Continuing my recent trend of hopelessly outdated television and movie reviews, I've got a new one that's a good example of what not to write. I caught The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift this weekend and quite frankly I've been sorry ever since. I normally don't care much for movies about cars or racing, but this had Lucas Black in it who was so adorable in American Gothic and Sling Blade, two of my favorite shows of all time. Of course, he's all grown up now, looking very manly (which just seems wrong for me to notice), Alabama accent in full force. I didn't expect a riveting storyline, but I thought there would be a story of some kind. The whole movie was just a string of cliches stitched together from start to finish. No coherent plot, no real purpose or motivation for our angry hero (and I use that term loosely), just characters moving from scene to scene waiting for an excuse to race cars and sneer....a lot. I'm guessing the writer got mixed up when he thought about the GMC (Goal, Motivation, Conflict) and figured the four-wheeled variety would be more interesting than the real thing.

And after I got done completely shredding this movie in my head and mentally excusing Lucas Black since I still love him, I thought about my book and its GMC. I mean, it does have one right? Of course, I didn't know about such mysterious terms when I wrote the book and with it being my first completed novel it was bound to need work, but the essentials should be there. I love my hero and heroine. I love the side characters. I even love the deplorable villain. But wait! Do I love them because I already know them inside and out or do I love them because I actually managed to translate that knowledge to the page? Let me see: Goal, check. Motivation, check. Conflict, err.....um.....okay, not so much. I know my characters have inner conflict and my heroine definitely has huge stakes to lose. But my hero? Nope, nada, nothing. He's great. He's wonderful. He's the perfect man. He's boring as hell. Oh, dear God, what was I thinking? Curse you Fast and The Furious! I was determined to learn nothing from you.