Just saw Star Wars 9. Surprisingly, I'd give it an A, and I rarely think that about any film. Some of the critics who said Star Wars fans would really like it were correct. It was a very nostalgic story, with familiar planets, music, tech, heroes, and villains. I'd give it an A+, but there were some huge plot holes, even for Star Wars. Besides that, I would have liked more scenes with the Emperor in this one. He had more screen time in Return of the Jedi.

The only other movie I want to see in the theaters is the remake of Dune (a franchise wannabe), which I think is going to be released in 2020. I occasionally check out new films on Netflix, but I have yet to find anything where I wish I had seen it in theaters or on a big-screen TV. I watch everything on a 24" computer, with a hard drive that sounds like a death rattle. Besides Dune, The Skywalker Saga, and The Lord of the Rings, I can't think of anything else that would draw me to a theater.

Nuts. Got burned big time by a major Google Chrome bug. I'm used to keeping about two dozen tabs or so open at all times. When they upgraded Chrome this week, they didn't bring across all the data, including all of my tabs. At least all of my bookmarks still exist. Word is it could take up to a week for Google to develop and roll out a fix. The buggy version had already been rolled out to over 1B people worldwide, including on Android, before they stopped the rollout. I'd hate to be the development manager right about now.

Ugh. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 53% freshness rating, second worst of all nine films. That's only the what the critics think of it, though. Fans have yet to weigh in.

Hmm. The Star Wars reviews are all over the place. One said it's exactly what Star Wars fans want, but not where the story should have gone. Another from GameSpot shredded it. My money is on the Emperor as the character whoo can bring this story to a somewhat satisfying conclusion. TBD.

Kdot wrote:

Imagine me telling J's tale from the POV of the less exciting Marsha. At some point Marsha would have to prove she has a contribution worthy of eclipsing J direct relationship with the reader. I think Mary Shelley's Frankenstein his this because the narrator indicates he's carrying an important letter in chapter one and that the missive could not be otherwise delivered. But I think her resolution of this condition falls shy of a true denouement

Don't forget Sherlock Holmes. If I remember correctly, the mysteries were told from perspective of Dr. Watson. I have yet to plan out Romano's guilt trip, which should make him a more interesting character beyond him carrying Connor's water. I'm not sure yet how far too push that subplot. He'll definitely be interacting with his dead ex soon. Unlike my last book, though, Romano will have to verbally communicate with his ex. Makes it much more interesting to write.

Oops. I forgot to make the grave into an upside down cross. Will fix.

Zzz. Just kidding. The current draft is focused mostly on working out the plot and characters. Next draft will include more showing, as long as I don't kill the pace. I'm also not doing enough internal monologue in some scenes, the exorcism included. I might as well be in Connor's point of view, given how little Romano had to do or think in that scene.

Finally finished. Only one more phrase of overlap: in nomine patris, et filii, et spiritus sanctee; amen. It only happens to be Connor's favorite way of starting and ending all prayers, and he says it three times in my chapter while fighting the demons. Fortunately, in the Exorcist, it's only used to give absolution to the dying priest. It's not used during the exorcism. I'd be cursing like a sailor if it had been the latter. Still, I need to figure out what, if anything, to do about the prayers that overlap.

Nuts! I'm reading The Exorcist and there is far more overlap between my chapter and the book than there is between my chapter and the screenplay. I was afraid of that. However, I only use a fraction of the prayers from the Rites of Exorcism compared to the book. I even went with a different subset of the prayers compared to the screenplay, but the book uses some of those, too. No wolf-like growing or biting yet, although the girl does make animal noises. At one point the exorcist reads the verses from Luke about Legion, but fortunately, there is only one demon in the book, whereas my reverend mother is possessed by all of Legion. I have more to read tomorrow, butt I'm hoping the similarities don't get any worse.

Dirk B. wrote:

Kill me now. I just learned about the Dagger of Mortis in Star Wars. There's a whole history (dark/light) about it in the Clone Wars, and it may appear in Star Wars 9. I'm really hoping it doesn't play a huge role, if any, in the movie. I'm within a few chapters of introducing one myself, which was always intended to be central to the climax of the trilogy. I'm screwed if it's central to the Emperor's demise.

There's hope yet. Disney franchises routinely film scenes that only appear in the trailers, in part to throw off people who leak the plot. In one of the promos, Rey holds the dagger in front of her face on Endor, overlooking part of the wreckage of the second Death Star. It may also be a wayfinder, leading her to something important. A loot box, perhaps? :-)

Memphis Trace wrote:

From Mark Twain:
“Everytime I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”
...
Memphis Trace

That is so funny.

I highly recommend the Pride & Prejudice movie with Kiera Knightly. One of the best films I've ever seen. Much better than the book.

