In Which I Just Give Up Hope

By JD Rhoades
The Pilot Newspaper: Opinion

You know what? I give up.
It’s been a terrible week for gun violence in this country, and I don’t see any way it’s ever going to get better. So, unable to beat the firearms aficionados (so much nicer a term that “gun nuts”), I’ve decided to join them.
Check out the butcher’s bill just in the past few days:
June 5: A mentally ill gunman enters a university building at Seattle Pacific University, kills one man and wounds two others before being pepper-sprayed and subdued.
June 6: A 48-year-old man in Forsyth County, Ga., attempts to attack the county courthouse with an assault rifle and grenades, shooting a deputy in the leg before being brought down by police officers.
June 8: A husband-and-wife team of right-wing activists, shouting, “This is the start of a revolution,” shoots and kills a pair of Las Vegas police officers before entering a Walmart and killing a civilian before the female shooter kills her husband, then herself.
June 10: A man with a rifle enters a high school in Troutdale, Ore., kills one person, and wounds a teacher before apparently taking his own life.
If we’d been attacked by brown-skinned Muslims this many times in a week, the whole country would be in lockdown. A few idiots failed to blow up planes with shoes and liquid bombs a few years ago, and now you can’t carry more than three ounces of toothpaste onto a plane, and you have to take off your shoes to get through screening.
But if the killing is being committed by white people with guns, it’s all, “Well, geez, nothing we can do about it,” unless the killers were shouting “Allah akbar” as they opened fire. If the massacre of schoolchildren at Sandy Hook isn’t enough to get even expanded background checks past the U.S. Congress, there’s no hope for any kind of reasonable gun regulation.
We could always deal with the issues of mental illness that drives shooters over the edge. But I don’t see any political will to address any of those issues either, because it’s going to cost money. And we all know who counts every penny of the cost of everything but war.
So I’ve given in to despair. I accept it. You’re right. The only way to stop bad guys with guns is for all the good guys to have guns. I say “all,” because the lone “good guy with a gun” who tried to stop one of the Las Vegas cop shooters got shot in the head by the female member of the duo. Clearly, that would have been prevented if more people in the area had guns.
The only thing left to do is for everyone, and I mean everyone, to arm themselves. The good news is that given the radical expansion of Stand Your Ground laws, it’ll soon be legal to waste people who even look like they’re about to snap.
In a world where there are more and more crazy people with access to guns, a world where there are more and more mass shootings, the standard of a “reasonable belief” that your life is in danger becomes a lower and lower bar to get over. Anyone, anywhere, could be the next mass shooter, so all of us, everywhere, need to watch our butts.
Remember, though, there are also more and more people who could be a threat. The Las Vegas shooters, for example, were far-right anti-government activists. It’s now clear that those people are at least as dangerous and ready to kill Americans as radical Muslims. So people waving those “Don’t Tread On Me” flags (like the one the Las Vegas shooters draped over their victims) need to be careful they don’t make any sudden moves that could be construed as threatening.
Not all conservatives are radical killers, of course, but some of them apparently are. If we’re going to demonize all Muslims because of the action of a few crazies, it’s only fair we keep a close eye on tea partiers, Rand Paul supporters and the like.
There’ll also probably be some unfortunate incidents when open carry advocates get mistaken for mass shooters, but you know how it is. Omelets, eggs, etc.
Oh, and you lonely nerds who complain all the time about how hot girls don’t go for you nice guys? We remember what happened in Santa Barbara. So don’t even look at me narrow-eyed, young man. I mean it.
You win, gun nuts — sorry, Second Amendment Patriots. You’re strapped, I’m strapped, and here we go, over the edge. This is the Wild West world you wanted, this is the world we’ll all have to live in.
But probably not for long.

Via: J.D. Rhoades

    

6.13.14 – On Being Creatively Satisfied

By JT Ellison

The Winter of our Discontent

I’ve been wanting to write a long form piece on creative satisfaction, but since I haven’t gotten around to it, I’ll delve in here briefly. An interviewer asked Merlin Mann if he was creatively satisfied. I loved the question, and asked it of myself. The answer was a resounding no, for all the reasons I spoke about yesterday.

