rolling thunder 2010

I first heard about the Rolling Thunder rally from my Dad, who took part in at least one run back in the day. And when I first decided to come out to DC for a semester, one of the arguments for the spring term was witnessing Rolling Thunder (I ended up opting for the fall...wanting to actually witness a fall and also DC at Christmas). It didn't matter so much since less than a year after my semester, I moved out here. And that first spring, I couldn't wait to see it.

But that was about four years ago. Since then, it was on my mind, but either rain threatened or I mixed up the days. This year, the weather promised sunshine and warmth, and I knew I had to take another trip down to the mall.

If you're not familiar with what Rolling Thunder is, it's a motorcycle rally/demonstration started in 1987 to bring attention to the POW/MIA issue. And if you've ever heard the sound of a Harley, let alone even a small group, you can easily imagine why it was so named (And let me tell you, there is nothing like hearing that thunder!). I haven't seen numbers for this year's run, but the Rolling Thunder website says that there were possibly 500,000 riders in 2005.

And if you can make it up to DC for the Memorial Day weekend, it is more than worth it. The demonstration for our veterans, POW/MIAs is very moving, and not only is it worth it to witness it, but it is more than worth it to add support and appreciation for those who fight for us.

To those who have served, those we encounter every day and those who have not made it home: Thank You.

the importance of the first line

I decided today that the break was over. After doing a slightly major overhaul of my rough draft (changing the ummm....point of view), I took a bit of a break to let the story marinate from this new viewpoint. And now it's time to go back to it.

So I sat down, opened up the latest draft that I had...and knew instantly that I needed to rewrite the first sentence.

The first sentence is what sets the tone of the book and draws you in. It has to be engaging, without fully revealing. It has to set the stage, without being a very simple descriptive but possibly throw-away line. The importance is shown just by how many first lines there are: Tolstoy (the happy and unhappy families), Dickens (best and worst of times), Austen (searching for a wife), Melville, Nabokov, and many, many more.

In order to get into the spirit, I went through several novels and read the first lines. Of course now I have hindsight, but I could instantly see where one novel was slightly more contemporary, others darker, some lighter with just the faintest tinge of humor, and others more melancholy. Each first sentence fit perfectly with the story I had read.

Many articles I've read always talk about the first five pages and how important those are. And yes, they are important, because it confirms that attention garnered from that first sentence will be held. How many times though have you gone to the store, found a slightly interesting book, opened it and read that first sentence, only to put it back on the shelf?

I've done it a few times. Not necessarily always because it didn't draw me in...sometimes it just didn't seem like the kind of book I was in the mood to read. There it is again. Mood. Tone. All of that for a whole 200ish page book set out in the first sentence.

Yeah. No pressure there.

So now that I've even increased my pressure after my brief 10-minute research around my apartment, I need to get back to my first sentence. Especially since happy and unhappy families has already been taken.

busy weekends

I've had two fairly full weekends the last two weeks. The first was unplanned, and the second was one I had been looking forward to for some time.

For those not in DC, there were several events around Earth Day, culminating in an Earth day rally down on the mall, which featured several speakers and bands. I hadn't planned to go because that whole weekend the forecast ominously predicted lots of rain with a sprinkling of thunderstorms. And while I love Sting, I wasn't looking forward to standing out in the rain.

But the rally's luck held and the rain held out. I headed down in mid to late afternoon when the sun was struggling to come out, but by the end of the rally, the sun had definitely lost and it grew very cold (and I'd left my light jacket at home since I hadn't needed it earlier!).

Then this past weekend I took part in the 48 hour film project again. If you're not familiar with, it's basically exactly what it says: make a film in 48 hours. And you're given a genre to work within, a character, a prop and a line of dialogue to incorporate into the script. This is the third time I've done this, working as a screenwriter in our group, and it just gets more fun.

The trains weren't working great over the weekend, which made the commute to the locations less fun. But that was a small complaint. On Saturday when I went to check out filming, I had only planned to stick around for maybe an hour or two. But...I ended up staying until filming wrapped. It's just such a fun and interesting process. There are a lot of people involved in making a movie, even a short one. And had the trains been running on schedule without track maintenance, I would have gone out on Sunday to watch some of the editing.

This week AFI will be screening the films, so wish us all luck! I can't wait to see the finished product.