How The Corporate Machine Screwed Up Jennifer's Body

I admit it, I'm not a huge fan of Diablo Cody's take on the American Teen.  I think she spends too much time trying to come up with hip slang and not enough time actually building the characters.  And yet, I still liked JUNO, The United States of Tara is still one of my favorite shows on TV, and I loved Jennifer's Body.

When I first saw the previews and read the hype, I thought, like most of America, that it was going to be just another vehicle for a young starlet (Megan Fox) to show off her breasts.  Just another Boy Meets Girl, Girl Eats Boy tale of woe.  With maybe some added spice from the aforementioned Diablo Cody.  Why did I think that?  Because that's how it was marketed.  The promoters for the movie were shameless about shoving Fox's chest in your face.  Turns out, she's not even the main character.

That's because the marketing department got it wrong.  Jennifer's Body, as it turns out, happens to be, in my opinion, one of the most pro-feminist movies of the decade.

If you haven't seen the movie, don't read any further.  You've been warned.

Here's the plot in a nutshell.  Jennifer and Needy are best friends.  Jennifer is the pretty one and Needy is the homely one.  But their friendship defies the odds.  Needy follows Jennifer around like a puppy (much to the dismay of Needy's boyfriend, Chip).  One night an indie band comes to their small town, and sets off a fire in the small club (which by the way was too reminiscent of the club fire set off by Great White in RI).  The band then lures Jennifer (believing she's a virgin) into their van and sacrifices her to Satan in exchange for greatness.  The problem is that Jennifer is NOT a virgin (or even a back door virgin as she puts it), thus she doesn't die, but becomes something sinister.

The rest of the movie pits Needy against Jennifer as Jennifer must feed to survive.  She feeds on horny high school boys because they're really the needy ones, aren't they?  Needy tries to stop Jennifer but when Jennifer doesn't feed on the hearts of HS boys, she becomes ugly (for her) and worn down.  She ends up feeding on Needy's boyfriend Chip and Needy is forced to kill her, but not before siphoning off just a little of Jennifer's demonic power.

So how is this movie pro-feminism?  Well the boys in this movie are all emasculated.  Needy's bf, Chip, is a subject to both Jennifer AND Needy.  The hottest action in the movie isn't between Needy and Chip, it's between Needy and Jennifer.  And not because lesbians are hot.  Simply because Chip can't satisfy Needy's needs the way Jennifer can.

Jennifer is the stereotypical bitchy HS girl who burns her way through all the boys without giving a single thought to their feelings.  Her transformation is a thinly veiled message that she's effectively devouring their hearts and destroying them in the bloodiest way possible (because boys are so fragile).  But her nemesis isn't a boy, it's Needy, who represents the other girls.  The girls who are nice and don't need to ruin every boy they come in contact with.  And in the end, Needy overcomes Jennifer.  It's the good girl that wins, but not before she takes just a little of Jennifer's power, thus showing that even the good girls need to be bad every once in a while.

This movie is a morality tale for girls BY girls.  It's a movie that says that men are weak and need to be protected from the heart devouring girls like Jennifer, and that the real heroes are the Plain Janes out there who stand against the evil demons.

And really, this movie should have been marketed as such.  It should have been marketed toward women who, I think, would have really liked the message.  They should have played up the friendship between Needy and Jennifer, and not Jennifer's chest.

I mean, all the men in the movie are soft voiced, boyish, or wear makeup.  This movie should NEVER have been marketed toward men.  That's not to say that there aren't things in the movie for men to enjoy, but this movie could have done a lot better than it did if it hadn't been ruined by the corporate marketing machine.

30 Weeks to Better Health

So for the month of November I participated in NaNoWrimo. I wrote about 73k words in under 30 days. It was a pretty mean feat and it showed me that I can do anything I put my mind to. I also helped cement my writing routine as a part of my life.

A couple of months ago I gave myself a goal to run a marathon. I failed miserably in my training. It was a combination of laziness and my famous tendency to overreach. But NaNo taught me me that I can do anything, right? So I'm going to make being healthy a part of my routine too. I'm going to train to run a marathon in 30 weeks. I've got a 30 week training plan, a diet plan that isn't a diet, and a burning desire to get back into shape.