With deadlines and multiple series and rushing all the time, I still don’t feel like I’ve hit my stride, found the perfect character, the right story. I have too many books I want to write. And time, she is a ticking, you know? My creative biological clock has been on fire recently. I feel oddly like time is running out. I’ve hit middle age (not sure how the hell THAT happened) and while I feel twenty-seven, reality is, I’m not. I won’t be able to do this forever. And the amount of story in my head that needs to come out, well, everyone tells me I need to slow down, but if I do, I won’t get them all down.

It’s that lost eight years, when I quit writing entirely because of my boob of a teacher, coming back to haunt me. I’ve written fourteen novels in eleven years (ten in the past eight). So say I’d written a book a year during that lost time, and a book a year since, then I’d be at twenty-one now.

So I guess I’m only seven behind. Well. That changes things. By the end of 2016 or early 2017, I should be caught up to where I should be.

A relaxing thought.

Silly, huh?

200 words only today, but edited a large chuck and sent off the first 100 pages to my editor. Working this weekend, I’ll make up for it, I’m sure.

    

6.12.14 – On Being Present

By JT Ellison

I am a huge fan of Dani Shapiro. I love her blog, I love her new book on creativity, I love her deliberateness, her mindfulness, her patience. I also realized we title our blogs the same way, with an On prefix. With so much admiration for the woman, you’d think I’d do all in my power to emulate her.

And I do, in so many ways. I’m trying to be more deliberate, more mindful, more patient with myself. But today I read this piece and simply couldn’t relate.

What next? she asks herself. She has been on book tour, traveled, taught, done all the things that sap our creativity. And now she needs to know what to work on next.

And I suppose this is a great failing of mine, why I am not as deliberate as I’d like, because I have an inability to stop and wonder, what next?

Since I signed my very first book deal, I have been on deadline. I’ve done four deals with Mira, each for three books. Written two books a year, minimum, since 2006. The deals with Catherine and Putnam are for two books at a time, too. Between Samantha books and Nicholas books, I’m scheduled out through 2016 right now.

That means there’s always a deadline, a need to think ahead, to anticipate when a proposal is due. To be coming up with ideas for what’s next well in advance of when I’ll have to share said ideas. I’m usually thinking what next when I’m about 50K into a book – then again, I write series, so it’s easier to be in the moment for the characters storyline, to see where they need to go in their arc, than if I were writing standalones.

And it’s been an incredible blessing. I function better this way. I can’t imagine writing being any other way.

That said, it’s very hard to stay present when you’re always living in the future.

I have so many books I want to write, so many ideas and proposals and stories that need telling. So many genres I want to try. People ask where do I get my ideas — my problem is, I get them everywhere, all the time, and I don’t have nearly enough time to write them all.

What next?

I look forward to the day I can truly ask that of myself.

2228 words today. Moving the story forward. (she says, smiling…)

    

6.11.14

By JT Ellison

I haven’t been posting much lately, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. I’ll be honest, I turned my daily journaling here private after an uncomfortable run in with someone who made me realize nothing we say or do on the internet is private. And I of course ran the other direction screaming, because I am at heart a rather private person, and, and, and….

But, I miss blogging. I miss the interaction, the examination of my work, the insights I gain when I try to put things I’m doing and thinking into words. Doing it for myself is a journal, which we all know I dislike. Doing it as a blog feels, somehow, more constructive. And damn it, it’s not right that I let a stranger chase me away from something I generally like doing.

Ergo:

1200 words today on Sam #4 – WHAT LIES BEHIND – taking me over the 21K mark. This book has been giving me fits, as they all do until I hit the magical 25K/100 page point. That’s when things suddenly start making sense, the little subconscious breadcrumbs I’ve left behind begin to show themselves, and I get an idea of what the story is about. But this one – wow. Nothing works, the story won’t coalesce. Yesterday, I finally realized I needed to have myself a little come to Jesus with the story, see what was wrong, let my mind make some leaps.

My biggest problem: I tried to outline this one before I started writing. Enormous fail. It knocked me off my game for a month, the book suffered, and that was a month I didn’t have to lose. I’ve been kicking around the first 70 pages for three weeks now, two steps forward, three steps back. Procrastinating and dribbling words onto the page and all the amateurish things I do when I’m stuck. (It is not writer’s block. Well, actually, it is, but it’s my story telling me I’m off on the wrong path. Story is always right!)

