Addicted to Writing

Manage Your Freelance Writing Career While Writing What You Love

Lonely Planet: Writer’s Block, Writer Retreats and The Importance of Dating the Right Person

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Lonely Planet Plot Summary 

Lonely Planet starring Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth is a fun romance movie set in Morrocco. After a recent breakup, famous writer Katherine (Laura Dern) appreciates the change in scenery, courtesy of the writers’ retreat she was invited to. But she is doing everything she can to work in peace and avoid others.

Owen (Liam Hemsworth) is a young businessman accompanying her novelist girlfriend Lily.

As Lily throws herself into socializing and partying with no regard for Owen, Owen finds himself more and more drawn to Katherine. As their friendship turns into something more magnetic and lasting, they decide to make the most of it.

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I did my best not to give spoilers, so I might have made Owen sound like a cheating brat. But I assure you, he’s one of the most decent male leads I’ve seen in a while. He’s obviously human and flawed. He stays in a relationship far longer than he should, but the cheating brat position is firmly Lily’s (oops! Spoiler!:D).

Rest assured, you can root for Owen and Katherine with a clear conscience.

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Now that the essential movie information is out of the way, let’s delve into some of the themes:

Writer’s Block: Getting Rid of Writer’s Block with a Change of Scenery/Environment

Katherine’s getting out of writer’s block through a scenery change (and let’s face it – finding love), is realistic. Let me digress with my own scenery-change-killed-blockage story for a bit:

When I first started writing my debut romcom novel Making A Difference (M.A.D.) (aff. link), I wasn’t sure about the format. I first tried writing a movie screenplay. Then a TV series. Finally, I decided the story was meant to be a novel. I was new to writing novels. For a while, I got stuck reading about how to write novels. Then I started writing. But words didn’t fly out of the pages until I went to a dance camp in Sweden.

I live in Istanbul. The novel is set in NYC. What about Sweden made the creative juices flow?

Istanbul resembles NYC in many ways. It’s chaotic, crowded, loud, cosmopolitan, and it never sleeps. It’s hard to adult properly. You always miss out on things…things like proper sleep, enough fun with friends, and regular exercise.

While I hate most types of exercise, I love swimming, Zumba, aerobics, and dancing. I was an intermediate-level lindy hop dancer (a form of swing dancing), and I jumped at the chance to go on a dancing retreat. You stay for a week, join workshops during the day, and dance at parties at night. Pure exhausting bliss.

Despite being in the summer, it’s around 20 degrees (68F) at most and windy. You dance in large tents, and then it’s your extremely sweaty back’s turn to face open air… Well, everyone is fighting not to catch a cold. I missed some workshops because I opted to rest in my room.  And during those obligatory rests  – I mean, you join 3-4 lindy hop workshops a day and dance at night for hours without resting and we’ll see what your body begs you to do –  I typed and typed in a file called MAD Sweden. I should also point out both my main characters lindy hop, so there’s that.

After a pure week of dancing bliss and exhaustion, I visited my friend in Norway and then came home with a first draft that made me happy. And I survived the trip without a major cold, which is another major victory on my part.

Running away from your problems isn’t recommended for the long term, but a change in pace, lifestyle, and scenery is sometimes all you need to get out of a rut and thrive. This works not just for creative people, but anyone looking to get unstuck and find a fresh perspective.

Now that I’m a bit stuck on my first draft of the third book in the A Change Would Do You Good romcom trilogy, I found myself checking out retreats and dance camps.

Back to Katherine and Lonely Planet: Dancing is one of the biggest loves of my life. So are traveling and Norway. And reuniting with old friends? The cherry on top. All this to say, I didn’t need Owen, but I’m glad Katherine found him.

Katherine and Owen have a bit of an age difference. I don’t know how old their characters are supposed to be, but during filming Hemsworth was 34 and Dern 57. The difference is (expectedly) addressed in the movie when Katherine says “I could fall for a kid like you,” and Owen is offended. Neither of them is wrong. 20+ years is a lot, and no one wants to be thought of as a kid by their crush. But it wasn’t that she saw him as immature, but was merely pointing out the obvious.

That said, I’m all for a good age-gap romance. As long as both parties are consenting adults who know what they are doing and chasing someone much younger/older isn’t a habit due to some unsolved baggage, it’s fine. You love who you love. In fact, the novel I’ll be writing finishing the A Change Would Do You Good series is an age-gap romance. Stay tuned!

I love that Owen and Katherine’s relationship is both calm and passionate. At times, Owen is more mature and grounded, which makes him even more attractive.

Romantic walks by the beach, sincere conversations that don’t turn into fights, good sex…. No wonder Katherine started writing again.

And now to the film’s only unbelievable part – major spoiler alert!: Katherine’s bag is stolen and her work with it. Get this: She has no backup! Am I supposed to believe that a novelist with a decades-long career who suffered from writer’s block for so long forgot to back up her work? Come on. I save my work as a reflex. As I was writing this sentence, I paused and sent myself an email just in case: And it’s only a thousand words. I don’t even know how many backups I have of my novels. She panics, has a fight with Owen, and just leaves. Because leaving your muse and a happy relationship is the way to solve all your problems as we all know. I’m rolling my eyes so hard right now.

Yes, in most romances you need a fight and a temporary break-up. But if this is how she handles things, maybe she should date 20-somethings. Like, seriously.

OK, I’m calm now.

Obviously, things get resolved. We get a happy ending, including a successful novel on Katherine’s part. Romance and inspiration win.

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The Importance of Dating the Right Person

We all need someone supportive and understanding. Passion can be peaceful.

This doesn’t just help with our work, but also our health. You don’t need someone to feel happy or complete. But if you are with someone, make sure they are good for your soul.

And if you inspire each other, even better.

