Brit Rant, Time Management, Movies (TIFF), Margie Lawson

Poor Britney. I was actually rooting for her -- she's had such a time of it lately and come on, she spent those horrible teen years practically developing before our very eyes which can't be easy -- so my fingers were crossed that her performance on the VMA's would be her moment to shine, to make people forget those awful crotch shots, to make people forget the hanger-on husband, to make people forget her questionable mothering skills.
Sad. Did you see it?
I was happily watching Test the Nation: Watch Your Language and turned the channel precisely at 9pm to see her do her thang...
Shouldn't have bothered. Girl lip-synched and went through the dance steps as though she'd only learned them 10 minutes prior. Apparently, her big act with Cris Angel was nixed by the Palms Casino for insurance purposes, which I suppose would throw a spanner in the works if that's what she'd been rehersing for the past week. Then again, you'd think something as critical as insurance would have been taken care of by the VMA people...

And though I don't want to go on and on about something I care very little about, I MUST speak to the 'she's fat' headlines that inundated the web yesterday. BLOODY HELL! That girl is NOT fat. NOT FAT! Toned and 'healthy', she has a bod that 99.9% of Americans WISH they had. But we're so used to seeing skeletal bobble-heads who faint at the mere thought of physical exertion, we don't know a realistic example of sexy when we see it.
Her wardrobe choice? Not so good... but that's not a weight issue, but one of class.

If you're like me and can never seem to find enough hours in the day/week to get even a portion of your TO-DO list accomplished, you should go check out Christine's time management post at Six Degrees of Sexy. Very useful stuff people! I, for one, am going to try this easy to use system in hopes I can somehow get what needs to be done, done.

Do you like movies?? Fellow writer Maureen McGowan is posting excellent coverage of her experiences with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). I'll be heading to theatres when some of her top recommends hit the big screens. She gave big love to 'Into the Wild', which is directed by Sean Penn, based on the book by Jon Krakauer, who also wrote 'Into Thin Air'. If you like movies - Maureen's blog is the place to be.

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to take a fabulous workshop entitled Empowering Your Characters' Emotions by Margie Lawson. If you're looking to improve your writing, I STRONGLY URGE you to consider one of her online courses. It was fantastic, and absolutely NOT directed at the romance genre - in fact, I can't think of one example she used that could be classified as romance. I'm just sayin', incase y'all think her courses are directed at romance writers only...
But I digress --
Much of my writing is instinctual, like making soup. You know the main ingredients, plot = broth, characters = meat, emotions = veggies, etc... put it in a pot and simmer. Every pot of soup I've ever made is unique. Sometimes it's delicious, sometimes bland, the odd occassion, too spicy.
After participating in Margie's workshop I feel like I've been handed a recipe. If not an EXACT how-to guide, then certainly an excellent guide to trouble shooting. Her unique editing system helps you how identify missing ingredients.