NaNoWriMo Day 2: Strange Subconcious

November 2, 2011February 3, 20128 Comments

After achieving my word count yesterday hubs and I had cuddles while watching Heroes and Firefly. I wanted to do some more writing but as hubs is fond of saying, there’s a fine line between cuddling someone and holding them down so they can’t escape. So I gave up on writing anything more yesterday (I’d already done the bare minimum) and enjoyed my cuddles.

Then last night I dreamed about my NaNoNovel.

It wasn’t completely accurate – there were skeletons trying to break into the house I used to live in before I moved to England. All my ‘safe at home’ dreams take place there, despite the fact that I haven’t lived there in well over two years now, but it was the house I grew up in. The skeletons were like the stone weeping angels from Doctor Who: they only moved when you weren’t looking at them. Luckily for me, they also moved very slowly, on account of only being bones. And there was some guy playing the role of the big bad, even though I’ve planned all my antagonists to be female in this novel. In the dream, I was playing the role of Tina (even though she’s nothing like me) and I wasn’t particularly frightened of the skeletons.

It makes me wonder if I should add scary weeping angel-like skeletons to my novel.

I can’t even add a gif because the Doctor Who stone angels legitimately scare me.

ANYWAY. It’s Day Two today and I managed to not only give an awesome example of what happens in Tina’s day-to-day life (including getting punched in the face, which, IMO, is a very strong opening), but also set up the beginning of the inciting incident.

Fantasy Casting: Live Action Beauty and the Beast

August 22, 2011August 22, 201120 Comments

This post is very close to a theme that a good bloggy friend of mine, Gina, runs on her blog, Fantasy Casting: Where Books Become Movies. If you like our fantasy cast post, please hop on over and check out her awesome blog!

The other day I was watching Beauty and the Beast while the hubs was doing something ever-so-manly on his laptop when we got talking about who we’d cast in a modern live-action version of the film.

First of all, I insisted that the story is that well-known, imaginative, and loved that it could get away with colour-blind casting (as opposed to white-washing). Meaning that the characters don’t have to be identical to their original Disney counterparts. This is the cast we came up with.

For Belle we cast Freema Agyeman. My hubby is a Whovian, so he started out suggesting Karen Gillan. Yes, she’s pretty, yes she’s got legs… but Freema, out of all the Doctor’s companions, has the most beautiful facial structure. So she’s our Belle. We don’t know if she can sing, but so long as she can hold a tune she’ll be OK. Belle’s singing roles aren’t very demanding. I mean, we talked about Anne Hathaway, whom we both adore, but she seems like an obvious choice. I wanted to go with something a little left-field.

For the Beast, we tossed around several names based on their voice work. Considering the Beast would be spending most of his time under make-up, we decided on a man with a proven sexy growl that could also pull off being the Prince. Only problem is, Gerard Butler can’t pull off being only 21. So we’re casting a young version of Gerard Butler. He can keep the Scottish accent – we want the castle to be in Scotland, not France. And as a bonus, he can sing!

To play Gaston, Hugh Jackman has it all: the height, the looks, the voice, the incessant swagger. In fact, he’s already played Gaston, way back in the 90s. So we’re re-casting him as Gaston.

This is a picture of him as Gaston in the Australian Beauty and the Beast.

As Gaston’s sidekick, Lefou, we’re casting Neil Patrick Harris. not because he’s ugly (because he isn’t), but because he’s smaller than Hugh, he’s a great singer, and he and Hugh have already proved they have a great camaraderie together.

No one’s slick as Gaston, no one’s quick as Gaston… maybe not so flamboyantly.

As Lumiere, the almost grossly over-affectionate French candelabra, we cast David Tennant. Who better than the skinniest of weirdly attractive weasel-looking men than Tennant? And he can keep the Scottish accent – it would be so cool hearing Lumiere as a Scot!

Hubs and I are both huge Alan Rickman fans. We think he could do anything. Cogsworth is very tightly wound, and Rickman, because of his speech impediemnt, has very tight control over his voice. When I first suggested Rickman, Hubs said, “Cogsworth is more of a slapstick role, Rickman is very deadpan.” And I said, “Slapstick was huge in the 90s. Deadpan’s ‘in’ now. Imagine a deadpan Cogsworth.” It worked.

For Mrs Potts, we both wanted to re-cast Angela Lansbury. Can anyone else really do this role? Her voice was so iconic. But we decided she’s simply too old. Hubs wanted Alex Kingston. I wondered if Ms Kingston could sing. I also swear this is the last Doctor Who actor we’re using.

I’m simply fixated on the idea of Queen Latifah as Wardrobe. It’s a small role, but Latifah could fill it full of sassiness and character. I think she’d be wonderful.

Who better than to play flirty, sexy feather duster Fifi than the most beautiful and sexy of all young starlets, Scarlett Johansson? I can’t think of anyone else.

