Bullets for Breakfast

I haven't tried a bullet point post in a while. Those are fun. They are bite-sized thoughts. Who doesn't love bite-sized goodies?

• When I was a kid I used to love to tell (anyone who would listen) what happened on a TV show. Usually, it was M*A*S*H, but not always.
• Now that I am older, and my mom lives with me, she loves to tell (anyone who will listen) that I would take an hour to rehash a half hour show.
• Apparently, this drove both my parents *crazy* when I did it... all of those years ago.
• Do you remember your parents saying things like, "I hope that when you have kids they are just like YOU!"
• Well, I didn't have any kids, but I have my mom who is *crazy* for this TV show Heartland. She is watching it from the beginning on the Up Network.
• Last Friday night we went out to dinner and she talked the entire meal detailing what happened on the last episode of Heartland. When the check came, I said, "You and dad wondered where I got that endearing trait of relaying TV shows... well, it was from YOU."
• I am here to tell you that karma always happens. It comes back to you. Sometimes from your kids. Sometimes your parents, but it comes back. And it is annoying. I can see why I drove my parents *crazy.*
• Battle of the Bands... I appreciate everyone who listened and voted in this most recent installment of Battle of the Bands. You rock!
• The song was Up The Ladder To The Roof. The combatants were The Supremes and The Nylons.
• For a LONG time, this battle was a tie. Back and forth it went. Man, that did my heart good. ::air kisses for you::
• And then The Supremes pulled ahead and The Nylons did not regain that ground. 
• The final vote: 15 to 10. The Supremes take it.
• Make it 15 to 11. I vote for The Nylons. I love that group. I found them in the 80s and wore out the tape on my cassette One Size Fits All. When I went to college, turns out I wasn't the only one who loved it. My freshman year, someone would put that tape in and we would sit around playing euchre (if you're from the north, you know what that is). Such fond memories go with The Nylons.
• I am so happy with those of you volunteered to read my novel. Seriously, you guys are awesome.
• Elsie sent me some comments about the first scene (or two) along with a note to cut the word "that" whenever possible. Yesterday, I ran the Find Function on the word "that." Holy cow. I kid you not, but that word "that" is Everywhere. I think it snuck into my writing and bred like rabbits. I deleted the unnecessary ones, but couldn't always delete the space it created. 
• Solutions sometimes create different problems.
• Last night I read a blog over at The Kill Zone by James Scott Bell. It was called Revisiting the Mirror in the Middle. Or something close to that. You can click the link to read it for yourself. Essentially, he said that if you go to the middle of any book, movie, etc. that in the middle is that mirror moment for the character.
• Of course, I immediately logged out of blogger and back into my novel. I needed to know what was in the middle of my book. 
• It was what I call the Revelation scene. Woah.
• And then I had a revelation of my own. Let me tell you about it...
• Back in 2006, I wrote the scene that was the inspiration and eventually Back Story for this novel.
• At first, I used it as The Prologue.
• Then I read how so many people didn't like Prologues and absorbed it into Chapter 1.
• I have moved it all over Chapter 1, still not that happy about where it is.
• Last night, I moved it to the Middle. It belongs in that Revelation moment. Of course it does.
• Ironically, James Scott Bell talks about starting in the middle and working forward and back.It turns out by putting this scene there... that is kinda sorta what I did. 
• I haven't read his book (yet) about writing this way, but I think he means that the inspiration for your story is very likely the moment, the crisis, the event that started the character on this path. That point in the middle is the place where the MC questions all of it. Maybe things are starting to make sense or maybe it is all crazier than ever... but it is that point where the MC pauses and says, "Holy crap. What am I doing? What have I done? Where am I going? Can I continue like this????"
• Naturally, this is going to force me to rework the middle scene, the revelation scene. 
• Solutions sometimes create different problems.

Have your kids or parents thrown any of your bad habits back at you? How did that feel? Did you vote in Battle of the Bands? Did the outcome surprise you? Have you noticed in your own writing, reading, watching of movies, that the main character has a mirror moment in the middle (sometimes with an actual mirror and sometimes not)? Have you ever written the middle first and worked forward and back? Have you read any of James Scott Bell's books on writing?