Pat Buchanan had a very interesting criticism of the Bush administration regarding this whole Uranium flap. His criticism is that how is it that an Egyptian career diplomat, 3 months after Bush's state of the Union speech, could look a the Niger document and conclude that it was forged, on the other hand, the $35 billion CIA could not?

I'm reading a science fiction novel right now and to be honest, it reads like a bad movie script. I think one mistake many emerging writers make is that they focus on a "movie" type story in their heads and then put that "mental movie" down on paper which makes for poor story telling. Movies can fly through events at almost break neck speed, but written stories can't. Even then, the great movies, the classic, both old and recent, distinguish themselves by their deliberate story telling, letting the scenes and the actors develop and draw you into the story. For instance, I watched parts of The Graduate with Dustin Hoffman last weekend. And I immediately noticed how deliberate the movie was. A scene in which he had to enter a hotel was almost 60 seconds long because they he had to "compete" or jostle with others to get in. That kind of filming is interesting because it gives time for a story to be told. My all time favorite movie, Ben "we keep you alive to serve this ship" Hur is similar, they aren't rushed but let the actors draw you into the story.

In my opinion this idea is what separates the top tier writers from the emerging ones. The one good thing is that it has made me paranoid about my writing. I now scour my manuscipts looking for and exterminating cheesy lines and silly ideas. I really do think one should write as though one intends to win a distinguishing award for their book.