Note: While due care and attention goes into these ramblings, and I’ve tried my best not to, there may still be some spoilers for the Hunger Games books and film in this post. You have been warned.

So I’m back from watching the Hunger Games. The cinema was packed, which I was not expecting. I tend to forget that even in this age of the Internet being everything you should ever need, people do still like to leave the house occasionally.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been so excited to watch something at the cinema. In fact, I don’t recall any film I’ve waited for with such eager anticipation. Except maybe Tangled, and I didn’t even watch that at the cinema, in the end.

But unlike the disastrous disappointment that was Blade 2 (which is honestly the last thing I can remember being excited at seeing on release), The Hunger Games lived up to the high expectations I set upon its shoulders.

My History With the Games

I first caught wind of the Hunger Games when the final book in the trilogy was released in 2010. I think Alex Day might have been talking about it. Somebody was talking about it, anyway. All I remember at the time was this person saying how the third book, Mockingjay, was a disappointment, not because it was bad, per se, rather that nothing but a stream of terrible things happened in it, whereas with the previous books there remained a sense of hope.

And I remember thinking, “surely it can’t be that bad?”, before deciding to add the series to my “to-read” list, and promptly forgetting all about it.

I heard sprigs and snippets from others singing the series’ praises here and there, and I kept considering it, but being the lazy bones that I am, I never got around to it.

I didn’t actually decide to read them until I heard the announcement for the film, and having long since realsing that you should always read the book before you a the film based upon it (I like the opportunity to make the characters in my own head before I’m told what the media tells me they will look like), I finally pulled my finger out and bought myself a copy. I have maintained this until this point, and I refuse to read any reviews until I’ve shared my own personal opinion. I have a tab open with Lindsay Ellis’ vlog ready to play after I post this.

And with the exception of one major spoiler in the third book I happened upon watching a fan-made video (curse you, random YouTube commenter!), I succeeded and went into all three books completely blind.

I devoured the first book in about three days (and that’s good, for me. I’m a lazy reader. I’m a lazy everything.), and I adored everything about it. It has a great opening that grabs you by the throat, screaming: “THIS WORLD SUCKS, BUT THEY’RE MAKING IT WORK, AND NOW LOOK AT HOW EVERYTHING IS GOING TO GO TO SHIT”. Which, let’s face it, is everything you want in an opening.

The others I read within a month. With the second one, I found it a little difficult to get into, because it started quite slow, but at the same time, it did a good job of really opening up the world of Panem and making you realise, “Holy shit, this is a big deal.” And I generally agree with the thoughts shared by the random person whose identity I can’t remember about the third book.

In all, I found the series to be wholly fulfilling and the first book now sits pride of place in my top 10 books of all time (a list I will write…one day).

The Hunger Games vs Battle Royale

Now, many people have likened the Hunger Games to Japanese cult movie Battle Royale (which one of my favourite films of all time), and haters go so far as to call it a blatant rip-off.

I’m just going to need a minute to rant about this.

Yes, the premise is similar, but then ideas are like that. Never heard the term “Great Minds Think Alike”? I’m not going to go on about it. I’m simply acknowledging the fact that people have raised the similarities between the two already, repeatedly, and – while a similar idea – the two are used in different ways, too much for one to be a rip-off of the other.

To those who maintain that The Hunger Games is a stolen premise, I’ll just leave you with this:

Anyway. Moving On!

The Film

I was generally impressed with the transition of the story from page to screen. The world of Panem was almost exactly as I imagined it, particularly the Capitol. I think the biggest detraction for me was that I imagined the Hob to be somewhat bigger, but that’s it!

The story as a whole remained in tact, with but a few tweaks. The origin of the Mockingjay pin was changed, the reason for which I’m not 100% clear on, though I suspect it might’ve been to both remove the character of Madge in order to simplify the chain of events and also to bring more attention to Prim before the Reaping. That’s my theory, at least. But other than that, and a few slight character modifications (Katniss seemed less aggressive and more pensive), it remained true to the books.

All the actors played their roles spot-on. Effie’s and Haymitch’s were my personal favourites, though Woody Harrelson was the last person I imagined to play the role of the old drunk. For some reason, I imagined Haymitch to be fat. Still, they did the characters justice. In fact, everyone did. I didn’t find myself frowning at any of the casting choices.

It didn’t, in my opinion, capture Katniss’ character quite as well as the books, but then that’s to be expected when we’re not actually inside her head. Speaking of which, I did like how we got to see others’ reactions to the events taking place in the arena, and the announcers (I forget their names: I’m a bad monkey) who served as exposition for the most part (but not obvious enough to distract from the story). I liked the extra layer it added to the world, having the ability to do so when not locked into a first-person narrative.

