Molly O'Keefe's Blog, page 53

Fringe and how to build a believable heroine

I watched the first season of Fringe when it hit TV, got frustrated half way through and stopped, but since then, Maureen and Entertainment Weekly have convinced me to give it another shot.



What frustrated me about season 1 was that I didn't buy the heroine. I didn't believe her when she fired her gun, didn't believe her when she stripped to her underwear to climb into a sensory deprivation tank for the benefit of science, (and not for the hordes of teenage boys they were trying to attract to the show,) and didn't buy that this woman would be a successful FBI agent.



But when I picked up season 2 and started watching it, that all changed. I totally buy into the main heroine. First the show has stopped trying to create a sex symbol and instead they created a character. And this FBI agent wears flat, black shoes, loose black suits and a button up shirt that is untucked and not skin tight. She ties her hair into a ponytail when she works, she gets injured and takes several episodes to heal and when she fires her gun, I believe it now. I believe that woman, the one who dresses seriously, seems to wear no makeup and when she wakes in the morning, her hair is messy and even frizzy.



As the new TV season starts, and we get into a host of female dominated shows, where women will run wearing six inch stilletos, fight hand to hand wearing tight jeans and work a twelve hour day without a hint of a mascara smudge, I love that Fringe has committed to creating a realistic, intelligent female character while no longer caring what the teenage boy wants.



Because let's face it, he'll be watching the new Charlie's Angels tv show, and I'll still be watching fringe.

An Earthquake in New Jersey... Seriously?

I don't know if you all watch the news, but the east coast… that's right Eileen the "east coast" - suffered a 5.9 earthquake yesterday.



I was heading back to my office after lunch wondering if the window washers were at it again when I saw the windows shake slightly. It took about five seconds to register what was happening. (I experienced an earthquake once when living in Seattle many many years ago so eventually I got a clue.)



I urged everyone under the doorways. I think I saw that in a movie or television show once – so it's good that I was using TV as some kind of survival guide.

Then I rode it out for a couple of more seconds with my co-workers. I might have giggled nervously. I might have.



When something like this happens you naturally take stock. What might have been if…? What was the worst that could have happened? More importantly… how did you react?



I'm a big believer in people finding out the most about themselves in crisis. As writers - isn't that what we are always doing with our characters? Natural disaster is one of those 'BIG' moments. What are your instincts? How does the adrenaline rush feel? What do you really want to do when crash hits? Have sex (like in so many romance novels) or lie down and take a Tylenol?



This was a minor event. A small tremor where for maybe 10 seconds total the earth shook and it freaked me the hell out. I didn't cry. My first instinct was to tell people what to do (not shocking) and I tried to laugh as if it was okay but really I was wondering like everyone else if the building was suddenly going to collapse.



I want to point out… bring me a hurricane any day of the week. This we understand in New Jersey. Earthquake, mudslides, fires and tornados… not so much.



This will be good for my writing. We take so much of what we extrapolate from real life "as seen on the news" into how we think our characters will behave in certain situations. This is a good reminder the real thing – no matter how scary – is good research.



What about you? Did any of you shake a little?

Fright Night—Three Thumbs Up

So, I've never really been one to like horror films—and it's not only because I'm not a fan of being scared (although I am a bit of a 'fraidy cat)—it's more about the fact that they mostly seem dumb to me. Gore for gore's sake, weak plots, stupid characters (if one can even call them characters), and teenaged girls running around in their underwear (or less) and screaming.

But I was lured into the lair of Fright Night by two factors, or should I say two cute boys—Colin Farrell and Anton Yelchin.



I've admired Yelchin as a young actor since the fabulous but underrated TV show Huff and I figured if he was in this, chances were it wasn't that dumb. And Farrell? Well, even if the movie was dumb, watching him for 90 minutes would be a redeeming quality. ☺



So, I suppose I went in with relatively low but hopeful expectations, and boy was I pleasantly surprised. Because Molly loves lists, here are the top 10 reasons I liked it.




