World War Z and Changing Your Story

World War Z. I just saw the movie the other day with the boyfriend and let me tell you, it was great. I literally jumped out of my seat multiple times and I was scared! I'm pretty easily scared at scary movies though, but not what I expected from this. I will say that it was different than the book, but anyone that's read the book knows it can't really be the same because the book doesn't have a main character! But this isn't a movie review blog, so I'll move on.

After watching almost every single movie, I go onto IMDB and read the Trivia section for said movie. If you've never done this before, I recommend it. You can find out really cool things about the movie that you didn't know before. They often put who was originally cast for a role, if it has changed, and who else was considered for roles. It's fun to imagine someone else in the movie!

While looking up the World War Z trivia, one of them really stuck out to me. The original script called for a much more dark ending. However, the studio wanted a different end so the entire third act was rewritten to fit the new ending they wanted. Now this wasn't an early on decision either. This decision was made so late in the game (figure of speech, don't get confused!) that it caused the release date to get pushed back.

In my current work in progress I made the same decision a couple of weeks ago. I'm rewriting the entire last two or three chapters and changing the ending. I'm doing this because, while I'm planning a trilogy, I want to write it so that it can be sold stand alone. I have read lots of articles, and direct advice from agents, that a lot of them are weary about signing on a new writer to a trilogy when they don't know how the first will do. So I'm changing my ending.

This just goes to show how fluid writing really is. It also shows how much power, as writers, we really have. We have the power to shift a story and completely change it if we decide. Sometimes it's required, and sometime we just want to. We can kill, or save, characters. We are in control, and if you aren't happy with what's going on in your writing, you can change it. You can make it what you want it to be.

Happiness Is A Warm Pen

Hello all!

Late Thursday night, and Friday morning, were both just full of awesome things for me. Thursday night I finished the first draft of my work in progress, which I have mentioned before. I am very excited to be able to say I've written a novel all the way through. I know it has a lot of work and it will take a long time, but that doesn't mean I didn't finish.

Then on Friday morning, while brushing my teeth, I opened an email that basically led to this GIF.

My happy dance. (Also my best friend reacted the same as Amy Poehler.)
Picture own ed by SNL.

My school's undergraduate literary magazine, Grassroots, emailed me to inform me that they are going to be publishing one of my short stories and a poem! I was in shock at first, then the rest of the day I was Tina Fey. This will be the first time I will ever be published and that's, just, pretty exciting, haha. There's no other feeling like being told that your work is being selected to be published.

This really set the wheels in motion for me and I have fallen back in love with my writing. A little thing that bothered me was, I had JUST edited the short story they chose a few days before so now I feel like they don't have what was really meant to be seen! But that's okay! Happy dance^^^!!

So, because I'm happy, I am going to post another excerpt for Divided We Fall. I would like to remind people that everything posted is subject to be changed, and most likely will! Enjoy!

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          Then something caught my eye. Five stories up I saw her, standing in a floor length window that was on the far side of her office. Helen stood, arms crossed, staring down at us. I couldn't see what expression she was making, but her stance looked guarded, almost angry. As I stared at her, the ground started to shake. I grabbed onto Winnie and the violent jerks beneath us continued. I heard yells and screams from the other side of the wall, telling me we weren't that far away from other people.

          “Fi, what's going on?” Winnie whimpered. He his voice cracked with fear. I felt Adler as he wrapped his arms around us, trying to protect us.

          “Just hold onto me, okay? I won't let anything happen to you.” I looked up at Adler who looked just as confused as I felt. Behind him on the wall the chimeras ran back and forth frantically while the harpies batted their wings as if they were about to take flight. Some of the looser bricks began to fall off the wall, crumbling as it hit the grass below. Then it stopped. The ground stopped trembling and there was no more screams. I turned to look up at Helen but she was gone.

          “What is she?” Adler asked to no one in particular.

          I gazed at the window. “I don't know.

End of a Road, Beginning of Another

Photo by amanky

Even though NaNo is over, and it was a tough road, we have to keep going. We writers need to find a new road to work on, or go back and fill in those over looked potholes!

I'd like to say I would like to apologize for this being late! But on the plus side, NaNo is over for all of you participating! You either achieved word count or not, there is no going back. All of you that tried are winners though, just remember that!

I got my word count, a day early, might I add! ;) Anyway, I promised that I would give an explanation about what my novel is about and an excerpt. So here it goes.

BY THE WAY! This is a rough draft, I have not yet even looked back over it. So if it is terrible, or has lots of punctuation and spelling mistakes, ignore those. This is just for a fun read!

Synopsis: Fiona wants nothing more than to live her life with her sister after her mother died and her father went missing. However, late one night a group of cloaked figures come and kidnap her from their remote cabin home. Fiona, wanting to hold on to the last shred of the family she has, goes on a journey across the wilderness that is left after the War that is plagued with vampires, harpies, mermaids, and things she's never even heard of. As Fiona goes searching for her sister, she starts to learn things about her father that she doesn't want to believe. Along the journey things around her start to happen that she can't explain. As her friends seem to start to turn against her, she has to decide who she will remain loyal with and who she has to leave behind.

Excerpt:

            I started to take a step forward, glass crunching under my foot. I stopped as a wolf rounded the corner. I quickly shrank against the wall. “It's a werewolf.” I started breathing heavily, thinking about my encounter with the werewolf I had run into in the forest. “These bullets won't do anything,” I said, starting to panic. Adler stepped out in front of me. “Adler don't!' I hissed, trying to reach out for him.

           He whistled, causing the werewolf to snap its head up to look at him. It growled and bent its front legs, ready to pounce. It jumped at him. I screamed and ran forward right as Adler put up his arm and a loud bang went off. The bullet hit the werewolf right between the eyes. The force of it blew it back a few feet. It immediately shifted back to a human. The boy looked like he could only be fifteen or sixteen.

           I ran over to Adler who was standing with his arm to his side. “How did you know it was a silver bullet?”

          Adler smirked. “Rhett told me.”

          Little tingles ran down my arms. I punched his arm as hard as I could but he didn't flinch. “You couldn't have told me?”

          He shrugged and gave me an innocent looking smile. “I was going to, but I figured, first one, I had to have a little fun with you.”

          I rolled my eyes. “Winnie, come on.” I nodded my head in the direction we had to go. We got to the broken window and I peered out. Some of the buildings were on fire. I didn't understand how at first until I saw some people running around, throwing bottles with flaming rags stuffed into them at buildings.

          “What the hell are they doing?” Adler asked as he looked over my shoulder.

          “They must be with the werewolves. Come on.” I turned the corner and started running in the other direction of the people with the fire.

          “Fi, what if they get Rhett's book store.” I stopped suddenly. I couldn't just leave Rhett to die. I closed my eyes, trying to decide what to do when I found myself turning around and running towards the people with the flaming bottles.

          “Hey! You!” I started screaming and waving my arms, trying to get their attention. They all looked at me once and smiled. They started running towards me and I stopped, feeling the two boys on either side of me. Mid run they jumped and shifted, turning into werewolves. “Adler get ready!” I screamed, holding the hand gun with two hands, aiming it at one of them. “Come on,” I whispered. I needed them to get close enough so I wouldn't miss. There were only three. Hopefully I could take down two, or Adler could.

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So that was my excerpt. Let me know what you think about it. What I could change and what not. Any feedback is appreciated!!

I hope all of you writers out there keep up! (And keep up on reading my blog in the upcoming months!)