Movies not to show a pregnant woman

Alien series

Species

They Came From Within

Inseminoid

The Black Cat (1934)

Demon Seed

Abraxas: Guardian Of The Universe

Breeders

The Unborn

It's Alive

Rosemary’s Baby

The Omen

Inside

Grace

The Brood

Dead Alive

Dumpster Baby

The Baby (1973)

Hanger

The Abortion

The Cradle

Imprint

Dumplings

Fortress

Taking notes is a wonderful thing

For anyone who was paying any attention to my facebook posts at all - mostly doubtful there - you'll have noticed that I lost a note I took down on some weapons I'd thought up for one of my characters. This was a disaster as I am one to write from start to finish in a straight run. Jumping all over the place makes me dizzy and confused as to the details, especially with the world I'm currently writing. The disaster of it all was that the very next paragraph was to include the introduction of new weapons and the training in their usage.

Scream!

Well, I do take notes, as is usually advised by successful authors. I even have that notebook by the bed that's always talked about as a useful thing for late night inspiration or the jotting down of dream. Yes, it is very handy when you wake up from a doozy of a nightmare only to find you have the perfect fodder for a horror or tragedy story.

But! But, I say. They never tell you that you can have too many notebooks!

Here's what I have:

• 1 notebook in the car with pen attached for those times I'm waiting in a parking lot.
• 2 notebooks downstairs: one for general projects but it does get used for writing too and the other for writing and publisher lists and agent meetings etc. This last one often gets tucked into my bag along with a pen.
• Postit notes in two pockets of my bag in case I forget my 2nd downstairs notebook.
• 2 upstairs notebooks, one with illustration details and jotted notes and the other that nightstand notebook for logging late night inspiration.
• 15 stickies on my laptop filled with random information on inspiration, odd ideas, publisher info, blog thoughts and ideas, cooking ideas and other random pieces.
• Too many word files to count per book but luckily most are filed under the right book folder. This latest book is already up to 14 files, mostly with loads of info.
• Then there are the notes in the actual manuscript that pad out the skeleton I wrote.

I lost one jotted down idea in this and couldn't remember it under my own steam for half a day and even then I only managed to remember one bit of it. It took until just now for me to find the note... 

So, the upshot of all this is that taking notes is a wonderful thing.

But maybe limit the number of places you collect those notes. If you don't you might end up in the same position I was in just a moment ago. Searching through piles and piles of notes to find the single one you really need.

This is a post in the "don't do what I do, do what I say" general line of things. Just sayin'.

Writing angry: a crash course in dos and don'ts

I write this from experience so please take a note or two. I could pass a degree on this subject if there was one to pass and so can quite easily be your guide through this quagmire.

People say don't drive angry because when you do you're reaction times are altered, your judgment is impaired and your risk taking skyrockets. 

• Reaction times are altered but generally so they are faster. This may seem a good thing but only if you're avoiding a crash. If you're winding through traffic though, that zip from one lane to another might be done a little too fast. You might clip the person behind you or you might make the change so suddenly they never saw it coming so never slammed on the breaks. Bam!
• You judgment skews as your first impulse is usually taken without further thought being applied and as we've all learnt at some time or another your first impulse is not always the best one. Sometimes you need to reconsider or risk crashing for lack of seeing an obvious issue.
• Your risk taking skyrockets because you just plain don't care so much about anything when you're right royal mad, except about what made you mad in the first place of course. You just want to assert your own way. Unfortunately the universe doesn't go along with your whims. Ever. It just does what it wants and has to and if it goes your way this holds no more meaning than your calling the right answer in  game of heads or tails. Some effort can be applied to get what you want but that is simply manipulating the causes and hoping the effects will be as desired. Driving angry is like driving with the intention of rewriting the laws of physics for your benefit. Your rewrites are never going to be accepted. Bam smash crash!