And then… this morning, after taking a deep breath and rolling up my sleeves and putting on the Deathly Hallows soundtrack with the express intent of either making it work or throwing it out, an idea came.

I think I’m on the right track now – it’s been a day of enormous breakthroughs, which makes me feel much better about making the August 1 deadline.

So help me, chickens. Cheer me on. Tell me what you’ve been up to. Ask questions. Let’s get things back on track here, shall we?

My favorite link today: Elizabeth Gilbert on Craft (via the divine Ariel Lawhon) which is a perfect jumping off point for tomorrow.

    

Littlest bridesmaid in a second line parade…

By Toni One of the really sweet things about living in the Quarter is that almost every weekend, someone has a second line parade. It’s usually arranged when a group or club hires a brass band (and gets the appropriate permits and parade route approval) to march through the Quarter. The brass band itself is called the […]    

A Modest Proposal To Combat the Drone Menace at the U.S. Open

By JD Rhoades
The Pilot Newspaper: Opinion

I confess, I was amused at first when I read in this paper that the Village of Pinehurst had banned the use of drones during the U.S. Opens.
“Really?” I thought. “Is some paranoid conspiracy theorist worried that President Obama is going to begin the final assault on our freedoms, start the imposition of Sharia law, and of course, distract everyone’s attention from Benghazi, by blowing up Phil Mickelson with a Hellfire missile?”
Hey, I’ve heard weirder theories propounded around here with a presumably straight face. You should read my email sometime. In any case, I thought, are drones such a problem that it requires the hand of the mighty Pinehurst Village Council be raised to stop them?
Well, maybe. A quick Google search using the terms “drones” and “golf course” reveals a lot of excitement about the idea of using commercially available drones to cruise over golf courses with high definition cameras, enjoying the scenery and watching the golf. Apparently, radio-controlled aircraft technology has advanced far beyond the balsa wood model Spitfire a buddy of mine spent months building, only to crash into a tree on its first flight.
“You can buy a consumer drone outfitted with four battery-powered motors and a gyro-stabilized video camera for about $1,000,” an article in Golf Digest notes, “and control it on your smartphone or tablet with a GPS-based system that was once available only to the military.”
You can imagine the problems that a swarm of the little buggers might cause as they hover and swoop over the course, buzzing like giant bees, controlled by some dude who figures he can catch the action of the Opens without leaving the house.
So, OK, the villagers have a legitimate concern. But it seems to me that while we can legislate against the newest scourge from the skies, we’re woefully unprepared to enforce such a ban, unless the Pinehurst PD has developed a previously unheard-of anti-aircraft capability.
And that’s when it hit me. We need to turn to the Open Carry movement.
In case you’re not familiar, the Open Carry movement is a group of particularly adamant firearms aficionados who believe that the defense of our Second Amendment freedoms requires them to aggressively assert their right to carry any gun, anywhere, at any time. To that end, one such group in San Antonio tends to show up in public places such as restaurants, in groups, carrying as many shootin’ irons as a platoon of Taliban insurgents.
For some inexplicable reason, the average citizen reacts with something less than joy at seeing a troop of bearded guys in camo walking into the local Chipotle armed to the teeth. Therefore, that restaurant recently joined other such chains, such as Chili’s and Sonic, in asking patrons to leave the guns at home.
“We are respectfully asking that customers not bring guns into our restaurants, unless they are authorized law enforcement personnel,” they said in a public statement.
Amazingly, the NRA joined in, in a public statement asking the Open Carry folks to cool it. The statement on the NRA’s Facebook page described the behavior of the Open Carry folks in San Antonio as not only “counterproductive” but “downright weird.”
Let me tell you, folks. The NRA telling you you’re getting a little too weird with your guns is sort of like Keith Richards coming to you and going, “’Ey, mate, y’might want to take it easier on the whiskey an’ drugs.” In response, some Open Carry advocates threatened to burn their NRA membership cards, since the organization had become soft on the Second Amendment.
It’s clear that the OC folks need some love. They need to get some of their mojo back. And we here in the Sandhills need something to counter the Drone Menace. We’ve got a need, they have more than enough guns to fill it. So I propose that the U.S. Open Committee invite the members of the San Antonio Open Carry group and other like-minded firearms advocates to the Opens.
Let them walk up and down, among the crowds, openly showing off their heaviest assault weapons, and letting the world know that the only way to stop a bad guy with a drone is a good guy with a gun.
You just know visitors who come here from all over the world will all feel that much safer knowing that the Second Amendment is being safeguarded, and any pesky drone that buzzes our way will be quickly and efficiently blasted out of the sky by a volley of high-powered ammo.
U.S. Open Carry. We need to make this happen, people. Freedom demands it.
[UPDATE: The NRA has recently backed down from its criticism of “Open Carry” and disowned its previous statement, saying “Wow, we almost made sense for a moment there. What the hell were we thinking?” Actually, what they said was that “an alert went out that referred to this type of behavior as ‘weird’ or somehow not normal, and that was a mistake. It shouldn’t have happened.” So everything’s back to normal at the NRA, and by “normal” we mean “batshit crazy as usual.” ]