I remember when I read the book wondering about how the film would tackle this aspect, and it came across well. In particular, seeing the reaction from District 11 to Katniss’ salute had me almost in tears.

A few scenes could’ve been handled better, and many moving moments would’ve benefited from an accompanying score of some kind, which was largely lacking in most parts (I appreciate that might have been the film makers trying to show desolation with silence, but I don’t know if it worked for me). I want my orchestral swells, damn it.

I went to see it with a friend who hasn’t read the books, and there were a number of times I wanted to lean over an elaborate on what was shown. The outfits, for example, and the build-up to their reveal felt a little sandwiched in, as did Katniss’ time with Cinna and his team. Finally, I didn’t feel it quite conveyed the on-screen/off-screen relationship with Peeta, and the scene to explain why he joined the Careers wasn’t covered at all, leaving a bit of a hole that – had I not read the books – I might not have realised his intentions.

I’m sure there’s more I could say, but it’s late, and the clocks have just gone forward, so now it’s 2AM instead of 1AM, and I still have that review to watch.

Overall, I found The Hunger Games to be a very worthy adaptation, and that the creators did the best they could with the time they had.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Freedom is a very small but very handy piece of software available for both Windows and OSX. The software has a single purpose, and that is to turn off your Internet for a specified period of time, thus freeing you up to do more important things. It’s FREEDOM, get it?!

To give you an indication of why I personally needed this software, here’s how my time management goes at present:

09:00 - So let’s turn on the computer. I’m going to do SO FREAKING MUCH writing today.

09:02 - I’ll just check Twitter really quick, see if anyone @replied to any of my witty banter from last night. No replies. But a retweet. And a favourite! Must thank them. Ohh, look, a new post from my favourite writer friend! I’ll just go read that. Ohh, look! Google Reader has new posts from more writer types. I’ll just check those out. Won’t take a minute. Oh hey, a new video from my favourite TGWTG contributor is up! Ohh, what’s that post about the state of publishing in the advent of eReaders? I’d better read that. Could be important. Oh, what a charming picture of a dog wearing a party hat on Facebook. Must share that! Wait, is that a new trailer for that film I really want to see?! I must watch this right now. It can’t wait. Hey, look, new videos from my favourite YouTubers. Go on then, I’ll just watch a couple. Oh look, something that I’ve already seen a million times is now available on NetFlix! I’m really in the mood for a specific brand of comedic adventures right now. Mustn’t forget to check my e-mails: might have some beta reader responses. No responses, but look! New listed items on eBay! Oh hey, Tumblr! Look at that animated gif! That’s the most clever and witty animated gif I’ve ever seen in my entire online life. I must reblog it.

15:00 – Shit.

You could turn around and say:

Hey, here’s an idea. Why don’t you just unplug your Ethernet cable for an hour instead?

To which I’d say:

Hey, here’s a retort. You try crawling around under a desk that’s got a weeks’ worth of post under it, plus a pair of fingerless gloves you bought yourself on impulse before realising how ridiculous they are.

I could always unplug it from the top, cut it off at the source, you may be thinking. Well…

That's it, behind the AMALGAMATION OF SHIT.

Besides, if you’re living in a household where the Internet is shared, unplugging anything could plunge the whole house into darkness, and that, well that would just be chaos, and nobody wants that.

Enough of your life story. Nobody cares. What does Freedom actually DO?

In a nutshell, you tell Freedom how long you would like to work distraction-free, put in your minutes (up to 8 hours), click OK, and you’re done.

Your PC/Mac loses all its networking facilities for the amount of time you specified.

There is no way to undo this decision, short of restarting your machine.

The intention is that you will take the opportunity of “freedom” from the big, bad, alluring Internet to work.

Why not just do it manually?

Granted, it is a relatively simple task to manually turn off your Internet (particularly on the Mac – you click, Turn AirPort Off, and BOOM, gone), turning it back on when you’re done with your creative genius. The problem with this is that you are still the one in control of your Internet access. There’s no point turning off your Internet with the very best of intentions, only to turn around 3 minutes later and turn it back on “just to check for one e-mail”, thus starting the cycle all over again.

Freedom takes away the chance to relapse.

You tell it what you want to. It stops you from deviating from it.

Any downsides?

This isn’t so much a downside, more of a warning: The software is only useful if you are aware of its purpose.

An example of what I mean by that:

I have a PC, a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad. I have purchased a Freedom licence for both PC and Mac, meaning that – should I feel it necessary – I could run it on both computers simultaneously, thus taking out any chance of turning to the Internet on those. However, it wouldn’t take that much effort to lean over and pick up my phone, and then I’ll be off on the Information Superhighway faster than you can blink.