I say don't write angry or hit send without some consideration as to the consequences. Your consideration may not be enough but at least you've taken two seconds to rethink what you've written and its appropriateness. I equate writing angry like driving angry for these reasons:

• Your reaction times are altered but generally so they are faster. You'll tap or scrawl that message out so fast your fingers will blur, your mind will race but only focus on the task of screaming into the machine and you'll slam that send button down with the full force of your rage. Crunch! There goes your job, your relationship or whatever it is that connects you to the person you're raging at.
• Your judgment skews as your first impulse is usually taken without further thought. You write what's immediately on your mind with no thought whatsoever on how it could be read. You don't revise your words in consideration of the other person/s. You rant and rage and when you hit send you will later find out that you said some terrible things, things you shouldn't have. Fwomp! The sound of your confidence imploding as nervous uncertainty rushes in to fill its place.
• Your risk taking skyrockets because you just plain don't care so much about the consequences when you're right royal mad. In fact you're usually thinking "Bring It On!" or "I Don't F*cking Care!". You really do care and you don't really want an endless fight or to be fired. What you want is a quick, neat solution (hopefully to your benefit because most of us are self-serving to one degree or another) and one involving as little pain and effort as possible. Instead, what you've done by effectively screaming  "Bring It On!" or "I Don't F*cking Care!" is alienate the person receiving your message and maybe even make them bring it on as requested. Life is about to get hard.

So a tip or two from experience and from watching others. Don't write angry when:

• You're writing to an employer. Death Knell!
• You're writing to a client. Not even when you're about to get rid of them. Reputations are destroyed by an angry dismissal or rejection letter.
• When you've been rejected over anything. Breathe. Think. Try to reason. Leave it a day or two. Then respond with a clearer head.
• When writing to friends who aren't as close as brothers or sisters willing to stick around (not all do) so won't put up with any more than they have to. You will lose your friend and likely gain an enemy.
• Your neighbour. Ever. Wars are fought for less.
• Any form of bureaucrat who has control of your money, house or life, especially one you'll have to answer to again some day. They will make your life hell on a whim because you pissed them off and they have power over just how comfortable your life is. Making your life uncomfortable is revenge from a distance to them.
• Distanced family. It will end badly if they can't read what you're saying without taking into account and forgiving you that you're mad. If you've never been mad at them before and had them forgive you for it don't expect whoever you're writing to to absorb your rage without retribution. Expect a fight or even a family feud.

Cases when writing angry is perfectly fine:

• If you know that the recipient will come back to talk to you again another day. There are fewer people in the world who will do this for you than you think. It usually involves close family, very close friends and your spouse. Maybe.
• You are writing for yourself and your words will never be read by another person. Even diaries aren't completely safe so try not to keep records and records of angry spiteful b*tching in your diaries. Burn after writing is a better idea than burn after reading.
• Your rage is vented through fictional characters who aren't enacting anything close to what you're angry about.
• You are fully prepared before and after for the consequences. Mostly you won't be but on the odd occasion that "Bring It On!" is warranted and should be carried through. No one is saying you have to suffer everything hurled at you. Just pick and choose your battles with care and consideration.
• When your anger is backed by statements, studies and logical conclusions as in writing for a political or social cause etc. Anger is an element of change as much as it is of destruction. Use it wisely but don't let it be you.

When writing angry and you just can't stop or you really must express your rage:

• Somewhere in the back of your rage-filled mind, remember to curb the angriest of your statements.
• Reread what you've scrawled up and edit out the most hurtful sections without removing the point of your argument.
• Try to remember that logic is still required. Being enraged doesn't mean you can say or do anything and excuse yourself. Anger does not equal righteousness. Logic should keep you on track and your answers appropriate so send only after you've had a chance to calm down and think logically about what you've written.
• Try to see through the flush of adrenaline and/or the tears to how the other person might feel and if you think they might feel bombarded or hurt or insulted try to express that you understand but...... (insert your point of view).
• Don't hit send until you're sure you aren't in the wrong.

