Self-observation

In the last few weeks, I've made some realizations about myself that I'm not proud to admit--in fact, I haven't even told them to my husband yet.

I definitely lack self-motivation. A lot.

Now, if I'm in a time crunch, or my family's stomach's depend on it, I can get things done.

But, even my writing suffers because of my lack of self-motivation. Probably why I've been working on my novel for six years, another for more than four. Sure, it's difficult to get things done when you're a stay-at-home mom. But, I know many women who run rings around me. (I also know many women who are amazed that I get the amount of writing done I do... they just don't see what other areas suffer because of it.)

I've noticed this mostly because I've been working on a time-sensitive project haphazardly (non-writing related) since May. In theory, if I had 2 - 4 uninterrupted hours to work on it a day, I'd have it done by now. Yeah, that hasn't happened. In fact, the more I don't work on it, the less I don't want to work on it... and I feel like a failure because of it.

And, it's not like I'm over-committed. It's definitely not that. It's the fact that I can't motivate myself, and to a lesser extent, I can be very poor at time management. My husband instinctively knows what part of the problem is: this little thing called a laptop with an internet connection. Which is also why I've started staying off of the computer on Sundays, and a good part of Saturdays. Still, being off the computer just means I'll distract myself with other things... reading a book, baking bread when I don't really need to, etc. Not that these things are bad, just not necessarily important.

I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who lacks this important skill. Maybe you've been struggling with it, and maybe you can offer some tips. To-do lists, for me, sometimes help, but not always. I'm more apt to ignore it than anything. For instance, I had a to-do list of 4 things for the weekend. I got two done. Oh brother.

Anyway...

Until next time,

Little Things

Eep! I haven't blogged in a month?! Bad Liberty, BAD LIBERTY!

I'd love to tell you it was because it was some calamitous event, but sadly, it was my own blank mind. Monday would roll around, and sometime, I'd say, "Oh, crap! I forgot to blog again!!" Too much going on. Oh well. :)

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John Wayne as G.W. McLintock and Maureen O'Hara as Katherine McLintock

My kids LOVE to watch the John Wayne movie, McLintock. Recently, when I was listening in while cleaning (and Facebooking), I heard one of the scenes early on, when G.W. McLintock (Wayne) and Katherine (Maureen O'Hara) meet for the first time [in the movie]. Katherine spits at G.W. that she always hated the name Rebecca--the name of their daughter. And, there's really no explanation given for this.

Which got me wondering--was the explanation for it just something left on the cutting room floor, or something more simple--something meant to illustrate character/personality?

I'd like to say it was the former, but if memory serves, Wayne produced this movie with his own company, so had a lot of control over the content. But, if you recognize the time the story is to have taken place--late 1800s or very early 1900s--it may actually say more about G.W. than about Katherine. Men at the time would've had a lot more power over naming of children at the time (or at least, that's what I'm guessing.) Now, women have more power in that area, but I know many couples who discuss the name at length until they come up with something they both agree on (case in point, TMOTH and me. It took us 24 hours POST BIRTH for our daughter and 36 hours post on our son to come up with names. It wasn't like we didn't have some warning we were having a baby, either. We'd known since at least 6 weeks along, if not earlier, that we'd be having a baby!)

If my theory is correct--and G.W. named their daughter Rebecca in spite of Katherine--this is a great lesson for writers on a multitude of topics: backstory, characterization, how a man treats his wife, etc. G.W. didn't care whether his wife liked the name or not, and being the cattle baron, town-owning character that he is, I doubt Katherine's thoughts on the matter would've swayed him at all. Might explain why they're estranged through most of the movie.

Can you think of other instances in movies or books where something made you wonder about the character or backstory and the writer never followed up on it? What story is it, and what's your conclusion?

Until next time (hopefully a lot sooner than it was the LAST time!),