Via: J.D. Rhoades

    

On Ole, Ole, Ole and the Creative Process

By JT Ellison

“‘Ole!’ to you, just for having the sheer human love and stubbornness to keep showing up.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

One of the most rewarding things about being a writer – and that’s saying something, as there are too many cool things to count (Working in pajamas! Reading! Cats!) is sitting down with other writers and discussing the creative process. It is the one topic that transcends all others. Numbers matter not a whit when one is faced with the cosmic opening that comes when another writer explains HOW THEY DO IT.

We seek out tomes on the subject, gobble up blogs, tweet our heroes, take friends to lunch, searching for nuggets of wisdom. I call it Seeking OPP — Other People’s Process.

OPPs are always shiny, exciting, logical. Everyone else’s process looks so gloriously awesome, so intrinsic and organic. We listen at conferences, smacking ourselves – Why didn’t I think of that? How come I don’t have that level of understanding of my work? This must be why it takes so long to write a book, I need to be doing X, or Y, or Z.

I am a huge fan of the “How I Work” series on Lifehacker. Even though the vast majority of the people don’t work in my industry, seeing them drill down into what works and what doesn’t give me hope that one day, I too will figure it out.

I have a long and varied list of things I do and own because of OPP. To name a few I can’t seem to live without:

  • Clairefontaine Notebooks
  • Levenger Circa Planner for research
  • Blackwing Pencils
  • Lamy Fountain Pens
  • MacAir
  • Scrivener
  • Evernote

These are just the OPPs I use for myself now. I did a piece a while ago on my writing tools. You’ll see all the fun things I do and use and can’t live without.

But what does any of this really mean?

I’ll tell you what. Nothing. It means nothing. Tools are camouflage for the real work. All you truly NEED is your brain, and a way to write down the story. No one elsee’s schedule or notebook or writing program will give you that secret, magical moment that turns ideas into a book. Only you can do that.

Why?

Because, the truth of the matter is, when we look each other in the eyes, and bare our souls, one thing becomes self-evident. We don’t know HOW it all happens.

Yes, yes, we know empirically. We can quantify our work in a million ways: numbers of words and pages written in a day, the pride we take in our habits — the daily habit of sharpening the pencil or opening the laptop lid at the same time — the tea we consume by the barrel-full, the incense and candles we burn, the multiple lares and penates needed in our writing environment to properly compose. We sit across tables and text messages and emails and blogs and share our methods, ever fascinated by the other. We laugh at each other’s random needs, sit in awe of levels of productivity, commiserate on the darlings that must be murdered.

But the HOW of it? HOW does an idea take form, spill onto the page, and become a story? HOW does a proper name, created by stroking keys or laying down lead, become a living, breathing person, to whom millions can connect though out the ages? HOW do we do this?

Leads us to WHY? Why were we chosen? Why are we given this particular gift. From whom does it come? God? Monkeys?

Well, Elizabeth Gilbert (along with many others, surely, but this is the best example I’ve seen in a while) thinks it’s God. I can’t recommend watching her TED talk highly enough…

I am always interested to see the word God these days. We seem to think religion has become a line in the sand, something we aren’t ever allowed to discuss. And yet, and yet, and yet…. God is everywhere around us. I am not big into organized religion of any sort, either from my Episcopal upbringing or my buddhist study, but I am a very spiritual person. I don’t feel the need to sit inside a building and listen to someone else talk to me of God, because I can step onto my back deck and see the majesty we live within, and know.

And maybe that’s part of my gift as well.