As Belle’s father, Maurice, we cast Patrick Stewart. With facial hair! He’s got the presence to steal scenes and he’s got a great voice.

Last but not least is Chip.

Do you know what they do in the stage show? To get the size differences more accurate, they stick the actor (often a girl) playing Chip in a little cart with just her face showing.

Never mind the whole, “Oh look, there’s a teapot that’s as big as me!” Belle must be thinking when she reaches the castle. Personally, I hate this idea. I want our Chip to run around free, not be stuck rolling on a frickin’ cart. If I had my way, I’d cast Elle Fanning, because I think this girl (younger sister of Dakota) can do anything. I’d cast her as the shark in Jaws. I think she’s amazing.

She’s quite a bit older now – a teenager, I do believe – but whoever said Chip stopped aging when the spell was cast over the castle, anyway? Imagine Chip being a moody teenager!

So what do you think? What casting choices do you like?
Which ones do you dislike? Who would you prefer?
Let us know in the comments!

Authors Need Editors: Doctor Who as Author, Companions as Editors

May 6, 2011May 6, 20113 Comments

David Tennant: The Tenth Doctor

Today I’m going to stress the importance of authors utilising editors by using references to the modern-day Doctor Who series. I will be talking about the David Tennant version of the Doctor (the tenth doctor), though, because Christopher Eccleston (the ninth version) only had one season and quite frankly it wasn’t as well written as Tennant’s Doctor. Also, I haven’t seen enough episodes of the Matt Smith (the eleventh Doctor) version. Fear not, that will be rectified as my partner bought the Matt Smith DVDs for Easter and we’re about to start watching them.

Last night as we were watching The Waters of Mars 2009 special episode, I realised just how important it was for the Doctor to have a companion. Specifically, he needs a human to help guide him through tricky situations such as Pompeii and the Mars issue.

When the Doctor and his red-headed companion Donna Noble went to Pompeii, the Doctor was convinced there was absolutely nothing he could do to save the people: of course, it was written into history that the volcano would erupt and poison everyone and cover them with ash etc, but the natural disaster was such an enormous event that even the Doctor couldn’t prevent it. He, in effect, chose to sacrifice Pompeii to save the world: which is a fair choice, when you look back on it. But when he wasn’t even willing to save a small family, that’s when Donna stepped in. Through her begging, the Doctor eventually decided to turn back and rescue that family.

Donna Noble begging for the lives of a Pompeii family

Now in the parallels I’m going to draw here, you have to imagine that the Doctor is an author, and his companions are his editors. If the Doctor had his way, he wouldn’t have saved that family. He needed his companion/editor to convince him to change, to make things better, to make himself and the world and all of history. The same goes for an author’s work. An author needs an editor to help make their manuscript better.

And it was. I’m not sure I could have forgiven the Doctor if he’d let that family die.

The next episode I want to talk about is the first David Tennant special of 2009, “Planet of the Dead.” In this episode, the Doctor meets a woman called Lady Christina de Souza who is, in every aspect, a complete and perfect match for him. She is a better fit than any of the previous companions we have seen. She gives as good as she gets, and there’s even a hint of sexual tension. She and the Doctor make the best team out of any female companions we’ve seen so far, even better than Rose and Martha and Donna. However, the Doctor is still stinging from his loss of Donna, his best mate, so he refuses to take Christina with him as his companion, even though she’s so up for it.

The Doctor, Lady Christina de Souza and a fly alien thing.

In this parallel, I want you to think of the Doctor as going it alone in his publishing endeavour and foregoing an editor alltogether. Although Christina is his perfect match, he refuses to bring a new companion because he’s sick of losing them. He endeavours to travel by himself forever. Christina is, understandably, devastated. If you’ve found the perfect editor, you need to be able to take a blow to your pride by accepting that your manuscript can always be improved. At this point in time, the Doctor thinks his manuscript can’t be improved.

The Doctor and Captain Adelaide Brooke

Stay with me as I move on to the next 2009 special, The Waters of Mars. The Doctor doesn’t have a companion in this episode, as he’s just forbidden Christina to travel with him. So he faces this entire episode alone. There’s a major moral choice for him to make, and without the presence of a human companion, eventually he kind of goes insane with his realisation that he’s the last Time Lord and that he can do whatever he wants to history and no one is there to stop him. He tries to change history in a major way, and quite frankly, I really don’t like him at the end of the episode.

"I'm the last Time Lord." There is no one to police him.

So think of it this way: without his usual companion/editor, the Doctor makes a major mistake in trusting his own supremacy. An author will always need an editor to help make them better. No author’s manuscript will ever be as good as it can be without an extra pair of eyes going over it, correcting mistakes and making suggestions. In “The Waters of Mars”, the Doctor doesn’t have a companion/editor, and he’s not as good as I want him to be. He makes a bad decision that would not have been made had he had a good companion/editor with him.