Great Expectations

I've just finished watching episode one of the new BBC adaptation of Great Expectations.

It's faithful to the novel and wonderful. I've never really got on with reading Charles Dickens but one thing is for certain it works fantastically on the TV.  Casting is pitched perfectly, Gillian Anderson, I thought was still too young and glamorous for Miss Havisham but it works, she steals all her scenes.

I'm looking forward to watching more.

I had a busy Christmas day, my chap and I were cooking a Christmas day feast for eleven and so missed out on watching the Doctor Who Christmas Day special.  I watched it this afternoon and it reduced me to tears. Well done Steven Moffatt, that doesn't happen all that often.

Other things I'm looking forward to is the return of Sherlock, I shall be squeeing like the insane woman I am come New Years Day.

My Writing Course

Well the course is about half way through and I feel like I'm improving my written beyond measure, my confidence is improving and I'm enjoying spending time working on the various projects. Even if I am being sniffy about some of the exercises in this module, they all seem really dippy.  But I'm putting that aside because I'm sure its for a reason.

I'm starting to think about my 2nd Etma mainly because I'll be writing it after christmas and by thinking about it now I can have plans germinate and root for a few weeks before committing things to paper.  I am thinking about making my second piece a genre piece.  This won't be a surprise to my readers, its what I consume most of so it seems logical.  Thing is, because I'm a reader of genre and a watcher of genre it makes me rather scared to write genre and this is why. I've read Lord of The Rings several times and I've read all the Discworld novels and the idea of writing fantasy fiction frightens me to death because I don't think I could come up anything that wouldn't be a rehash of something that has gone before.  Likewise with urban fantasy its too easy to follow some old tropes because there are so many.  I'm arogant enough to want to be original, so what I've decided on in my earliest thoughts is to write an alternate dystopian present.  Not difficult in the current climate, I'm just going to make it worse. But even that isn't going to be original. 

However, it will be my take and that's where I feel I can write something that makes a connection or that makes the reader uneasy then that will work for me.

And to add to the irony  below are the lyrics from Move On from Sunday in the Park With George by Stephen Sondheim as these lyrics are totally applicable to my life.

Are you working on something new?

No

That is not like you, George

I've nothing to say

You have many things

Well, nothing that's not been said

Said by you, though. George

I do not know where to go

And nor did I

I want to make things that count,
Things that will be new...

I did what I had to do...

What am I to do?

Move on...

Stop worrying where you're going-
Move on
If you can know where you're going
You've gone
Just keep moving on

I chose, and my world was shaken-
So what?
The choice may have been mistaken,
The choosing was not
You have to move on

Look at what you want,
Not at where you are,
Not at what you'll be-
Look at all the things you've done for me

Opened up my eyes,
Taught me how to see,
Notice every tree-

Notice every tree...

Understand the light-

...Understand the light...

Concentrate on now-
I want to move on
I want to explore the light
I want to know how to get through,
Through to something new,
Something of my own-

Move on
Move on

Stop worrying it your vision
Is new
Let others make that decision-
They usually do
You keep moving on

Something in the light,
Something in the sky,
In the grass,
Up behind the trees...
Things I hadn't looked at
Till now
Flower in your hat.
And your smile
And the color of your hair.

Look at what you've done,
Then at what you want,
Not at where you are,
What you'll be
Look at all the things
You gave to me
Let me give to you
Something in return
I would be so pleased...

And the way you catch the light
And the care
And the feeling
And the life
Moving on

We've always belonged
Together!

We will always belong
Together!

Just keep moving on
Anything you do
Let it come from you
Then it will be new
Give us more to see...