Right now there is one person out there probably feeling a bit raked up after I suffered an unexpected and complete meltdown, tears and raging included, so I'm not without fault. This is my advice from practice and there's no preaching involved. Do as you must and suffer the consequences you bring about upon yourself. I'm already feeling the weight of logic pressing back down on my brain, seeing through literally clearer eyes (though they sting quite a bit and it is hard to focus to editing) and feeling that numb sense of "Holy cow what just happened?" as I try to figure out which bus just ran me over.

Here's another useful take on writing angry if you're prone to it:

Quotes from writers about writing

Here are some of my favourite quotes about writing from writers. Personally, I struggle to even out my thoughts without a good, energy consuming project and what better long-term project is there than writing for someone addicted to stories and escapism. It only remains to be seen whether this leads me anywhere other than fantasyland.

For me, writing is cathartic.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
 - Cyril Connolly

Writing is a cop-out. An excuse to live perpetually in fantasy land, where you can create, direct and watch the products of your own head. Very selfish.
 - Monica Dickens

There are many reasons why novelists write – but they all have one thing in common: a need to create an alternative world.
 - John Fowles

Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing.
 - Melinda Haynes

Writing wasn’t easy to start. After I finally did it, I realized it was the most direct contact possible with the part of myself I thought I had lost, and which I constantly find new things from. Writing also includes the possibility of living many lives as well as living in any time or world possible. I can satisfy my enthusiasm for research, but jump like a calf outside the strict boundaries of science. I can speak about things that are important to me and somebody listens. It’s wonderful!
 - Virpi Hämeen-Anttila

Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.
 - Barbara Kingsolver

Writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted.
 - Jules Renard

Reading usually precedes writing and the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer.
 - Susan Sontag

Write something to suit yourself and many people will like it; write something to suit everybody and scarcely anyone will care for it.
 - Jesse Stuart

I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.
 - Brenda Ueland

I can’t help but to write, I have a inner need for it. If I’m not in the middle of some literary project, I’m utterly lost, unhappy and distressed. As soon as I get started, I calm down.
 - Kaari Utrio

If you're a freelance writer and aren't used to being ignored, neglected, and generally given short shrift, you must not have been in the business very long.
 - Poppy Z. Brite

Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you – as if you haven't been told a million times already – that writing is harder.  Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching.
 - Harlan Ellison

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
 - Robert A. Heinlein

It's tougher than Himalayan yak jerky on January. But, as any creative person will tell you, there are days when there's absolutely nothing sweeter than creating something from nothing.
 - Richard Krzemien

Writing is not a genteel profession. It's quite nasty and tough and kind of dirty.
 - Rosemary Mahoney

People are certainly impressed by the aura of creative power, which a writer may wear, but can easily demolish it with a few well-chosen questions. Bob Shaw has observed that the deadliest questions usually come as a pair: "Have you published anything?" – loosely translated as: I've never heard of you – and "What name do you write under?" – loosely translatable as: I've definitely never heard of you.
 - Brian Stableford

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.
 - Red Smith

Writing is so difficult that I feel that writers, having had their hell on earth, will escape all punishment hereafter.
 - Jessamyn West

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.
 - Oscar Wilde

If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster.
 - Isaac Asimov

Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you're doomed.
 - Ray Bradbury

Life is what happens to a writer between drafts.
 - Damon (aka Dennis R. Miller)

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
 - E. L. Doctorow

You can't say, I won't write today because that excuse will extend into several days, then several months, then… you are not a writer anymore, just someone who dreams about being a writer.
 - Dorothy C. Fontana

The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything.
 - John Irving

Writing is a fairly lonely business unless you invite people in to watch you do it, which is often distracting and then have to ask them to leave.
 - Marc Lawrence

You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won't be able to take a break from being a writer.
 - Stephen Leigh

One hasn't become a writer until one has distilled writing into a habit, and that habit has been forced into an obsession. Writing has to be an obsession. It has to be something as organic, physiological and psychological as speaking or sleeping or eating.
 - Niyi Osundare

God sells us all things at the price of the labor.
 - Leonardo da Vinci