You know, as writers, we owe it to ourselves to keep ourselves healthy. I spend most of my life sitting on my butt. My day job is in front of a computer, my writing life keeps me sitting, and I read as much as I can, which is primarily a sitting activity.

I'm not really sure if there's going to be a real marathon at the end of this 30 weeks. There are a couple that fall on the right date but getting to Hawaii might be difficult.

So that's all there is. My inspiration has been Shannon over at daily pie. Not only is she a fellow Crow, but she's got a kickin' blog and recently finished her first half marathon.

Oh, and if anyone has any god running songs, I'm totally looking for some!

Oh, I also got tickets to see Amanda Palmer in Orlando on the 13th of December.  I'm fairly excited about it.

Blog Chain: What Was I Supposed to be Doing Again?

Back on the blog chain, and this week's topic was brought to you by Mandy, who asked:

How do you prioritize? How do you balance paying attention to your writing, critiquing for friends, spending time with your family and earning a living?


The truth of me is that I'm lazy.  I see little point in doing today that which can be done tomorrow.  It's a sad truth.  I purposely choose to live in places where I don't have to do yard work because I detest yard work.  So I use a system of bribes.  


I do my day job because it pays the bills.  I complain about it frequently.  It's boring, it's annoying, the people I work with are typical office cattle who riot if someone forgets to refill the paper towel dispenser.  But the truth is that it's easy.  I get paid decently.  As the economic downturn ravaged most Americans, I was secure.  So at the end of the day, I do it because it pays for the house in which I write, the computer on which I write, and for the travels which inspire my writing.


My writing is easy to prioritize.  I used to fall into the trap of only writing when I "felt" the words.  But now I set specific times of the day and make them sacred.  Should I choose to write outside of those times, that's awesome, but like my job, those sacred times are must-write times.  If I'm not in the mood to write, then I sit there and stare at a blank screen.  Usually I get bored and start writing.  Sometimes I doodle.  Sometimes I think up more stories.  But the point is that it's become a habit.  A good habit.  And I scheduled the times early so that I can still have plenty of time for other things.


My family and friends get my time too.  I fail them as frequently not, but I try.  By my nature, I'm not a social person, but I care deeply about my family and friends and know that they can't be taken for granted.  


Everything else gets swept to the side.  If I'm on a roll with a story and don't feel like cleaning, then I do it next week.  If I'm exhausted and don't feel like cooking, I order in.  Life is short and while I know that there are times I'm going to have to do things I don't want to do, I have a hard time understanding people who spend all their time doing things they don't like.  I freely admit that I watch too much TV and that this last year has seen me get fat and fail to participate in a marathon that I wanted to do, which is why I'm reorganizing my priorities.    I'm making my exercise a new habit.  Something that goes along with writing and working and family.  


Reading and critting and such are things I love doing.  I love them so much.  And they're essential to my growth as a writer.  Seeing the amazing talent out there helps me become better.  But those things often get sidelined.  I used to polish off a book in a few hours with no problem.  Now I'm lucky if I can read two chapters before bed.  


As you can tell by my posts, I'm frequently disorganized, but I find that if I tell myself what the most important things in my life are, and make sure that I do those things, it doesn't matter if the other stuff gets done.  It's not like that dust bunny under my bed won't still be there next week.  Right?


So go on and check out what the always awesome Michelle had to say about this, and what the kick-butt-and-take-no-prisoners Cole will have to say after Thanksgiving.


Have a happy Thanksgiving all!

Today I'm Thankful for This

How Many Roadtrips Must a Man Take Before You Can Call Him a Man?

Hey there :)  Thanks to everyone who commented on NaNo (or anything else).  It was a really fun thing to do and it was fun doing it with you all.

If you get a chance, and you feel like it, head on over to shaundavidhutchinson.com for the redesign.  It's not completely final yet, I'm still doing some work on the text in the banner, but for the most part, it's done. Once I figure out how to incorporate it into my Blogger theme, this blog will match it.  And as information comes up, I'll be updating the content with news and contests and stuff.  If there's anything you want to see, I'm all ears.