The vampires are scary monsters. Seriously scary monsters. No sparkling. 
The plot holds together and—there actually is a plot. Sure, the main plot is pretty much: kill the evil vampire and live, but it was a really well structured story. 
There were real characters. Well developed characters. Even characters who could have been throw-away stereotypes had some interesting quirks and inconsistencies that made them three dimensional. 
The supernatural world holds together. Sure, to pull off a teenaged boy defeats an ancient evil vampire story the writer needs to put some tools and knowledge in the kid's path to help, but the way those elements were introduced—it made sense and all hung together. 
The girls weren't stupid. The main character's girlfriend was not only not stupid, she was brave and fought too. She wasn't just a pretty victim for the hero to save. And we believed why she was with the main character beyond: the geeky guy in a horror movie needs a hot girl to save for no apparent reason reason. Even the neighbour who was basically a walk-on female character, who had maybe two lines, wasn't a total dumb blonde stereotype. 
There were lots of places that made me jump – but there were also lots of seriously funny parts. And not just making fun of the movie, funny. Actually funny. Smart funny. 
Minimal TSTL moments. Yes, twice early on in the film characters run up stairs in a house when clearly they should be running out the back door... and I did roll my eyes at the time. But it turned out they actually had reasons to go upstairs, even if they weren't instantly apparent as they started up the stairs. 

Toni Collete is always awesome. (And did I mention Colin Farrell?)
A small suburb outside of Las Vegas made a smart setting for a vampire movie—lots of people work at night and sleep during the day, so even blacked out windows aren't that odd. 
It was just plain good fun and how can you not like a teen horror movie where there's actually character development? 



Phew, I made it to ten. ☺



Basically, throughout the entire movie all I could think of was how well it was done. Then the credits rolled. Written by Marti Noxon. I know that name. She used to write for Buffy. And then it all made sense.



Smart writer = smart screenplay = smart horror movie.



Yes, there was lots of blood and gore (and I saw it in 3D) but I really liked the way it all hung together.

Has anyone else seen it?

Justified! No need for spoiler alerts!

Finally! I have science on my side! I have long been one of those people who must read the end of a book before I get there. It's too stressful to me to not know and I like seeing the way an author twists and turns things. Now, according to a study by UC San Diego, I was right all along.



Yep. Spoilers enhance our enjoyment of stories. In fact, spoilers may help us reach a deeper understanding of the story.



So . . . all you people who have looked at me with horror on their faces, all you people who have said that it's "cheating" to read the end of the story, to you I say HA! It's not just that I'm neurotic. It's science.



So are you an end reader? Or no?

Hair and bachelor Pad

Because at this point in my life, I have absolutely nothing to offer on craft, and there seems to be a drastic absence of anything good on TV and me getting out to see a movie seems like a laughable concept, I have only Bachelor Pad to talk about.



Which is a tremendously sad statement on my life, and the glee with which I approach this show is bordering on pitiful.



That said, this week was the same soul sucking absence of anything worthwhile about the human condition, it did show some really interesting hair. Not just hair, but some pretty obvious extensions, so basically fake hair. Obviously there are no hairdressers in the pad, and the camera men are trying gamely not to show them completely from behind, unless they are in bikinis, and so the detail I noticed this week are that hair extensions are pretty obvious if your hair is stick straight.



And continually dying hair bright blond is pretty bad for hair as well, so in the bad lighting split ends and frizzies were everywhere.



So what does this have to do with writing. Well, truthfully almost nothing. Except reality television still gives me some of the most unique details about characters, like the hair thing, while showing the most broad characteristics out there. Kasey as a villain is so obvious because he practically cackles after every statement he makes. And even when you feel bad for a person, they still find a way to be awful, like the vapid blond chick who is humiliated when every guy in the house picks her as the least attractive and so she says horrible things about another girl to make herself feel better. That was a character detail that actually rang true to me.



And there, I just managed to justify the two hours that show will suck from my life this coming Monday.

The Final Stretch

This blog will be super short today. All my energies are being poured into my WIP which is due in two weeks. Every word I type here is like one I'm taking away from my book.



Word count requirements….ughhhh. Darn publishers wanting things the way they want them.



