Man of Steel: stealing moments.

Went to see Man of Steel yesterday.

I thought it was very effective in the human moments -- Costner and especially Diane Lane managed to bring some feeling to the whole enterprise. 

Unfortunately, these were presented as little two minutes flashback snippets between twenty minutes of mayhem.  I kept waiting for the relatable moments amongst all the crashing about.

So I had the same response I've had lately to all these movies -- cut back the special effects by a third and invest more time in the humans.  Save the money for another movie. 

*****

Got back to the house and could not get into writing my book.  It took another three hours before I finally got going.  Writing for me requires that I write, not go off and do other stuff.

I immediately ran off the rails of my new plotting.  Wrote a relationship chapter instead of the procedural chapter I intended.

Then, later in the evening, a flashback chapter came to me.  I'd been wondering why I didn't have any flashback chapters -- there were several in the first book.  Well, one came, and I inserted it as Chapter 5.  A single flashback chapter is an odd duck, so I'm thinking I'll write a couple more. 

I really like writing these -- and they've become my go-to move in order to replace, fix, or change directions.  They're a change of pace and fun.  They can help develop the themes of the book, add action where it needs to be added, explain things where they need to be explained.

Anyway, I plan to dive back into the book over the next few days.  I'm going to try to get back on the rails of my plotting today.  Write that procedural chapter I had in mind.