You need to remind yourself that there’s a reason you can’t get onto the Internet right now. The software is only as strong as your self control.

Also, I have a personal issue with this program, considering I can’t even think about the word “Freedom” without getting this is my head:

...or something to that effect.

Yeah. But that aside, Freedom is a great, simple little app that does exactly what it says on the tin.

There really isn’t much else to say other than it works.

I mean, it’s nothing spectacular, but then it doesn’t have to be. It has a purpose to serve, and it serves it perfectly.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

You can buy Freedom from the developer’s web site, including free trial versions for both PC and Mac versions, enable 5 free uses before deciding whether to hand over your heard earned dolla.

(I’ve written this post as a means of procrastination so as not to have to work on my current WIP. The irony is not lost on me. Freedom is going on as soon as I’ve posted. Promise!)

Right, so I was going to go into this huge spiel about how pathetic and depressing 2011 was for me, and to share with anyone who cares to read it about how awful things were and how badly I handled everything and how I dropped myself into whole oceans worth of shit.

But you know what? No one will want to hear about it, and I don’t particularly want to write about it or even remember it, so fuck it, I won’t.

Instead, I’m going to talk about the good things I have to look forward to in 2012.

So I finished the novel I was working on for NaNoWriMo 2011. Woo. It is out with more beta readers as we speak, and I am sitting on my hands while I wait to hear back from them, chewing the skin around my nails like a rabid rodent.

I fully, fully intend to have this book released for public consumption by the middle/back-end of this year. The thing and/or problem with this particular book is that it’s been around in some form or another for a looooooong time now, and yet I feel I can’t move onto bigger, better things until I’m happy that the foundation I’ve created is solid. So the first book is winging its way back through beta readers and hopefully a variety of opinions will be winging their way to me very soon!

That said, I’ve started editing the second book, still (currently) titled “The Vampire’s Son”, my 2009 NaNoWriMo, which basically looks like a kneaded turd right now.

No, that’s not fair. The parts that are done are pretty decent, in all fairness. But then there are g a p i n g chasms where whole chapters should be, frayed and unfinished scenes, entire plot threads have unravelled and dangle loose, with the threat of the slightest breeze blowing them away. So it looks more like a moth-eaten blanket found buried in the basement, covered in dust and dead spiders.

But it’s definitely workable, and what’s there is good, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, that’s where I’m at with writing right now.

I’ve stopped playing World of Warcraft for an indefinite period, simply because when I do play, it takes over my entire life, and I actually have other things I’m supposed to be doing.

I love the game, and by playing it I’ve managed to meet people who I can say with some degree of confidence I would never have met otherwise. But I just don’t have the time for it. I only hope that soon I will get the time to be able to return to GlenCoco, my Worgen warrior, and get back to those heady nights of drunk tanking and getting everyone killed.

Even without WoW, I’m still managing to get in a fair amount of procrastination, though – if I do say so myself – it’s not as much as this time last year. I’d like to think it might be in part because of the wake up call that 2011 actually was.

I’m blaming NetFlix for the new bout of mind wandering, since that’s just been released in the UK, and of course I had to sign up for the free month.

Anyway,  that’s where I am with everything else right now.

I have some plans/announcements that I’m going to be bursting out in the next few days/weeks for the VS series, so keep your lids peeled for that.

I plan to get back into the swing of updating this site as well, since it seems a little forlorn and filled with melancholy right now. I have a number of “Music to Write Novels By” posts still waiting in the wings, so I should be able to ease myself back in with a few of those.

Onwards and upwards, people!

2012 is the year!

Am I on target? No.

Shitteth has hitteth the fan…eth. Oh it’s all going on like party central over here right now.

I am still managing to sit down and force some stuff out, hence the not-entirely-pitiful word count so far.

Do I think I’ll be able to get to 50,000 words by the 30th? I should hope so.

I don’t have any other major events happening between now and then, so if I stick to it (and, according to the NaNo estimator thingy, churn out 2,087 words instead of the 1,667 starting estimate), I should be OK.

Out of curiosity, I also entered the current word dump into Wordle. Here’s the outlook so far:

So it’s pretty much the same as last year’s, all full of people “thinking” “back” to their “eyes”. I also like…the word ‘like’…a lot, apparently. I like ‘like’ a lot.

In other news, I have a Kindle now. T’was a very early Christmas/birthday gift.

I’ll be honest, I’m surprised I got this far without buying one myself.

