Research

Research

Sometimes watching TV is enough to enrich your story or your prowess as a writer. If you write with some amount of multi-cultural character or story than I recommend CNN’s series on sex and love around the world.

Christiane Amanpour hosts. I was amazed by Japan’s attitudes toward love and sex. Of course, the Japanese society is not monolithic, especially not today. Their ideas about sex were a surprise to me. I can say that nearly all human beings need companionship, especially to love and be loved and to a slightly lesser degree, sex.

I'm Sorry

It seems like a great day to show a young Brenda Lee belt out I'm Sorry.

I'm Sorry, 1960, Brenda Lee

Naunce as an artform

Nuanced primary and secondary characters

My wife and I often watch the Hallmark Movie premier on Saturday nights. The  latest premier was Once Upon a Prince. I said to her, “This is going to be a fairy tale.” In the past, fairy tales were more cartoonish than real. With recent improvements, writers of this type of story or romance have learned a great deal from the latest big screen Cinderella and others to a lesser extent. Cinderella was not a cartoon, and neither were the hero and heroine. Once Upon a Prince took character development a couple steps further.

They portrayed the heroine as a brilliant and lovely gal next door who was not impressed by royalty, much. She had her own life to lead and wanted to accomplish great things.

The heroine’s sister, had an effervescent personality. She thought this whole prince, castle, ball thing was the greatest since having a big sister to adore. She convinced the heroine to go to the Cambria castle when the heroine was offered a job as a landscape architect. She also convinced her sister that she needed her as a chaperone. On and on went the rather charming, convincing. The dress the heroine wore to the ball would knock any male over. Well she, no matter the outfit, was very easy on the eyes.

The prince’s childhood friend and expected marriage partner treated the heroine with respect although a bit competitive.

The Queen wanted life to stay the same. For him to marry his childhood friend. But both women really wanted the prince to be happy.

The prince wanted to be his own man as best he could. He wanted real love, not something of convenience. Why he fell in love with the heroine was shown, not told, over and over through his arc.

Yes, I highly recommend this one, not just because writers appreciate these nuanced characters (and there were more of them I didn’t mention) but because a general audience would also love this story.

BTW: For those who don’t know and love these Hallmarks, Lifetime puts out similar product. They are less conservative in their approach. There are more heroes and/or heroines of color and more risks with the story line. Check them out.

Resurrect your writing

Resurrect your writing or don’t Passover the opportunity.

New Year’s is a lousy time to make resolutions. For one thing, you might be drunk. A new year is daunting as you review all that you must be and do.

Take a beautiful and focused time to make a writing resolution. Is your career stymied by the glut of product on Amazon? Do you want to stand out? Take stock of your reasons for writing, because it ain’t easy, baby. Listen, I assume we all love writing even if we don’t make much money at it. So why kid yourself with a boycott or writing words on a page? Why call it writer’s block when it isn’t? Just change one thing. Take a new approach, perhaps a genre. Maybe rewrite and rerelease an old published story that has languished, but you feel needs a second chance.

I’ve noticed that a new release always creates buzz. Give that story you love a makeover and republish it. It works for that girl in a Hallmark movie.