Movies that inspire me – “The Rise of the Guardians” edition

Yesterday, I found myself lacking the motivation to do much of anything. My personal life took a turn for the crappy over the weekend, and I felt too bummed to write, read, or even have meals.

So, I forced myself to go and do something. I decided to see a movie. I had noticed friends posting on Facebook about “Rise of the Guardians” and thought it might be a cute, uplifting, light-hearted movie to see. In a way, I was right. It made me giggle and smile, and the characters were so quirky. But that wasn’t all. It was an incredibly beautiful film – the animation, the scenery, the imagination that went into it. I found myself equally entertained and touched as the film progressed, and I am even going to be seeing it again with my mother, who shares a similar love for cute movies.

“Rise of the Guardians” is about those myths that we grew up believing – Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and last – but certainly not least in this film – Jack Frost. The Boogey Man is on a quest to make the children stop believing in those happy myths, and they form a team of misfits to fight him and help the children get their happy memories back.

Now, these characters may be some of my favorite in Dreamworks history. To start with, Santa Claus is this burly, Russian, body-builder-type who runs his factory of elves and yetis – because, as it is, the elves are too stupid to make toys and the yetis take care of it. The Easter Bunny is a sarcastic Australian rabbit who stands over six feet tall. The tooth fairy reminded me of a human hummingbird. She flew this way and that and was obsessed with everyone’s teeth.

My two favorites – though all the characters made me laugh – were the Sandman and Jack Frost. The Sandman is a squat gold fellow who can’t talk, he just forms his thoughts from golden sand to let everyone know what he’s thinking. He ends of being pivotal to the story, and I was just so in love with him by the end because he was completely adorable.

And then we have our hero – Jack Frost. The story opens with him wondering who he is and why no one can see him. He flies from town to town creating snowfalls for children to enjoy and is hurt when they don’t see him or really believe in him. When he is chosen to be a guardian and help the children, he is reluctant. But the entire movie is about him discovering what he’s meant to do in the world.

Santa speaks to him in one scene. He has a Russian doll of himself – a big tough Russian guy. But as Jack opens the doll and sees each layer, the expression on the doll’s face changes to represent all the different sides he has. Then, at the core, Santa is just someone full of wonder at all the beauty in the world.

He then asks Jack what his core is.

Okay, okay, okay…I know. This movie was meant for children. And yes, okay, okay, okay…I know I’m 24 years old. But I see no reason why this movie can’t speak to me, too.

I have been a lot of things. Student, tutor, teacher, traveler, security guard [I needed the money, okay? ha!], cashier, receptionist. But what am I at my core?

I am someone who loves to tell stories. I have never been happier than when I saw people’s reactions to my novel excerpts in my creative writing class in college. I had never been so overjoyed. They wanted to know what was going to happen to my characters. They told me my work was easy and fun to read.

I have moved around the country, made friends and lost friends, and I have even lived overseas. But the one constant in my life [aside from my family, of course!] has been writing.

Time to get started on this story that has been brewing in my brain for over a year.

This Needs a Book 1

The thing I love and hate most about writing is that there are all kinds of unexpected surprises. It’s sort of like meeting these characters, putting them in a world, and watching them interact with each other and their surroundings. Sometimes you can predict what they’re going to do, but other times you can be thrown major curve balls. But I have always thought that allowing for those twists is what makes writing feel real, not forced.

But recently, when I began seriously working on a book I had been considering for months, I was finishing up the intro and chapter one when I realized…it wasn’t the first book in the series.

Now…had I planned on this being a series? No… But a series it apparently shall be. Or there will be at least two books. Perhaps a trilogy.

Nothing like this has happened to me during the writing process before. I just realized that there was enough back story for each character that it needed to be it’s own book.

How did I come to this realization?