But I’m with Ms. Gilbert. I truly think what we writers, all artists, have is a gift, something we were blessed with. Something not everyone has, and not everyone wants.

OPP, God, whatever… if you want to be a successful writer, there’s only one thing you really need.

To just do it already.

Ole, Ole, Ole, to all of you today!

    

7 Minutes with…Laura Benedict

Ah, Laura Benedict. I could write thousands of words about this girl. I’ve been a fan for years, since her incredible debut, ISABELLA MOON, then a long weekend conference in Chicago many moons ago cemented for life an already burgeoning friendship. Over the years, she has been editor, confessor, friend, golf partner, cheerleader, and so much more. She’s all class and sass, and a very gifted writer.

When I first read BLISS HOUSE, I was floored. The opening page sets the scene so perfectly, captures the voice of the book impeccably, and I knew I was in for a ride. Laura’s writing has only improved with time. Always smart, it is now so polished and sophisticated it takes my breath away. BLISS HOUSE is the book of the summer, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I love it so much I’m giving away a copy today – just leave a comment to be entered.

So. On to the interview with my darling friend and sister-in-arms, Laura Benedict.

___________

Set your music to shuffle and hit play. What’s the first song that comes up?

Julie London singing Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer’s “Blues In the Night.” It’s a classic, and I love London’s velvety, swinging take on it. (it was followed by Elvis Costello’s “(I Don’t Want to Go To) Chelsea.” Talk about a strange juxtaposition.)

Now that we’ve set the mood, what are you working on today?

I’m coming in on the end of a short story about a woman whose husband has thrown her out of the house because he’s come to believe she’s a murderer. Unlike my novels, it’s a straight crime story and has no supernatural elements.

What’s your latest book about?

BLISS HOUSE tells the story of Rainey Bliss Adams, who has brought her daughter, Ariel, to live in the Bliss ancestral home in Old Gate, Virginia. While at first the house seems to help Ariel heal from the tragic accident that badly burned her and killed her father, it begins to reveal its true nature and horrific past after Ariel witnesses a spectral scene that results in a very real dead body in Bliss House’s grand front hall. The house has secrets that it—and the residents of Old Gate—are reluctant to reveal. But only their revelations will save Rainey and Ariel.

Where do you write, and what tools do you use?

I can’t bear to be tied to my desk all day. It’s one of the reasons I left the corporate world and never looked back. I compose fiction on my laptop, for the most part, and usually park myself on the couch or even in bed (I know. It’s totally decadent!) after everyone is gone from the house in the morning. But I edit my fiction and type blogs, interviews, research questions, etc. on my desktop iMac in the afternoon. I do my plotting and daydreaming in big hardcover spiral journals using a plain old pencil. Never mechanical pencils though. My kids love them, but they seem too fragile, too impermanent for me.

What was your favorite book as a child?

The Poky Little Puppy was my first favorite. I know he eventually had to fall into line to get dessert, but I secretly loved his rebel nature. I never have been good at respecting authority, even though it meant I was often in trouble. I’m convinced he was ADD, like me. Also, I loved the implication at the end that puppies could read the sign: “NO DESSERTS EVER UNLESS PUPPIES NEVER DIG HOLES UNDER THIS FENCE AGAIN!”

What’s your favorite bit of writing advice?

“All writers know you must hurry to your work in the morning before being derailed, seduced, entranced by another, irresistible “voice.” –Joyce Carol Oates

I took this quote from her twitter feed. I’m especially attracted to the “All writers know…” admonition, which implies that we’re all as single-minded as she is. I very much wish I were. Perhaps that’s why I find it so motivating.

What do you do if the words aren’t flowing?

If I’m stuck I’ll pop outside for a walk with the dogs, or take a catnap. Either really clean out the cobwebs and let me move on.

What would you like to be remembered for?

My rapier wit. (Subject to opinion, of course!)

I can attest to that! Don’t forget to leave a comment for Ms. Benedict to have a chance to win her book – I’ll draw a winner Friday evening, so don’t delay.

__________

Laura Benedict’s latest dark suspense novel is BLISS HOUSE (Pegasus Crime), praised as “Eerie, seductive, and suspenseful,” by Edgar award-winning author, Meg Gardiner. Laura is also the author of DEVIL’S OVEN, a modern Frankenstein tale, and CALLING MR. LONELY HEARTS and ISABELLA MOON, both originally published by Ballantine Books. Her work has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, PANK, and numerous anthologies like Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads (Oceanview), and Slices of Flesh (Dark Moon Books).

