elsewhere – and the importance of character

Current work: revisions on Venice book
Listening to: Bach
Reading: Fools Rush In, Kristan Higgins (enjoying, especially the puppy)

I’m talking about the places of dreams over at the Medical authors’ blog at eHarlequin – yup, Pompeii :o) So do come over and tell me about your dream place (and, if you’ve visited it, whether it lived up to the dream). (Oh, and if anyone has tips about Luxor, I am all ears.)

The Last Airbender was a wee bit disappointing yesterday. The premise was good (as were the SFX), but I would’ve liked a lot more emotion and heart in there. Apparently Shyalaman had to condense 420 minutes of material into 94 minutes, but I wish he’d taken at least another 15 minutes and used it to make us feel more connected to the main characters. It’s very much a ‘quest’ type film, which means you really need to care about the protagonist and whether he succeeds rather than feeling disconnected from him. One of the baddies, Dev Patel (Prince Zuko), has a fabulous conflict – but it did need more depth to bring it out. (Big potential twist there with Uncle Iroh… but I don’t think I’m going sit through the sequels to find out if I'm right, as the film was short but felt very long.) Overall, for me, it’s a long way from The Sixth Sense – which was a brilliant film,where you REALLY cared about the main character (and Shyamalan was directing at his best).

Ha. Big lesson there for romance writer currently fretting over revisions. Character is key :o)