People

Some people really frustrate me. Why would you deliberately try and worry someone who is supposed to be your friend. Why would you ignore someone one day because you have something better to do and then be all over them the next day. The truth is, people use each other. People are horrible sometimes. Some people are so obsessed with looking good and sucking up to other people in authority that they just don’t care who they hurt. They think only of themselves and if they see someone else doing well, they get bitchy. It’s childish. If people just grew up and acted like human beings and were kind and compassionate to others, the world would be a far better place!

Why does success seem to be a dirty word??

I was watching “The Simon Cowell Factor” last night, and apart from the extremely annoying voiceover (honestly, I wanted to rip her out of the tv and strangle her with her own hair!!), it got me to thinking.

The programme was very overly critical of Simon Cowell, portraying him as a fairly unpopular, uncaring, ruthless businessman who is only interested in money. The thing the people in the programme seemed to not understand was that Simon Cowell could stop work yesterday and still have enough money to live the rest of his life out in relative luxury. He doesn’t have to work. He doesn’t need the money. He chooses to work because he loves his job. Yes, he’s egocentric, vain and self centred and he is probably the first person to admit that, but the thing that hit me was how the British media critics slated him in the show.

We British, as a whole, seem to feel very bitter towards any person who is successful. Whether it’s down to jealousy or not, I don’t know, seeing as equally successful people  are also equally bitchy.

It made me wonder whether they would rather he was broke, unemployed and living off the state? It seems stupid to me that we are perfectly happy to use celebrity when we have the opportunity, For example- news critics get plenty of material from Simon’s reality tv shows, and yet then decide to slate both him and his shows. This makes me feel like we are a culture who is two faced and bitter and bitchy. Maybe we should grow up and accept that Simon Cowell, along with many other successful people, are better off than us. They worked hard for it, and deserve our respect.

It is about time that we, as a nation, stopped looking down on people who are successful, just because they have done what we have not and we are bitter about it.

The Weather

I was reading some rules about writing the other day, and one of them was that you should never begin a story with the weather. It got me thinking how stupid that rule is. I mean, let’s face it. The weather is central to our lives. It defines what we wear, what we do, where we go.

The weather is everything. Last week, there was bright sunshine, that led people to sunbathe outside in skimpy clothes, and to use electric fans in the house to cool down. The weather broke on Sunday, and when I looked around, it was amazing to see the difference between the scenery on a dark, dank, cloudy day, as opposed to on a bright, hot sunny day.

As a writer, you need to use any tools and methods at your disposal to create atmosphere and to set the scene. Obviously, I’m not saying ‘become a cliche’, but realistically, to say not to begin a story with the weather, when, (if you can find a different and inventive way to do so), it is such an invaluable tool, seems to me, to be pure idiocy.

Yes, you want to be individual, and original, but not to the detriment of your writing. At the end of the day, when you create characters, you make a commitment to them to do them justice. They have trusted you to tell your story, so, if using the weather at the beginning is something fitting for your story, hang convention! Do what is best for your story and your characters, and ignore your critics!!

The Elephant In The Room

Have you ever noticed how, the less you talk about something, the bigger it gets. And the bigger it gets, the less you want to talk about it, and then the process starts again until this thing is so huge that it is like an elephant. And then it’s like, “there’s this elephant, no one else seems to see it. Maybe I imagined it” and so you ignore it. And this elephant is mad and keeps trying to get your attention, but you refuse to let it, And then, you get to the point where you explode just because you refuse to notice it. Basically, the elephant you’ve been trying to ignore, squashes you. Tramples you. Crushes you.

I’ll leave you with that thought.