Monday, June 27, 2011

On Tumbling for Tumblr

I've fallen in love with Tumblr.  Do you guys know about this thing?

In case you don't, it's another blogging platform (*looks around, shifty-eyed, for the Blogger Re-education Enforcement Agents*).  But here's the thing with Tumblr:  You can put up ANYTHING.  It's got built-in functions to make posting text, pictures, videos, quotes, links, chats, and audio as easy as clicking a couple of buttons.  You can e-mail things directly to your Tumblog without even logging into the thing.

And there are lots--I mean lots--of amazing Tumblogs to check out and follow.  There are Tumblogs with themes, like one I could weep over on a daily basis called Eat Sleep Breathe Dance, or the fascinating I Love Charts.  Others are whatever strikes a person's fancy, like The Monica Bird.

I've fallen for the ease of use, the amazing things to find and share around the Interwebz.  I love the search feature on the Dashboard, where you can type in any old thing and find someone, somewhere, who has posted something about it.

So, now I want to know:  Who else Tumbles?

You can find mine here, where I post about writing, funny stuff, beautiful stuff, my cousin and his rockin' accordian, and other fascinatin' rhythms.  Check it out.  And if you haven't tried Tumblr, might I suggest you put on your big girl panties and dive in?  It's not at all scary if you just take the first step off the diving board.

- Liz


Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Oh my stars I owe you guys a real blog, but until I can get my act together, I have to have to have to send you over to Kristen Lamb's blog.  She takes on the Star Wars prequels and schools us all in the art of story telling.  One of those posts that made me want to stand in my desk chair fist-pumping and shouting "YES! That!  Exactly that!"

And excerpt to get you running to read the rest:

Mistake #2 Heroes are not babies, and bad guys are not whiners.
OMG…I wanted to SLAP Anakin Skywalker. If the end goal was to make Anakin into DARTH VADER the greatest bad guy EVER…then no whining. Scene after scene of Obi-Wan just doesn’t take me seriously got old really quickly.
Yes, as writers it is a great goal to have flawed heroes, because perfect characters lack depth. But, I feel there are certain character attributes that will alienate fans. Whining is one of those.

See?  You totally want to read the rest, don't you?  What are you waiting for?

- Liz