A Cincinnati, Ohio, native, Laura grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and claims both as hometowns. She currently lives with her family in the southern wilds of a Midwestern state, surrounded by bobcats, coyotes, and other less picturesque predators.

Visit www.laurabenedict.com to learn more about her and her books.

More about BLISS HOUSE (Coming June 15th, 2014)

Death never did come quietly to Bliss House…

Amidst the lush farmland and orchards in Old Gate, Virginia, stands the magnificent Bliss House. Built in 1878 as a country retreat, Bliss House is impressive, historic, and inexplicably mysterious. Decades of strange occurrences, disappearances and deaths have plagued the house, yet it remains vibrant. And very much alive.

Rainey Bliss Adams desperately needed a new start when she and her daughter Ariel relocated from St. Louis to Old Gate and settled into the house where the Bliss family had lived for over a century. Rainey’s husband had been killed in a freak explosion that left her 14 year-old daughter Ariel scarred and disfigured.

At the grand housewarming party, Bliss House begins to reveal itself again. Ariel sees haunting visions: the ghost of her father, and the ghost of a woman being pushed to her death off of an upper floor balcony, beneath an exquisite dome of painted stars. And then there is a death the night of the party. Who is the murderer in the midst of this small town? And who killed the woman in Ariel’s visions? But Bliss House is loath to reveal its secrets, as are the good folks of Old Gate.

    

Matthew Luhn’s story structure workshop

By PD Martin

:)

Last week I went to Matthew Luhn’s one-day story workshop in Melbourne. It was part of a three-day event on animation, set up by Pixar. Yup, the big guns!

I was pretty excited. It’s not very often that an author gets to do ‘professional development’ after a certain stage in their career (usually publication). You see, most courses are aimed at emerging writers—fair enough, that’s the students I usually get in my classes too. In fact, it was partly because I’m teaching so much these days that I thought I’d rock up to the event and see what one of Pixar’s Story Supervisors had to say about story structure. It’s always interesting to hear how other story pros approach their work. Matthew’s resume includes all three Toy Story movies, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Cars, Ratatouille, UP, Monsters University and Toy Story of Terror. That’s a pretty good rap sheet

The morning focused solely on story, so it was this part that was most relevant to me, and that I thought I’d blog about. I find that often with story and character, it’s not that the content itself is new or provides some revelation, but it’s how it’s expressed.

As an example, I really liked the way he expressed the story structure:
• Exposition
• Inciting incident
• Progressive complications
• Crisis
• Climax
• Resolution

Of course, we often/usually see the words ‘climax’ and ‘resolution’ in story structure theory and the ‘inciting incident’ is part of a couple of plot breakdowns including Blake Snyder’s 15 beat sheet (mentioned in the Catalyst ‘beat’) and film’s eight sequence structure. But still, I like the simplicity of the expression above.

I also wanted to share some of Matthew Luhn’s character approaches and notes. I particularly liked the way he talked about showing your character’s passion and at least one major flaw during the exposition (story set up). The inciting incident is then usually about taking away that character’s passion or them committing to trying to achieve that passion. Nice, huh? I watched The Incredibles the other day with my kids and saw this story-character relationship. The hero’s passion was being a superhero and that was taken away from him when he was sued and the government relocated all superheroes under secret identities. He was no longer allowed to use his powers, in fact, he had to hide his abilities. Matthew’s example in the workshop was UP. Carl’s passion was his wife and their house was an extension of their relationship and all he had left of her. In UP, his house was going to be taken away.

It also got me thinking about my current work in progress. Interestingly, I went the other way around. I could easily identify my inciting incident but I hadn’t traced it back to her ‘passion’. Yes, I’d looked at how it (the inciting incident) would affect her, but not as a direct relationship to a ‘passion’ and therefore needing to set up that passion early on. I’ve just re-written the first chapter, brining her passion to the fore.

The second half of the day did focus more on animation stuff—composing story boards, cinematography in animation (camera angles), etc. Incredibly interesting but probably not that useful in the day-to-day life of an author.

Still, the day was definitely worthwhile and the timing was good, because it got me fired up again for my current work in progress! And Pixar does rock.

Via: P.D. Martin