabber all said and done, how about this year we work together at working on our resolutions throughout the year. Lets not be like the others and break our resolution within the first two weeks. Lets travel to December 31 2011 and say "Hey! You know what? I actually accomplished my resolution this year"

I mentioned my goals earlier along with my main resolution. At the end of each month I'll write a post about what I have done in order to take a step towards accomplishing that goal and/or resolution.

If you would like to join me, PLEASE DO!, at the end of each month mention in the comments what you have done to accomplish your goal/resolution. I might sound like a broken record here but I do enjoy working with others to achieve things in life. It makes us more united.

Until next time, have a terrific week!