So I took this weekend off from writing to give myself a chance to recharge.  Yesterday I got some snacks and watched movies all day.  I watched 9 (eh), My Sister's Keeper (totally made me bawl), Julie & Julia (I heart Amy Adams), and Moon (intriguing except that I figured the "twist" out after the first ten minutes).  I also did a lot of reading and thinking about what comes next.  All in all, it was a nice way to get my energy back.

I've been thinking about roadtrips a lot lately. Roadtrips are something that every one must do, they're a rite of passage.  I took a lot of them in my youth.  For one my friends and I drove to a haunted B&B and then to Savannah, GA.  On another I drove straight for 20 hours to Rhode Island.  Another I drove 9 hours to Atlanta, saw Less Than Jake and Blink 182 and then drove right back home (cutting over an hour off my drive) to be with a friend who was going into the hospital.  But my favorite was with my best friend.  We were bored one day and decided to drive to Orlando, just 3 hours away.

Back then she and I both had dreams of being in theatre.  I'd auditioned at NYU and we'd performed at the local theatre.  So we got to talking about moving to Orlando and doing plays there (because when you live in South Florida, Orlando is the closest thing to a city that you can get...Miami doesn't count because the point was to get OUT of Florida, not go further into it).  Anyway, we decided that what we really needed were telephone books.  The fact that we needed phone books totally dates me.

There were so many parts of that trip that were fun.  But the best part was when we got to the telephone company.  I pulled up, leaving the car running, and we both jumped out and grabbed as many phone books as we could, dumping them into my back seat and taking off.  We laughed about it the whole way home, knowing inside that those phone books were there for people to take.  It was just the funniest thing to be driving home with a backseat filled with phone books.

Those are the stories that you tell later and realize how lame it was, but it didn't matter because back then, it was the most fun I'd ever had.

NaNoWriMo - Wrap Up

Okay, I know that NaNo is still going on.  A lot of people are still working hard, and I can't wait to see what comes out of it all.

For me, it was a great way to reinvigorate my creative self. Part of writing is a business and a lot of the last year has been about that for me.  Worrying about a lot of different elements that I didn't have to worry about before selling The Deathday Letter.  So it was nice to write a book that was just for me.  Sure, I think it's something special, so I hope to polish it up and see what might come of it, but as I was writing it, those worries were not in my head.  I didn't think about anything but really being imaginative and writing the best story I could.

So all in all, I feel good.  I was able to club my doubts to death.  Finishing a book makes you feel like you can do anything.

Would I choose to do this again?  I don't know.  While I learned a lot of great ways to increase my productivity (the best being never to stop writing at the end of a chapter), I'm going to end up spending three times as long revising due to the fact that when I ran into a problem, I just powered through the scene anyway instead of taking the time to figure it out.

Oh, who am I kidding?  It was great fun.  I'd totally do it again.  In fact, I'm already thinking about what I'm going to write for next year.

Back to my irregular posting schedule!

NanoWriMo - Day 18

Words Written Today:  3080

And done.  The final first draft word count was 72768.  It came in a bit shorter than I expected, which is fine because I got in everything I wanted to.  When I got to the end, I felt like I was stalling a little bit, dragging out the closing up.  As a result, the last chapter is shorter than the others and will probably be fleshed out more in revisions.  At the end of the day, the story is done.  Complete.  And it feels really awesome.

And tiring.  I don't ever want to write a full first draft in 18 days again.  I think that there are positives and negatives to doing it this quickly.  On the one hand, keeping the momentum going really helped me keep focus on the story.  On the downside, I think that trying to work so hard led to a lot of rubbish writing that I'm going to have to work on in revision.  I think averaging about 2k per day with days off during the week is the best pace for me.

What do I do with the next 12 days?  Not sure yet, but I'll be writing a real NaNo wrap up later.  Like, what do I do with this book now that it's written?  Hint:  hide it for a few weeks and then revise it like crazy.

NanoWriMo - Day 17

Words Written Today:  3841

Not a bad day's work.  Only about a chapter and a half to go.  Maybe two and a half chapters depending on how this next scene goes.  It's cool getting to the end and sifting through all those little threads and subplots that I left dangling and seeing what worked and what didn't.  It's making me very excited to go back and revise.