I was writing the first chapter and having A LOT of trouble. Normally I just let myself write through that first chapter and don’t really worry about how well it’s working, because I am going to have a second draft anyway. But I couldn’t get through that chapter in one day, which is weird for me. I normally finally reach that stage where I am ready to write and sit at the computer and write 5-6,000 words. It just wasn’t working.

So I transferred it to my kindle, which helps me read it with a new set of eyes, and realized that it was just too confusing. I felt I needed flashbacks everywhere to explain why my characters acted the way they did and thought the things they thought, but who wants to read a million flashbacks in a first chapter before you even know any of the characters?

Then I realized it, that I needed a book before the book I was working on.

It was nice to be able to notice what needed to be done, but for goodness sakes…it took me long enough to plan the one I was writing, then it wasn’t working? I saved it, and I might use it when I get to book two. But…sigh.

It’s exciting to consider working on a series, but I can’t help thinking – does this happen to other writers?

I am a terrible planner, and the thing I love and hate about writing is that there are no rules to how to approach a story. I want to be able to read a book and have someone tell me how to plan a story, but the simple fact is that the same thing doesn’t work for everyone.

I assume things like this happen to other authors – others who are poor planners – but I know of authors who plan everything and are in total control. That would be nice, I won’t lie. I would be happy if I felt more in control of my writing. But instead, I feel more like the writing controls me.

I am resolving to start setting goals – word count goals, reading goals. I need to be on more of a schedule, because I’m not being productive enough. This was a bit of a setback, this whole series thing, but I need to get over it and work hard.

Words per day – minimum 1500

Introduction

You don’t write because you want to say something. You write because you have something to say. -F. Scott Fitzgerald

Before I graduated from college and decided to move to South Korea to teach English, I had done nothing. Well, that’s not quite true. I should revise that, explain it. I hadn’t done anything particularly noteworthy, exciting, adventurous. I dealt with anxiety disorder for my middle school and high school years, which – though it didn’t affect me as much in college – left me with very few friends and an inability to overcome my shyness and establish close relationships with anyone beyond the few friends I had.

My one refuge was writing. In my senior year of college, I completed a novel. I have been writing my entire life, since I was in first grade. It wasn’t until college, however, that I began sharing my writing. Before then, no one but my mother had read my stories. I chose excerpts from the novel for my creative writing class, and it was well-received. My professor informed me that he thought I had natural talent. There was something missing, though, according to my grandmother – my most honest critic. She told me that while it was engaging and fun to read, the story lacked real emotion. The main character had experienced a great deal of loss, and my grandmother – having had a similar experience – told me she didn’t quite think that the character’s response to it all was realistic.

Criticism doesn’t discourage me. I figure it’s necessary if I want to be a better writer. But this particular piece of criticism bothered me. It made me realize that I had very few experiences because I had sheltered myself for so many years. I started to look at the rest of the novel and realize that the relationships between the characters didn’t seem natural or realistic, and I didn’t describe their emotions in a way that readers could connect to.

So, I made the decision to pack up and move to Korea. I knew that the only way to experience something new was to break away from the life that I knew, to separate myself from my safe place – at home with my family – and to learn to travel, make friends, and trust other people.

I had no idea what was in store for me 7,000 miles from home.

In Korea, I made some of the best friends I ever have in my life. I learned that friends can feel like family. I learned to cry in front of other people. I learned to hug and trust my friends. I met a man and fell in love with him. I was criticized at work when I first started and didn’t let it beat me. I was swindled by people I had trusted. I learned to get along with people I thought I couldn’t like. I got seriously ill a couple of times. I had my heart broken. I was successful at work. I learned a foreign language. I gained confidence.

I kept a blog while I was there, but it’s time for a new blog. Here, I will focus on readjusting to life in America, the writing process, and challenges I face as a writer. I hope to inspire other writers, encourage traveling, and entertain followers with my stories. I also might include my own reviews of book, movies, and TV shows that inspire me as a storyteller.

Thank you for taking the time to explore my blog, and I hope you return soon!