I have already bought more books than I can likely ever get through (or even afford right now, but that’s a whole other, far less light-hearted story), and I have high hopes for it.

P.S. No, that’s not a crack. It’s a cat hair. Damn things get EVERYWHERE.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Back to it!

There isn’t much else I can say except if you like Scrivener for Mac, and you have a PC, you will want this software.

And if you only have a PC, or for whatever inexplicable reason, you’ve never used Scrivener on your Mac before, you will still want to get this software. With a 30 day non-consecutive trial, what do you have to lose?

Scrivener for Windows | Scrivener for Mac

Therefore, I have no choice but to throw myself head-first into the NaNo challenge this year.

I still have a book that remains unfinished. That chapter needs to be closed before I can move onto the other stories I have yet to write.

My 50,000 words will be new scenes built around the existing template, working towards the goal of having a completed final draft by the end of November, regardless of what else is happening in my life.

Here’s page 1 of my (currently 14-page) plan:

I can’t show you any more than this first page since it goes into details that might spoil the story for all six of you who read the finished piece.

But, in essence, it outlines my mental state for the remainder of this month. Basically, from Monday to Friday, I’ll be freaking the hell out (by waking up at 5am and working 2.5 hours before ‘work’ each day*), and then at the weekends – based on the success of the week – I will be rejoicing at my success or descending into a pit of despair.

I have recently learned that if I do not set myself definite and constant goals, I quickly fall off the wagon. After speaking with Muse, it has also been decided that I shouldn’t be drinking for my writing this month. That’s going to be a spectacle in itself since I’m hoping to get all my writing done by 7AM, and if I’m drinking by 7AM, surely that’s grounds for committal?! But anyway, that’s another goal I have to look forward to.

I am hoping that NaNo this year will be the push I need to force myself back into a workable routine.

I would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone taking part in NaNoWriMo 2011 the very best of luck, and I hope to see you victorious on the other side!

* I tried this approach for 2009′s NaNo, with mixed results: some mornings I was up with the lark, others I just cried myself back to sleep.

I went to a customer’s today, and watched the director of the 500+ employee company I was meant to be charging for every minute of my time squirm as one of the factory staff challeged him about the fact that the company hadn’t paid him for the work he’d done that week.  The reason being that the company simply didn’t have the funds to pay this man, even though he’d worked those hours.

Alright. So it’s the last day of September tomorrow, and my self-imposed deadline expects me to have a finished draft of the new book ready to flex its raw and ill-used muscles to the beta readers.

I can tell you with some confidence that this is not going to happen.

And for the first time in about nine years, it’s actually something substantial that’s come in my way this time, something I can’t talk about at this moment, something serious and finite and more than the idle wandering of a scattered mind of which we’re all so used to.

I am still writing.

I write every minute that I’m not fighting to keep everything together. I still can’t talk about it.

I now ask only for patience while I work on the side of my life that keeps a roof over my head work to ensure I will still have an active Internet connection in order to be able to post future updates about my endeavours.

First off, my writer’s wall has sprouted out fresh limbs.

I now have a yearly planner as well as the monthly one. That sure is exciting, even though I have nothing else to plan for beyond September. Not yet, at least.

I have also appealed to my asthetic side and printed out some mock up covers I made a while ago, with a gentle reminder beneath:

Don’t you have a job to do?
Don’t you have something to write?*

Both it and the covers are at eye-level, meaning they’re the first thing I see when said eyes wonder towards the window and the charming rural view, reminding me there’s something I should be working on.

And up at the top was a print out from Thursday, when my new laser printer arrived and I wanted to print something out as a test. The words are important, plus they’re REALLY BIG and therefore hard to miss.

On the actual writing front, it’s been going OK. I’ve had a few personal issues I can’t go into for legal reasons (no, really), but I still think I can finish on target.

You might have noticed that on the 12th of September, the word count took a flying leap from 35k to 64k.  While I’d like to pretend this was the result of some time-bending phenomenon that allowed me an additional fortnight to produce a meatier word count, I’m sure it comes as no surprise that this was not the case.

Since this book essentially a skeletal rewrite of a draft from 2006, there are some scenes from the original that are still relevant.  So I threw them in as well.  All 30,000 words of them.  Will I regret this later?  Probably. Hence why now from the 25th to the 30th, I have time set aside for revision.

And that’s where I’ll be in that last week, sitting in the dark, stitching these scenes together with ink and sweat, screaming: “Why won’t you just FIT, damn you!”

* Yes, that is a Demolition Man reference. Simon Phoenix is DA BOMB.

“Don’t you have a job to do? Don’t you have someone to kill?”

It’s closer to twelve years, actually…