But it is nice to take a break from the stress of the end. You know how it is, you can see the end in sight and you're just typing and typing as fast as you can to get there. Pushing and pushing to make sure you hit that right word count number at the end of the chapter.



I love the end. I hate the end. I love deadlines because they push me to work harder. I hate deadlines because they stress me the heck out.



And people wonder why writers drink!



Okay that's it. It's all I can spare. This blog cost me 182 words and now I'm going to have to come up with a way to make that up. Here we go – the final stretch – DEEP BREATH.

Google What?

Has anyone else played around with Google +?



I have to say, I really like it and if everyone I'm in contact with on Facebook and Twitter would move over to Google +, that would be awesome. *I"m waiting*



Alas, there is the rub with all these social networking things. You don't use the one that works best or has the best features, you use the one where everyone else is hanging out. Five or so years ago, that was MySpace and I hated MySpace. I did set up a page because all the workshops on how to promote yourself as a writer said I had to (it's probably still there) and made a very feeble attempt to get "friends" but found it mostly annoying. Then FB in the early days was so awesome. But lately I mostly find it annoying, too. It's like they're making it more commercial (ads, letting corporations set up pages) and at the same time making it WAY more difficult to use it, if one of your main aims in using it is commercial.... Or especially if you have dual aims... to use it to interact with actual friends and with, well, virtual friends and people you hope might read your books.



And Google + takes the best stuff from Facebook but sets it up the way you wish Facebook worked.



First, you can follow someone in a one-sided way and vice versa... That is, you don't need to accept me as a "friend" in order for me to follow your public updates and vice versa. In this, it's more like Twitter.



And... it's super easy to group everyone you choose to follow into groups -- called circles on google plus. So you can filter what you look at. "Only show me updates from people in this particular circle." That's possible on FB, too, but they've now buried their friend lists so deeply it makes me crazy. And it's very hard to manage your friend lists on FB. (Does anyone know how to delete an empty friend list???) Whereas it's easy to manage circles on Google +.



But I haven't even got to the best part yet. Every time you "share" or "post" you can choose who you want to share it with. No. It's not one main setting for the entire system buried under pages of security options. EVERY TIME you post, you can choose to share it with the public (everyone) or just certain circles, or just certain people. Awesomely flexible.



For authors and other people who have multiple reasons to use social networking sites, this verges on nirvana. I can share family photos with only my family. I can share a book review with everyone on the planet. I can share an article on writing or publishing with only other writers. Awesome.



And whereas it's possible to see who's added you to their circles, you can't see to what circles... so someone might be following my updates in a circle labelled "Idiots I laugh at" and I'll never know. :)



My friend Debbie Ohi (also known as @Inkygirl and @Ipadgirl has done some great posts about Google +  if you're not yet convinced. Join. Please?

The Kids are All Right

I know. Everyone else saw this movie last year. I just saw it Sunday night. I figured it wasn't one of those movies that you needed to see on the big screen. I was right about that, but now I want to talk about it and everyone else is like, "Eileen, that is so 2010."



BTW, this post will be positively BURSTING with SPOILERS. Alert. Alert. Alert.



Can I talk first about Annette Benning's face? OMG. She's beautiful. She appears to have resisted pressure to have plastic surgery. She looks so real and her emotions are so real on her beautiful real face. The scene at the dinner table when she realizes that her partner has been unfaithful to her and yet she has to endure the rest of the meal with her partner, her children and the man her partner is sleeping with? OMG. Amazing. Everything is on that face. She doesn't need to say a word. In fact, she doesn't.



I love that this family is essentially exactly where I am now. Two teenagers. Two adults trying to keep everything together. To be there for each other and for the kids and still find some level of self-actualization. The movie totally captured what that's like, right down to the fact that any house with teenagers in it can explode at any second. It just can. It's the way it is. They're crazy volatile and have a complete scorched earth policy. I have great sweet kids, but hand to God, it could go south any second. I've seen it. BTW, loved the way they handled the daughter leaving for college. She had to get that little snippet of rebellion in there before she left. Because they do need to. They have to separate from us. But she's still the same smart sweet loving kid she was.