I'm going to get pretty close to my 80k goal.  The book will probably come closer to about 77k, but I have a feeling that the revised and finished product will be between 65k and 70k.  That's what's great about a first draft, you just throw the kitchen sink at it and cut out what you don't need.

Until tomorrow!

NaNoWriMo - Day 16

Words written today:  0

I know, I'm a slacker.  I had good intentions that were derailed by a work emergency and a sinus headache.  Then I had to go out to dinner with my Mom because I won't get to see her for any of the holidays.  We began at a cool Tuscan restaurant where I had this awesome chicken and sweet potato risotto, and then we wound up at another restaurant for this deconstructed key lime pie.

Plus, I also admit to procrastinating.  I only have 3 chapters to go.  Sure, I've only been writing this story for 2 weeks, but I've been thinking about it and outlining it and wanting to do it for almost a year, so I'm experiencing a little sadness about actually finishing it.

14 days until the end of NaNo!

NanoWriMo - Day 15

Words written today:  4921

Today I learned a very valuable lesson.  Well, it's not so much that I learned a lesson as I thanked my lucky stars that I'd learned it previously.  Today I woke up motivated and happy.  Ready to write my way to the end.  I'm three chapters away.  I've, for the most part, figured out how to get to the end.  I've known the end since the beginning, but getting there has been a challenge.  Well, I woke up this morning, made my coffee, got my computer, and got settled on the patio.  The weather's been awesome the last couple of days, so I've really enjoyed being outside.  I turned on the computer only to find that everything was gone.

Every writer's nightmare.  Hard drive failure.  Well, okay, mine wasn't hard drive failure.  I don't know exactly what had happened, but all my writing was gone.

I'd lost a bunch of stuff once before, and that's when I invested in a cloud computing account with Apple.  All I had to do was resync my computer and all my stuff was back.  Sure, it took over an hour and really killed my momentum this morning, but having everything in the cloud means that all my computers could suffer catastrophic failure, and all my hard work would be fine.

So that's the lesson.  Back up your stuff.  It doesn't have to be on a cloud, but it has to be often and it has to be something you never forget.

Hey, halfway to thirty!  Hope everyone's doing well :)

NanoWriMo - Day 14

Words Written Today:  7677

Sorry for the non-post yesterday.  I took the day off yesterday.  Today was a bit of a downer writing day.  Not that it was bad, I got a lot done, but it was also the reveal, so I felt like a lot of today was full of talking heads.  The worst thing is a chapter full of exposition and that's essentially what I wrote.  I know that I'll fix it in revision, but it was tough slogging through it.  Then I finished another chapter that I'm not sure fits the tone of the rest of the book.  But by the time I finished, I started a chapter that was a return to the tone of the rest.

But I'm starting to wind down.  I think I have about 10-15k words left of the story.  It's the big showdown, and I'm excited.

NanoWriMo - Day 12

Words written today:  6416

Lots of great things happened in the story today.  No matter what happens with this story, my first attempt at a younger skewing story (it's been strange writing without any profanity or penis jokes), I'm having an absolute blast writing it.  I guess that's really what NaNo is about, isn't it?

Of course, it'd be cool to sell, too, but you can't take anything for granted.

NanoWriMo - Day 11

Words Written Today:  3630

Today was a little slower than normal.  Not only did I have a lot going on (namely my parents deciding to pop into town for a surprise visit!) but I was just having a slow day that involved a lot more staring at the screen with my fingers poised over the keys, not quite sure what to write.  It's a combination of just being a bit tired and also hitting a lull in the story.  I just passed the midpoint of the story and, while I know where I'm going after the midpoint, I'm not entirely certain how to get there.  There's two big "reveals" in UNDO BUTTON.  One comes at the midpoint.  The other comes shortly after that.  Then the climax and resolution.  It's getting from that first reveal to the second that I'm having trouble with.

