Megan Trennett's Blog, page 13

An Altered Ending is Available at GirleBooks! Want to get a FREE copy?

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 Contest will close on February 20th, and the winner will be announced by the 22nd. PDF is also available, as well as ePub, PRC, and LIT eReader file formats. 

 Check it out here!

Nancy Kelley's His Good Opinion – A book Recommendation

When I poked my head into the writing world, I noticed that there was a particular book that was very popular among my fellow female authors: Pride and Prejudice. I'd never read it before (being Canadian and all, I was force fed Canadian lit in my schooling), so I became curious about why it was so popular.

I'll admit right now, it took me over a year of having seen it mentioned a lot in my twitter feed before I endeavored to dip my toe in the experience of it. I watched the movie. I didn't get it. Was it good? Sure, but not really romantic or anything. After posting my experience on Facebook, I was directed to the mini-series. Again, I watched the whole thing with hope that, by the end of it, I would be a P&P fan. Nope, didn't happen.

Fast forward two months, I'm sitting in my living room, Kobo in hand and an urge to read. P&P was a free eBook I'd downloaded once I had my new toy from Santa up and running. I was going to read it. At this point, I've engrossed myself with this story enough that a simple few words triggers memories of the speech on the page before me to the point that I feel like I've read this book three times a year my entire life. At the very least, it had some very unforgettable verse. But, alas, I still wasn't a believer. About to give up all hope, I remembered seeing a little book that had been part of my Twitter feed reading for as long as I've had an account.

Enter Nancy Kelley's His Good Opinion.

If anyone was going to make me like this story, it would have to be a fan. In truth, however, I didn't have any hope of being a fan going into this book.

And I'm still not, but I am a fan of THIS book.

His Good Opinion, which is P&P told entirely from Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy's POV, has a lot more of the elements I was looking for in the original story. Nancy makes the desire of Elizabeth's courtship far more believable, if I may say, as she pens the thoughts and feelings of Darcy as if she was Austen herself. While readying the original, thinking that his apparent sudden feelings seemed very absurd (even with the bits and pieces of his perspective), Nancy makes it feel natural and obvious. She does this again with the change that Darcy goes through, and for the first time, I didn't walk away from the tale wondering what I was missing.

She creates scenes, whether based on the original text or not, that linger in your mind the way a great movie does, and the ending feels far more satisfying than Austen's.

If anyone was to tell me that they were going to read Pride and Prejudice for the first time, or if they had the same feelings I had about this, I would recommend they go out and buy this book. Like, now!

I've been wanting to do book recommendations for a while, as I really enjoy reading and passing along great book suggestions, and I'm really happy that my first one is a fellow Indie. Nancy Kelley, if you ever write another classic based novel, I'll probably be one of the first people to buy it.

His Good Opinion On Smashwords

Appealing to the mind's-eye.

Every time I start a book, and begin to create new characters, I think about how they would look. Normally the personality, especially that of my leading man (or men), are already front of mine and need the eye-candy coated shell to be wrapped around it. This whole idea came about after considering the post I made last week about crushing on your characters. It's easy for the creator do so, but what about the ones who pick up the book? Naturally, as most authors do, I want my guy to appear attractive to the reader. It's a hard task to do considering people find different things attractive.

Maybe you prefer blonde hair over brown, or maybe no hair at all. Tattoos: do you enjoy them, or are they a deal breaker? Same goes with piercings (and if you're all for them, maybe you aren't in all areas). How about eyes? Are you more drawn to blue eyes, brown, green? Are you attracted to 'four eyes' or would you rather they wear contacts? What about build, ripped to the point of cheese grater abs, or do you like a little meat on the bones? Baby faced or strong jawed? Not to mention that, once you form that pristine male specimen in your head, you have to clothe him. Okay, so maybe you don't have to clothe him, but unless you're writing erotica, they can't very well run around naked all the time.

Creating a character you want your audience to truly fall in love with can be really pain staking. Age range alone will make what appeals different from one reader to the next. You may say "but you have to keep your target audience in mind." True, but consider this: chick-lit, contemporary romance, and the likes usually have a target audience of women ranging in age from 25-50. And while there are some women in their forties who find, say, the stars of Twilight to be hunky-monkeys, they're probably going to lean more towards the George Clooney's and Brad Pitts. My age range is more on the Robert Pattinson, Daniel Radcliff end of things. However, as demonstrated by the image below, they are not what I would call my cup of tea (Truth be told, looking at my top 6, I'm not sure I have a type except older).

