Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Effective vs. Successful Ads

Writing that reminds me that I need to try to watch Mad Men someday, now that it's over before I have the ending ruined for me (like Lost). 

At any rate the other day I was watching tv and was reminded of this ad that I find highly funny -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DghtxDqvPeI

After seeing the commercial yesterday I kept thinking about what made it so funny/appealing to me and not so much the product itself.  Then I saw it again today while at the laundry mat and had another LOL moment.  Afterwards I figured I'd write about it since I thought it was an effective ad but then I couldn't remember who was behind the ad which led me to think what really makes an ad successful.

It's one thing to laugh and relate to the commercial but at the end if I'm not thinking about your car product during my next car shopping trip was it  savvy venture for the car company if I'm searching for Mazda but it's really Subaru??? I'm thinking both of those are Japanese made so at least I was on the correct road. 

And then from that it made me think about writing.  Not so much the marketing but how much bang for the buck each line can encompass and how might the difference be for it?  What would I as a writer deem as effective vs. successful?  Is there a difference?  I believe so but maybe not everyone.   As a reader what might I consider to be effective and what I would want out of the book to be 'effective' for me.  Was the marketing effective enough to cause me to check it out at the library or pick it up from a shelf?  Would reading it be considered a success?  Or is it at the point in which I purchase the product that it's become 'successful' because it made that conversion from a potential sale to an actual? 

Again, as a writer, am I viewing my success on that conversion or something in the feedback to gage it's success?  Does the work become effective if it's inspired a movement, conversation, a huge following, etc... Or am I just spinning my wheels 11:30pm at night and need to get to bed for all the work related stuff I need to do. 

I think it's the latter ^_^

Check out the commercial though.  It appears to be the extended version but it's still quite funny because at the end it's sort of this message of "I think I'll stick to being a kid a little while longer." 

Smart kid. 

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Cinder, Interstellar, Jurassic World, Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden... My recent trips to other worlds

Apologies for the lack of updates.  Life is just as stressful but I've been centered in what appears to be my new normal for a few months now and it's sort of in a routine but I have to start going into work physically so... ... ... More to come.

At any rate with having to be focused in reality it occurred to me that I haven't lost myself in anything as of late mostly because my extra time isn't really extra and being responsible for so much doesn't really allow for things I like to do such as finding a good book.  And finding a good book is difficult, mostly because I've been a bit more picky about what I read. 

So I started reading Cinder, I'm still reading it and there are definitely some things I like about it but there's something about it that's not driving me to tear right though it.  Maybe I haven't just gotten far enough in it and part of me might be sort of really trying to look at what the author did with her world building.  And this is what I think my mind might be doing, since I'm getting ready to work on the TYW and one of my qualms with it is I don't dig deeper in the world to let the reader in. 

I also watched Interstellar last weekend and while there were a couple things that I don't think I liked there was a lot that I did.  And the world within it, I mean, I think I might've just been grateful for the escape the movie gave me because, again, I've been steeped in reality due to so many personal/family issues. 

Then last Friday I went to see the new Jurassic World and the first movie is one of my favorite movies so no surprise I was going to make sure I went out to see it.  Again I allowed myself to completely become submerged in the film.  The kids seemed to like it too but my cousin's wife wasn't too fond of it.  I actually noticed her flipping through her phone a couple times through the movie. 

Also within this last week I picked up FY: Genbu Kaiden because I was a fan the original Fushigi Yugi and had picked this one up years ago but then I fell off the anime/manga addiction I'd had due to life but while in the library I saw volumes 1-11 and picked them up on a whim.  I binge read the last few days of them and again got submerged in another world.

So what's the point of this post you might ask?  Or maybe you won't but I'll state it anyway.

No matter what it is - art, music, film, tv, books... feed your brain.  Feed your creative brain.  And I believe my recent traipses through these worlds have proven to be beneficial because as I do my novel read through things have been sparking.  Sparking is good.  Sparking is the type of thing, for me, that'll find me in a corner whimpering about not knowing where to go next and suddenly be hit by a stored 'spark' from one of these many trips. 

I'm building my arsenal.  I'm getting ready for battle with this revision of the Three Year War.  I'm feeling ready but in the meantime I think I'm going to continue feeding the brain.  Going to try checking out some short stories and hopefully catching myself up on writing my own.  Might also be taking the niece to see "Inside Out".

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Revision Goals

Earlier this week I had thought to make a goal of reading 3 chapters a day and realized I wouldn't be able to handle that, then I thought maybe 3 chapters a week but I didn't like the 10 week timeline, oh wait, no the 10 week timeline seemed feasible.  I think I didn't like the idea of trying to do 1 chapter per week and revise it too because that meant at least 30 weeks if I stuck to it. 

I think I still want to read 3 chapters a day, it's just the problem with that is that I end up wanting to fix things and maybe it's not a bad thing but I think I should probably get through reading it from front to back to get a good sense of the big picture.  Which I think I do.  I know in my revision I'd like to incorporate more of NoAw's POV since he was originally the fourth POV until Bee came in and took over.  I also think I'm going to split out TYW.  One section will be surrounding the 4 years before, During, and maybe the 4 years after.  I'm still trying to workout the timeline.

Btw, reading Cinder right now.  I'm sort of moving back and forth with my feelings about it but I like reading about the world and how nuggets are introduced which is helping me shape my own thoughts of how I should work the world in the TYW for the reader.  Cinder is also making my mind tinker with my space story as well as the revenge deity story, as I read it, I find myself randomly thinking about scenes I've written down for the two novels.

At any rate... that is my update.  I figured I should post something here since I've fallen off.