Going Turbo!

That title?  It's my new favorite phrase thanks to the Disney movie Wreck It Ralph.  Have you seen it yet?

It's stupendous.  Mainly because of the storytelling.  I wasn't one of those blown away by the humor (which relied on puns that went over the kiddunk's heads), or by the political correctness (it's Disney, 'nuff said).  I was charmed by the "finishing line."  And the world building.

Okay, okay.  Yes, this is a book site.  Why am I talking about movies?  I'm getting there...

We know you all read (readers of the world, UNITE.  Bangarang!), and some of you write too.  But did you know that once you cross that line between writing angsty (yet strangely efficient) poetry to novel-length fiction that you will NEVER be able to watch a movie or read a book again without seeing the mechanics?

Yeah, NO ONE ever tells you that.  When you write stories, you can't go back to being fooled by the man behind the curtain.  You ARE THE MAN behind the curtain.  There's no being gullible.  You see the minions working all the strings, and then you imagine BIGGER minions with stronger strings.  You see it all.

But there's hope!  Yes, there's hope.  Every once in a while you read a book that makes you forget that there are strings.

Hello, sweet DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT

You see a movie, and you think it's going in one direction, and you say, "Okay, this is the 'all is lost' minion stringing me along...I see you, minion!  Let's just skip to the end because I'm bored now." And then something magical happens.  The story glitches.  (Glitching is good now, friends).  You forget your way.  You're at a traffic light and you have no idea how you got there.

You are quite happy to be an oversized, smelly oaf riding on the back of a frosting-coated race car on a sugar rope race track.  And you can smell the mentos.

You gotsta love a story that does that.  Ralph, you Wrecked It!!