Writing Wild with Verna McKinnon

Hello Familiar Friends, I get very weary of hearing that phrase "shaking things up."  This happens in both books & TV, where they decide to kill off a character or break up a couple for example, because shaking thins up is supposed to create more good conflict or excitement.  But sadly this is never the outcome I usually experience.  It is a cheaters way out.  An "I have no good ideas so I am going to kill off a character."  It is annoying and stupid.  I never feel a shake up.  I just feel pissed off and stop reading (JK Rowling-you killed Hedwig!) or stop watching (Family Guy is dead to me). The point is, unless a characters death is meaningful or drives the story, death is a cheap tool.  There is also a very twisted point of view out there that is a character's story is done, they kill them rather than let them ride off into the sunset.  There are a number of TV shows I have just stopped watching because of this.  Death must m...

Greetings Familiar Friends, Yes, it is rant time.  I am miffed not only by the weak barely there fantasy and science fiction not only on TV & in the movies these days, but the premises & protagonists for  these vehicles.   Finding good shows is hard.  Finding a real hero is tough.  Strange for an era with a zillion cable channels.  Now I love witches and the best witch themed show to date was Charmed .   It showed good witches fighting evil and saving innocents  But the show is gone now and left to DVD watching.  I am not so sure about the other witch shows.  I loved Buffy -a vampire slayer who killed demons and saved the world in each season finale.  It was also the only vampire love story I could accept.  The brilliance of Joss Whedon structured the vampires in his world to be soulless, and inhabited by a demons.  Angel was cursed with a soul and that made a huge difference.  So it...

Greetings  Familiar Friends, It is autumn and the leafs are falling and the nights have gone chilly.  Fall & Winter is a great time to write.   The cold brisk air, drinking hot coffee or cocoa, thoughts moving inward, staying inside more often.  It is ideal writing time.  Some people moan the loss of summer.  I do not.   My creative side wakes up.  My characters demand time and attention.  And summer will come back again.  Life  and its seasons revolve.       I am working on my novels and hoping that 2014 will be a better year for me as an author.  I have hit a lot of bumps trying to get things done.  Well, more than bumps.  Monstrous giant obstructions barring my literary progress like that mysterious black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.  But I will prevail.  I will not give up or give in.  Being Irish/Scottish, my stubb...