House, DaVinci, and The Color of Passion

I love House. It's got some of the best writing in television. Witty, ascerbic, clever, intriguing... and whatever else the critics are saying, but I must confess, I was a little disappointed with the season finale. I mean - hallucinations? Really. That was so Bobby-Ewing's-dream. And what about the guy with the swollen tongue? Will we ever know what happened to him? (I am relieved, however, that the exploding testicles and the eyeball popping were just a bad dream).

The DaVinci Code. Saw the movie on opening night and enjoyed it. Full stop. No critique from me. There's been enough dissing of Tom, Ron, Audrey, Akiva, etc...
Oh, but I can't help myself! It was entertaining, it really really was. But Tom Hanks, whom I really really like, shouldn't have been cast in the role of Robert Langdon. He just didn't fit the bill and he acted tired. Hardly up for the action/adventure lead. But it was still entertaining!
I'm a bit gauled that the critics are ranting about all of the exposition and backstory. Did they read the book?? The entire novel was one big art history/religion lecture! There were so many historical references the audience needed to know in order for the plot to work. Sheesh! Poor Ron Howard stuck to the book (lest he be stoned to death by 50,000,000 readers) and is being slaughtered for it.
Oh hell, in the end all involved will earn themselves scads of money, but they won't have a statuette on their mantlepieces next March. Boo hoo.
Entertainment news is reporting that Akiva Goldsmith was just given the go-ahead to write the screenplay for Angels & Demons and Ron and Tom have signed on. Let's hope they'll learn from the few mistakes they made and produce an even better film. But I really enjoyed it.

Meanwhile, in my own writing life... 'The Color of Passion'. I'm in the process of finishing a novella. My first! 'The Color of Passion' began as a short story, approximately 5,000 words. During the final draft, I decided that my two main characters needed more chemistry, more 'screen time' so to speak, to development a better relationship before they jumped into hot monkey sex. That brought the story up to 8,000 words. I challenged myself to stretch it to 10,000 words, (a novella by Chippewa Publishing standards) by enriching the dialogue and adding more description. I succeeded in that goal, yet while going over that 'final' draft, I felt there was still more to be said. Could I push it to 15,000 words by adding a new plot twist?
(blah, blah, blah... cut to present) Copious scribbles over fourth 'final' draft and I've just passed 17,000 words. Am I enriching or ruining it now? Oh, probably the latter! I had to rewrite the opening chapter three times as it became convoluted and messy. I'm stuck in the 'just-one-more-scene' cycle!! Oh, what to do? Keep writing...
And if I DON'T manage to sell it, it's been a great learning experience (she says with crushed heart and bad case of carpel tunnel syndrome). I've learned a lot about dialogue, pacing and why I should never title anything 'final'. Draft #1, Draft #8, Draft #36, ok, but never final draft!

~Wylie~