But what I learned today was to just keep writing.  I'd actually thought about using Justine Larbalestier's NaNo tip about skipping those bits and putting them in square brackets, but I want the words.  So I decided to press on and do the best I can.  And you know what?  I'm really happy with the direction I went.  I used a loose subplot and tied it to the main plot.  Sure, I'll probably end up cutting a lot of what I did today because a lot of it looked like, "And then I did this and then I did that, and then I said this," because that's how I was able to get from one point to the next, but I got there, and that's all that matters.

How's everyone else doing out there in NaNo land?

NanoWriMo - Day 10

Words Written Today: 5730

I've crossed the threshold. I'm past the halfway point and it feels good. Surprises keep popping up everywhere and at the same time everything is falling into place.

Right now I'm in love with the new V. Not only do I love all the writers, but a lot of the actors are favorites of mine. I love that Rekah Sharma might be a V when she was one of the final five Cylons on Battlestar Galactica. Anyway, people have been complaining that the show gave away the secret about the Visitors too early, but I love where they're going with this. They got out of the way that they're lizards, but the story they're playing, isn't the one of benevolent dictators that turn evil (with Nazi symbolism), no, the conceit here is that the V's have been here for many years and are infiltrating us from the inside. It sets up a great drama that I believe will open up worlds of great stories.

NaNoWriMo - Day 9

Words Written Yesterday - 0

Yesterday I got sidelined by a headache. I get headaches pretty frequently so it takes a bad one to do me in, but last night after work was spent on my couch trying to keep the dog from eating my fingers. I'm convinced that if I died in my house, Maxx would have no problem eating me to stay alive.

The only good thing about debilitating headaches is that I usually wake up the next day feeling spectacular. Today before work I managed to really nail a scene that I've had in mind since this story was just a crazy idea I jotted down in my notebook. Plus I'm not past the half-way mark and on my way to 80k words. I've still got some more words left in me to write later tonight, so I'll update today's post later.

Hope you all are doing well!

NanoWriMo - Day 8

Words Written Today: 6318

I'm nearing the halfway point in my word count goal of 80k and in the actual narrative. All of the disparate parts are about to come together and meet. Which is when the story takes a major left turn.

What did I learn today? That in order to make a compelling story, the stakes must be huge. They don't necessarily need to be worldwide huge but they have to be huge for the character. Your character has to feel like it's his/her whole world. If your character feels it, the reader will.

Now I must do laundry. Yay, fun!

NaNoWriMo - Day 7

Words written today: 7813

Today rocked. It was a beautiful day that I mostly spent outside working on the story. I've come to really love the character of Jonah Button. And his friends. And his parents who I originally thought would have very little to do in the story. I love this part, where the characters are becoming so fully formed that they're the ones speaking and I'm just the guy writing down what they're doing. Subplots are unfolding and weaving through the story.

Sometimes it feels a bit like magic. Like my computer screen is a crystal ball and I'm just chilling out and watching the story take shape. Days like this make me eager for tomorrow.

NanoWriMo - Day 6

Words Written Today: 945

So I only wrote during lunch today and I'm good with that. Tonight I'm taking some time to myself to hang out with friends and relax. Because if all you do is write, your writing will start to suck.

But tomorrow...well tomorrow is another story.

Write on.

Blog Chain: Queen's Gambit

It's time for another blog chain!

The fantastic Christine has chosen this round's topic, and it's one that's been on my brain the past few days.

How do you create a wonderfully dramatic story? Are there any questions you ask yourself, or specific things you keep in mind to ensure that you have the level of tension necessary to propel the story forward?

Answering this is harder than I'd expected. It's something that I'm dealing with right now as I work my way through my NaNo book. It's a middle grade novel so it won't suffer lulls in action as well as an older YA might. There's not a lot of room for characters to sit around and talk. Things have to move.

Basically, the way that I've been going about it is to take everything the character wants, dangle it in front of him, and then give him the exact opposite. Or better, yet, give him exactly what he wants but show him that it's not what he really wanted. Like my NaNo character, Button. He wants to be popular. Well one day he wakes up and he is. First everyone wants to be his friend, then they want to be just like him, then they begin to dress just like him, and it gets to the point where he has what he thought he wanted but it sucks.