On the left: Men Considered Attractive by people in my age group. One the right: Men I considered attractive. I think there's a difference

So how do you do it? How do you create the guys who will not only capture your heroine's heart, but also that of your cherished reader? And readers, what makes a character appeal to you (outside of personality, because THAT's what truly matters-and is a topic for another day).

Because the band I really wanted is gone…

Up until the release of An Altered Ending, I wanted to share some of my favorite songs from the playlist I listened to while writing.  Unfortunately, the one I wanted to share this week is impossible to link to. The band, who was seeing some moderate success in the Maritimes about six years ago, has virtually disappeared. They aren't on iTunes, Pure Tracks, and with the major decrease in CD stores it's probably only possible for you to find their albums in second hand music stores, and it's quite probable that it would only be in Canada.

The reason I share a music pick every week is because I love music almost as much as I love to write, read, and be taken away to another world in any other form of media. I think that you can find some really fantastic stuff through recommendations, and maybe help send an artist who's little known into the spot light. It's also why I try not to share too many choices that I know are wildly popular, and heard all over the radio, music channels, etc.

That being said, the track I'm sharing this week, "20 Good Reasons" by Thirsty Merc actually came from a YouTube suggestion because of what ever I was viewing at the time. I didn't hear it until after I wrote Altered, but I did listen to it while I was doing the edits and found the song fit the feel of the book to a tee.

20 Good Reasons – Thirsty Merc

So, if you like it, pass it on. I'd never heard of this band before I was recommended this song, but I'm certainly glad I did.

Also, the track I wanted to share was "Walk With You" By a Nova Scotia band called Crush. If you want to hear what they were like, check out the song "King for a Day" or "Bad Enough", both on YouTube.

Creating Perfect[ly flawed] Characters that steal your heart

Said to be the perfect man, but can you create a better one?

 @harleymaywrites Tweeted yesterday that she had a crush on one of her characters. I thought this was normal. In fact, I thought anything less than a crush on your characters set one up for failure in portraying them in the way you want them to be: perfectly flawed. Especially if you write tales of the heart like I do.

I myself have been infatuated with one of my characters for approximately two years now. He's Simon Avery, the main love interest for my main character, Ellen, in the up-coming An Altered Ending. Simon has issues: like his fear of aging, his stubbornness, his cockiness (especially when it comes to his writing), and a few others. But he's also incredibly supportive, loyal, empathetic, and, of course, hot. I loved him, and the way he is, so much that I ended up writing another piece with him a little more in the light (a ways away from completion, though).

I have enjoyed a particular dark haired villainous man from Heart Pulled to Pieces, as well as his arch rival. Yet, still, as much as I enjoyed these characters, they don't hold the same amount of space in my creative heart that this guy does. There are similarities among all three (though two are more alike than the other), but no matter how I dice it, and no matter what I do to try and change it, Simon is still numero uno.

It makes me wonder what exactly makes a writer love one character more than another? Personality? Looks? Emotions tied to the piece that they're involved in?

Even if it's not the same level of admiration as the kind that makes you swoon, I think we all have "favorite children" amongst our pieces. You never really want to admit it, because you're supposed to be proud of all of them, but there's always one that sticks out more than the rest. It probably doesn't hurt that they're easy on the minds eye, and say witty and charming things while they run around in there.

So tell me, what are your favorite creations, and what makes you love them so much?

A special thanks to the Harley May on Twitter for inspiring the blogpost

Also, Gingie (the gingerbread man) was created by and is owned by Dreamworks

"I Never Told You" – Colbie Caillat

I Never Told You – Colbie Caillat 

 This song was a bouncing board for my up coming novel. I wanted to share it with you for my "Tuesday Tunes" post in case you're one of the few people in the world who have not heard it. It's really, very beautiful and passionate. One of the many reasons I love Colbie Caillat (and Jason Reeves, who co-wrote the song with Colbie and Kara Dioguardi).

Outlining for Discovery Writers

Picture from publicdomainpictures.net

I don't give advice on writing, and I'm still not going to. I don't feel like I know as much as everyone who is blogging about it, so I will leave it to them to share wisdom and I will gladly read it.

