Captain America

Despite having to be to work today, O and I decided to head off to a midnight showing of Captain America. I'm not a Marvel fangirl. My love of Marvel basically boils down to the X-Men and whoever gave me Chris Hemsworth's abs as Thor. I have no deep love of Cap. He's too much like Cyclops, IMO, a goody-two-shoes. I always preferred Wolverine, Gambit, etc.

Suffice it to say, I wasn't excited for the movie. But I was willingly to go along to see it. I'd gone to see Green Lantern and even enjoyed parts of it, for Pete's sake.

Overall thoughts: I enjoyed myself thoroughly. There are a few nitpicks I have that really bothered me, but there were things I really liked as well. It was funny. There was no lack of laughter in my packed theater.

I liked what they did with Peggy Carter. She was one of the better written women in a comic movie lately. Especially after watching the dishrag of a Carol Ferris in Green Lantern. Peggy was strong, motivated, and managed to be both of those things without being hard or losing her femininity. You can be a badass and girly. I like characters that manage to have both.

But I must say, I have one big nitpick with this movie. Maybe I'm the only person that it bothered, but it was hard to accept and pulled me somewhat out of the story. I can accept the lame science behind making a super soldier. Whatever. It's comic book cheese, I expect some of it. BUT! If you tell me a shield is going to protect someone from bullets and disintegrating rays because it's made of vibranium and absorbs all vibrations/shocks that hit it, how exactly are you going to expect me to believe it will hit something and bounce back to Cap? You do understand how things ricochet, right, Captain America writers?

Yes, comic book, I know. But for some reason, despite all the other things I could be nitpicking, that's the thing that left me grinding my teeth throughout the movie. Still, despite that, I had fun. Plus, it's almost worth the ticket price just for the bit after the credits. I can't wait.

Overall, I'd give Captain America a B+.

Tortoise vs the Hare

I had several false starts on my WIP. My current draft now stands at:

I've basically torn this thing apart so many times as I've gone, that I've removed nearly as many words from the file as I still have left in it. You'd think, that if I were a normal person, that would make me frustrated or sad. Lately it's been making me a little giddy. Yes, I know, well adjusted I am not.

But here's the thing. I recently had hit that part of the book where I hated it, couldn't stand it, was absolutely sure it was all crap. So far, for just about everything I've completed, that kicks in about a third of the way through and last until I hit the last third. I spend a third of the the thing I'm writing convinced I've spent countless hours typing useless drivel.

And I would have done so with this one too. Except! Except, I have all those wrong words to look back at. Which I did this weekend. And then I gave my current draft a once over. They may not all be the right words, but they're mostly in the right place. Which supplied me with a little pick me up that kept me from hating this book or thinking it's awful.

It may have taken me awhile, but this book is nearly halfway, and well on track to be done in late July or early August, in pretty decent shape. Don't get me wrong, I'll have my work cut out for me when I start revisions. Who doesn't? But I'm more confident about this book, than I have been anything else I've written, so far.

So here's crossing my fingers, plugging away--current goal is at least 1k/day--and hoping when I hand it over to some crit partners, they don't think it's a steaming pile.