I'm reminded of this game my brothers and I used to play called Monkey in the Middle. Two of my brothers would toss a ball back and forth while I stood in the middle trying to grab it. I think that's sort of how I'm writing. I keep taunting my MC with what he wants, even letting him get so close he can smell it, only to grab it back at the last second. I think it works because when he finally achieves his goal, it'll be satisfying.

Yeah. Sorry if that wasn't terribly coherent. My brain is a bit mushy this week :)

So head on over to Cole's wonderful blog to see how she tackled this, and don't forget to check out the awesome Michelle, who posted before me.

NanoWriMo - Day 5

Word Written Today: 4782

I forget where I read it, but as I was preparing for NaNo, I read a tip that said never to stop writing for the day at the end of a chapter. To always end in the middle. I thought it was silly until I tried it. What a great tip. Not only does it make me want to write more, but I easily start a new writing session by diving in where I left off. I don't have to think about how to begin the next chapter. And then by the time I actually get to that next chapter, I'm already on a roll and the beginning just comes out.

I'm at the really fun part. The subplots are all starting to come out. I've had the main story for some time now, but I hadn't even thought of sub plots, well now they're just coming out of the woodworks, begging to be written. It's fun and neat. Maybe I won't use most of them, but they're there if I need them.

I've been getting to talk to a lot of great writers and this event has really got me fired up. Five days down, 25 to go!

Write on.

NaNoWriMo - Day 4

Words Written Today: 5479

Today I learned that I blow at outlining. I spent the weeks leading up to this outlining, and now four days and 17k words into this novel, my outline is in shambles. In a good way, though. I don't know that I'm ever going to be a good outliner. I guess that's okay.

I know these posts are short and probably not too meaningful, but after spending most of my free time writing, I find that coming up with something to blog about is tough.

How about a music check? Today the songs that inspired me most were:

Queen - Somebody to Love

Sia - Breathe Me

Amanda Palmer - Astronaut

Until tomorrow!

NanoWriMo - Day 3

Words for Today: 4762

UNDO Button is humming along. It may seem like I'm writing a lot, and I am, but it's only because I'm throwing everything and the kitchen sink at it. Sure, I see adventures for Jonah Button beyond this initial one, but the truth of the matter is that it may never see the light of day.

I'm not saving anything for the sequel. Every idea, every impulse that I've had that I think might go into this story is going into it. I can pare it down later. This initial draft is for experimenting.

It's a fun ride so far. I'm glad to be doing this. How is everyone else doing?

NaNoWriMo - Day 2

Words Written today: 3413

Being a Monday, and a brutal one at that, I'm beat. However I did learn two very important writing lessons today:

1. If action scenes are not your strong point (like me) then a bladder full of tea can be a great incentive to move that scene along. I was practically dancing in my chair, but after I'd finished and gone potty, I reread the scene and thought, "Whoa, that scene needs a lot of work, but boy does it have legs."

2. Even though Books-a-Million's coffee tastes like heated foot fungus, the chairs at Starbucks are torturous (like being waterboarded) and a comfortable chair is worth its weight in dark roasted Ethiopian coffee beans.

Write on.

NaNoWriMo - Day 1

Word Count: 3941

Today was a great start. I began with an image and took off from there. I've already begun to veer from the vision I had for chapter 1 in my outline, but that's okay. It's not a big veer, just a little one. I thought I would be going on this non-stop writing fest, but I woke up late after staying up way late tinkering with my netbook, then after about an hour of working, I got hungry so I called a friend and went out for brunch. By the way people, just because YOU like the smell of your perfume, doesn't mean that the person sitting right behind you in a restaurant won't get sick at its overpowering stench. Seriously. I'm just saying.

After that I wrote at home some more, then I went to Books-A-Million and wrote a little more. Met another friend for coffee. Now I'm going to clean and catch up on some reading.

I think I've had too much coffee today because my internal monologue sounds like Mel Brooks. Tomorrow the real challenge begins. It's easy to blow out 4k words on a Sunday when you've been given the gift of an extra hour. Not so easy when you've got errands to run and work to go to.

The first day is the easiest. It's all uphill on rollerskates from here. Have a fun night!