But I am sharing something. A little thingy I've created for people who may write like me. You see, I'm a discovery writer, but I do like to plot out some things in advance. Mostly I like to figure out my Characters, sometimes a bit of the storyline, and a little bit of the plot so I have a focal point when I jump into the word jungle. I've used a lot of different methods to get there, but nothing seemed to fit the way I wrote.

Then, one day, I was reading Thea Atkinson's blog with a guest post from Victoria Watson. She said something about the backstory of a character in how she thinks about them. I won't go into detail, you can click the link associated with Thea's name to read it's awesomeness on your own, but what she said made me decide to create my own plotting sheets.

Please, by all means, have a look at them. Download, print them, do whatever you'd like with them. It's hardly an original idea, but the format works for me, and maybe you too.

PDF Versions

Novel Development Worksheets
Chracter Development Worksheets

Word 2007 Doc Versions

Novel Development Worksheets
Character Development sheets

Another thing you may want to have a look at is "The Novel Notebook" by Lynn Viehl. It's an extremely thorough worksheet for those who love a detailed map into the word jungle.

Tuesday Tunes – Ali Milner

Ali Milner is a Canadian musician who hasn't really made it into the mainstream. She was a contestant on "Cover Me Canada," placing third on the show which had artists and bands performing hit songs (very American Idol like).

I first heard Ali on "So You Think You Can Dance, Canada?". I don't actually watch the show, but it was on when I was home visiting my parents and this amazingly beautiful song was playing. I'm sure the dancer was good too, but I really don't remember.

Miss Milner only has one album, a Christmas song, and her tracks from "Cover Me" available for listening, but I expect they'll be more. Take a listen, she may inspire you.

Crystal Clear
I Can't Wait Forever
I Dare You
Can't Change This Girl

Tuesday Tunes – Matt Nathanson

My guilty pleasure song in 2008 was "Come on get higher". From then on, I was a Matt Nathanson fan. If I could get anywhere near a city where he's performing, I would try and be front row center.

Modern Love does not have my guilty pleasure song, but it's full of, umm…. Pleasure. It's passionate, seductive, and if you're trying to get in the mood (writing, people. Come on, get your minds out of the gutter) give Matt a whirl.

Songs to preview:

Run (featuring Jennifer Nettles & Kristian Bush)
Kept
Kiss Quick
Queen of (K)nots

What's love got to do with it? Hopefully everything

When my sister and I talk television, one of our most common complaints is how bland and boring one of our once favorite shows has become. We still watch it, loyalty of course with a bit of interest in some of the story lines, but either way the luster has been long gone. It's hard to pin point exactly where the magic ended, but it's pretty clear that after a bit it ventured into the mundane. What used to drive this show? The will they/won't they.

It's after the happy ending, so should their tale have kept going?

It makes me wonder, every time I watch it, why drag the story on beyond the obvious end? With television shows, it's obviously the network pushing to keep their money makers on the air. But there is the possibility of changing it up, writing characters off the show. Once upon a time, I recall the creator of my sister and I's former favorite saying that she brought in a certain new character to allow the show to continue once all the current lead tales were already told. Yet, to this day, they're dragging on the old relationships that have long ended (be it good or bad) for unexplained reasons.

As a writer, I can't imagine continuing on a tale that's long over, after the excitement of the concrete ending has passed. I get the need to show a glimpse of the happily ever after, but the everyday mundane? When it comes to a story about the thrill of falling love, it's about the journey, the pitfalls, the highs and low, the anticipation of what could be. After that, it can get stale. Not that what happens afterwards isn't a journey on its own, but it's a different story.

So why keep going? For the money.

When it comes to telling tales, I ask fellow writers if they would continue a story, long after what you thought the ending should be, because it would bring you more money? Do you write because you love it? Or do you write because you love the dollars?

I know my answer, but I'm curious as to what other's opinions are. I'm aware that there are those who write strictly for the paycheck, and I'd like to know why.

As for my sister and I, we have a new show we watch and get excited about. It's on tonight after the Holiday Hiatus. I wonder if it'll be as good when the inevitable conclusion happens, and I'm eager to find out. I'm a sucker for it, what can I say.

PS- Grey's Anatomy (the promo image used in this post)  was created by Shonda Rimes and airs on ABC.