Anne Woodland

      When I was twelve or thirteen I played Clue for the first time. We had gotten the board game for Christmas one year as a family gift. The game is basically a process of elimination mystery game, for those unfamiliar, and one of the things you need to solve is which of the six weapon options was used to kill the victim.  The weapons in the classic game are a candlestick, knife, revolver, rope, wrench, and lead pipe. Now at the time, the fact that it was specifically a lead pipe seemed significant, especially since none of the other weapons had their composition designated. I was familiar with the concept of lead poisoning, so obviously the lead pipe was used to kill the victim through poisoning, otherwise why did it matter that it was a lead pipe?       I was eventually disabused of that notion, but I still find it irksome. Especially since three out of the six weapons were apparently used as a bludgeon: the candlestick, wrench, and lead pipe...

     I've really been enjoying the major revisions I've been doing on my first book.  As I mentioned previously, I was being ridiculously precious about my old writing, and it's kind of nice to be in a frame of mind where I can majorly rework things to make them better instead of being so defensive of what I'd already created.      There are a couple of plot points that I've been considering removing, but I have to consider all the things further down the story line that are directly tied to those, and if I need those connected points and if so can I rework them to function separately. It's kind of a fun exercise, looking at different scenes and asking, "What purpose does this serve? Is it a necessary purpose, and if it is, can I fulfill that purpose in another way?" I think it's helping me be less overt with some of my plot developments, which is also a nice benefit to the process. It's really enjoyable. But also a bit slow, although that'...

    I don't understand love triangles. Firstly, the name makes no sense. People use it to mean that two people like the same person. That's a love angle: two points connected to one other point. A love tringle would be if the first person likes the second person, who likes the third person, who likes the first person: unrequited interest between all three points.       Secondly, if you can't decide between two people, you clearly don't care enough about either of them. The only acceptable exception to this is if someone has way too much going on to engage in romance with anyone at that point in time, and I'm talking unexpected guardianship of small children levels of too much going on, or being the primary caregiver to a loved one who is slowly wasting away. Most of the time life is just life: you work, pay your bills, try to find time for friends and hobbies, etc. If you're just living life and can't decide between two people: let them go! All three of you...

       Starting things is hard. It's scary, even if it's just the next phase of something you're already doing. I find the feeling similar to starting a new school, something I did a fair bit of growing up: no matter how many times you face it there's still trepidation and the excitement of possibility.       The big difference between a new school and starting something as an adult, is that as an adult you don't always have to. You don't have to start exercising more, or eating less candy, or spending less time on your phone. You probably should, but you don't have to. You also don't have to pursue your goals, or even set goals or have dreams and ambitions. Again, your life will probably be better if you do at least a few of those things, but who's going to make you? Are you?      Starting is challenging because it opens you up to the very real possibility of mistakes and failure. And failure is hard to deal with, especially with t...

       So I'd heard the phrase "Don't be afraid to kill your darlings." before, but never fully understood what it meant, especially in regards to writing.  I always took it a bit too literally, as in: actually killing your characters, or killing the project, or something of that nature.  I was, of course, like, "I'm not doing that."     As I've been revising my current draft however, I realized, at least in part, what it means.  As I mentioned ages ago, I came up with the first two or three books of my series during my sophmore year of high school, which, if we were rounding, would be two decades ago.  I wrote massive sections of my manuscript while I was still in high school, and while I've reworked wording and cut or added things throughout the years, I hadn't actually taken the step back to see if the structure of those sections actually function adequately in the broader scope of the story.  I was so pleased with what I'd writt...

       As I mentioned very briefly a few posts ago, I find it very frustrating when the love interests in a story have very poor communication from the get go.  I don't understand how these relationships actually develop and are maintained if the beginning stages are already so full of miscommunications and an inability to clarify things! The start of the relationship is the easiest part! You're just getting to know each other and if you're compatible; there's not a great deal of emotional investment. There's no sunk cost fallacy to contend with. So why would you continue to pursue a dynamic that is already dysfunctional? It makes no sense to me.        Honestly, I feel like a lot of this stems from a pervasive mentality that physical and sexual attraction are some of the most important considerations going into a relationship, when really they shouldn't be. I'm attracted to my husband, but a huge part of that is due to his personality, and h...