Writer's Digest is accepting nominations for the 101 best websites for writers. Please nominate TNBW so it gets on the list. It might lead to more paying members. Nominations are due (roughly) before the end of this year to be considered for their 2020 list. To nominate, email wdsubmissions@aimmedia.com with the subject line 101 Best Websites Nomination. There are multiple categories; of them, Online Writing Communities is the best fit for TNBW. Please mention that in the email.

Sol, it would really help if the trial period was longer than a week (e.g., a month) so new users have a chance to get up to speed on the site and build a few relationships before having to pay for membership. What's the harm?

https://www.writersdigest.com/online-ed … i=80525598

I had them grouped but didn't like it. I can reword some of them so that the he/she don't all appear at the beginning of sentences. I can also sprinkle in the character names a bit too reduce the number of pronouns.

If you think the last example was bad, check out this one I just noticed in the chapter:

Connor managed to take a breath. “In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti! Amen!”
She winced and briefly lost her hold on him.
He inhaled deeply and repeated the words.
She convulsed and cried out.
He forced her hands from his neck and spoke the words a third time.
She shrieked and stepped back.
He closed his eyes and moved his lips in silent prayer.
She came at him again, warily, growling wolf-like.
He concluded his prayer. “Bring it!”

:-)

Here's what I came up with.

The nun said, “Connor, the reverend mother is asking for you.”
He walked to where she lay on the floor and knelt beside her.
Palermo took his hands in hers and kissed them, tears streaming down her face. Her irises had turned from red to a natural brown. “Thank you, my child!” She swallowed with difficulty and struggled to continue. “Beware the road ahead… dark… everything depends…” Palermo squeezed his hands. “God is with… Always.” She breathed her last.
A tear rolled down Connor’s cheek and he closed her eyes. “The angels await you, Reverend Mother.”

EDIT: Oops. Ray, I missed your two suggestions on first read. Your first one uses a filter word (noticed), which are similar to saw, heard, felt, etc. When you leave out the filter words, you get a deeper POV. In lieu of your second example, I simply deleted her letting go of his hands. It's implied by him closing her eyes.

Thanks again.
Dirk

Nice catch. I've been encouraged recently to replace name references with pronouns, assuming no confusion. It didn't occur to me how it reads because I'm too close to this chapter.

Thanks
Dirk

Wow! Nana Mouskouri can really belt out Amazing Grace. I've listened to many renditions of the song over the years. Hers is the best so far.

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(5 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

The answer to your first question depends on whether you can make the chapter names important, such as a hook, a little misdirection, or foreshadowing (e.g., The Emperor's Fate). I would definitely include a chapter number, otherwise people have to remember what chapter name they were on when they last read from the book. Given that you probably have dozens of chapters, I would use Arabic.

Slight change to the end of the exorcism chapter. A little foreshadowing/prophesying.

The nun said, “Connor, the reverend mother is asking for you.”
He walked to where she lay on the floor and knelt beside her.
She took his hands in hers and kissed them, tears streaming down her face. Her irises had turned from red to a natural brown. “Thank you, my child!” She swallowed with difficulty and struggled to continue. “Beware the road ahead… dark… everything depends…” She squeezed his hands. “God is with… Always…” She released his hands and breathed her last.
Connor closed her eyes. “The angels await you, Reverend Mother.”

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(10 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

Dune & God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert
The Heechee Saga by Frederik Pohl

Kill me now. I just learned about the Dagger of Mortis in Star Wars. There's a whole history (dark/light) about it in the Clone Wars, and it may appear in Star Wars 9. I'm really hoping it doesn't play a huge role, if any, in the movie. I'm within a few chapters of introducing one myself, which was always intended to be central to the climax of the trilogy. I'm screwed if it's central to the Emperor's demise.

1,323

(5 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I took a look at one of your chapters. They appear to be formatted like everyone else's, so formatting shouldn't be a problem, unless I've misunderstood something. Once you open a specific chapter here on the site for editing, an edit box appears around the text. That's when you use Chrome's Find feature to mark all of the text items that match your search. It actually looks inside the text box for all instances of the search words and highlights them so you can them quickly. Unfortunately, you then have to manually change each one, but you shouldn't have to reformat anything, unless it's to manually apply italics, bold, etc. I don't know of a find-and-replace feature, although I've never looked for one. For minor name changes, it should go relatively quickly.

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(5 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

I should have added that the two ways I suggested have to be done one chapter at a time.

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(5 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)

If you're using Google Chrome, you can use its Find function to highlight all instances of a word in a chapter, then replace them one at a time.  You have to be in TNBW edit mode for your chapter. The other way is copy your new chapter from your manuscript into the same chapter here in the site. Use Ctrl-c to copy (eg from a Word document), open your site chapter in edit mode, hit ctrl-a in the text box to select the entire old version of the chapter, then ctrl-v to paste in the chapter from Word that contains all your changes. Then save it. Hope that makes sense.