It also captured how easy it is for two smart caring adults to lose their connection despite how much they love each other. I feel like I'm constantly fighting to keep from taking that step to where they are in this movie. I don't want to be Julianne Moore trying to control my partner's almost drinking problem or be the one with the problem who can't listen to what my partner's saying because I want that glass of wine that bad. The sex? That cracked me up, too. Who hasn't phoned it in here and there? Do that too often, though, and someone could end up doing Mark Ruffalo doggie-style in the middle of the afternoon.



Oh, and those moments when one or the other mom was totally tone deaf to what she was saying to her kid? I've heard that crap coming out of my own mouth. I know I'm screwing it up, but I can't help it. The thank you note thing? The one mom trying to be honest with the kid about sexuality and going oh, maybe a little too far, but maybe not and the other mom shutting her down. Okay. I guess it was always Annette Benning who was tone deaf.



So I loved loved loved this movie. I loved the people and the problems and the resolution at the end. It was a little like Molly's post about great reading experiences. I saw this movie at the exact right moment in my life.



Thanks. You may now all resume your previously scheduled 2011.

The core of your character

There is this really amazing article in Rolling Stone about Breaking Bad. In it they have this really insightful analysis of Walter from Breaking Bad, where they sum up his need to continue making meth, in the current season, even after he has made enough money to assure his family's comfort after his death.



Walter, before his cancer diagnosis considered himself a failure, a mediocre teacher, his history a series of lost opportunities when his friends had gone on to make millions. But he is the best maker of meth in the criminal world and that has given him purpose and there has been a point in the show where it became not about his family, but about the work itself, and how he is the best at it, for the first time in his life and that's why he'll never stop.



What I like about it is that it's so specific. Mine has always been too vague for my characters, ie, she looking to gain more power to make up for having her freedom removed from her. It's fine, but the more specific that character core need gets, the better we can keep them true to their core needs, even as plot, or even the world changes.



Here's another one. Vienna from Bachelor Pad wants to be on television so she never has to go back to her minimum wage job again.

Living in their reality....

I'm going to say it in public. I think the Bachelor Pad is the greatest reality TV show ever. Okay maybe All-Star Survivor when Rob fell in love with Amber and they won all the money was better, but other than that – this is right up there for me. The comedic value (I mock – I mock a lot) is just endless.



This show is awful, mindless, pointless and probably does suck up IQ points. I know.



But it's beautiful people running around living in this very tense environment made tense by their own shallow awfulness to each other and I just can't get enough.



They put ex-fiances together. They put women who didn't like each other together. They put ex-fiances with a new love interest together. Take 18 beautiful men and women who believe love or money can be found easiest on television – they know this because they have already been on the Bachelor and Bachelorette – and you've got a hit.



As I watched it and was completely absorbed for the three hour premier… (That's right! I watched for three hours and loved every second of it)… I thought what are these people doing? Thank you for doing it… but really… who are you?



Why are they having sex when they know there is a camera there but thinking large pillows will hide their actions? Why are they saying these ridiculous things… like "I'm here to protect you. You're here to protect me. We're here to protect each other."



I'm not lying. This is real dialogue from real people who I believe are genuine when they say these things. They believe this fictional reality is real. They believe in what they are doing on the show. They think they really a) might find love or b) will somehow make money as a result of this.



And I think it's because of that, because they've so bought into their reality that as a viewer I get sucked in.



It's kind of like a J.R. Ward book. If you take some of her heroes out of context, some of her dialogue out of context… if you read aloud some scenes from those books… you might think cheesy. But when you get sucked in to what's she's doing. When you buys these characters at face value… it's wonderful awfulness that you can't get enough of.



That's what this show is for me. It reminds me that sometimes characters can bring the cheese. As long as I believe it for them when I'm writing the lines or conveying the thoughts then I can make readers believe it too.



As writers we have to believe in the reality we built for our characters and if we do everything said and done there will be okay. I think.



I guess my point is…. It's okay to say. "I will guard and protect your heart." You believe your character really means it.