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If you liked this post, check out the other Writer Characters in Fiction posts here.

How do you get out of ruts? Please let me know in the comments.

The Perfect Couple’s Novelist Protagonist and The Dangers of Marketing A Fake Brand

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Plot Summary

The Perfect Couple is an ensemble Netflix thriller/drama/mystery mini-series led by Nicole Kidman. Kidman plays Greer Garrison Winbury, a famous and prolific novelist married into the rich Winbury family. She and her husband Tag (Liev Schreiber) are seen as the perfect couple: They’ve been married 29 years and raised three children, the youngest not yet 18. Even the male protagonist in her series was inspired by Tag.

But the meticulously crafted and maintained illusion comes crashing down right before their son Benji’s wedding. When his fiancée Amelia’s best friend Meritt is found dead, the police are certain of foul play. Everyone’s a suspect, though motives aren’t always clear. Can Greer salvage her career before it’s too late?

The Dangers of Building A Career on False Premises

From this point on, I’ll include spoilers so I recommend checking out The Perfect Couple if you haven’t seen it. It’s fun to watch, and the cast’s impressive.

The problem with marketing yourself is the novelist with the perfect relationship is obvious. No relationship is perfect. But some are arguably worse than others, and Greer’s is a total shitshow. To the outsiders, she married into money. Despite their 40-million-dollar home and the kids’ upcoming trust funds, Tag’s broke. It’s Greer’s career that keeps them rich, hence her desperation to maintain the image despite the murder of a young woman.

And while Tag seems obsessed with his wife, he’s a frequent cheater whose latest affair was with the victim. This makes both Greer and Tag prime suspects. But as the show goes on, we learn that pretty much everyone has a secret, some darker than others.

This puts way too much pressure on Greer. To manage, she micro-manages everyone and no one’s happy. NDAs are signed, and secrets are kept.

How Greer Pivots Her Career by Coming Clean and Rebranding (as Her True Self)

Major spoilers ahead:

While I’m not going to name the killer, I’ll spoil the series’ even more explosive secret:

Greer’d been rejecting calls from the mysterious Broderick Graham, a man about her age. Cops believe she’s the murderer when they discover the three hundred grand she paid to him. With his ties to the Turkish mob and criminal record, surely, he’s a hitman she hired to kill her husband’s pregnant mistress. But the joke is on them: Broderick’s not his real name. Greer only paid his gambling debt because he’s her brother!

There’s more: She used to be an escort, and he found the clients. And this is how she met Tag! She comes clean to her media team, as well as her kids. She’d already announced she was done with her series. She dumps Tag, and she gives her manuscript to her son’s now ex Amelia. The book is about her after all  and she’ll publish if she approves…

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After Greer comes clean, she’s happier. She’s free to write whatever she wants. She no longer needs to pretend or put up with crap.

Now, did she really have to in the first place? We can only speculate since Greer’s not my character but Elin Hilderbrand’s, the author of the novel (aff.link) this series was based on.

No doubt being a socialite expanded her reach and resources. It made her productivity newsworthy, and her author events more engaging. But did she have to keep at it so long? Probably not. But hey, she now has an even more interesting story: her real life.

I’d honestly watch a sequel just to see what she writes next. But then again, I’m obsessed with writer characters as I have a whole category dedicated to them on this blog. I also have a pivotal writer character (a thriller novelist) in my romcom novel Making A Difference (M.A.D.) as well as another supporting writer character – a rock music journalist.

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Did you watch The Perfect Couple? What did you think of Greer? Who are your favorite fictional writers? Let me know in the comments!

 

 

 

Writer Characters in Movies: Little Women’s Jo – For Love and Love of Writing

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Reader, please forgive me as I have sinned. I haven’t read Little Women (aff.link). I haven’t seen the 2019 version either.

In my defense, when Little Women movie came out in 1994, I was a kid fascinated with movies.  I loved it! I’ve recently rewatched it as an adult, and I enjoyed it just as much. And yes, the nostalgia feelings the cast create is priceless. I mean, Winona Ryder, Susan Sarandon, Claire Danes, Claire Danes, Christian Bale, and Gabriel Byrne in the same movie? Sign me up.

Little Women Plot Summary

Mrs. March (Susan Sarandon) raises her four unique daughters in relative poverty during post-Civil War America: Meg (Trini Alvarado), Jo (Winona Ryder), Beth (Claire Danes), and Amy (Kirsten Dunst, and later Samantha Mathis).

Meg is the oldest and more traditional of the sisters; she wants to get married and have kids. Amy is the youngest, and she’s already decided money is more important than love. Quieter, calmer Beth plays the piano and helps out those worse off than them.

Jo, the protagonist, is a writer. Her three sisters participate in her creative endevaors by acting out manuscripts. Their colorful lives become even more so when they’re joined by their next-door neighbor Laurie (Christian Bale). Laurie develops a close friendship with them all, though he’s closest to Jo. But when Laurie’s feelings turn romantic, Jo’s response will alter everyone’s lives forever.

Why It’s A Great Story, Especially for Women (and) Writers

We don’t always need to be represented on the screen to enjoy a great story. But it’s definitely a huge bonus when we are.

Being a woman and writer is definitely easier when compared to Jo’s time, though of course, some geographical and cultural exceptions apply.

Still, despite the available resources and fast Internet making life more convenient, being a writer is a weird and diffcult profession. You need to spend a lot of time on your own. You need to get used to being rejected. If you work for yourself, you need exceptional time management skills and patience as you navigate your days AND keep up with the industry.

It goes a long way to have friends who read your work and encourage you to keep following your dreams. This is why I don’t get some readers/viewers were disappointed Jo didn’t end up with Laurie (played by Christian Bale here, and Timothée Chalamet in the 2019 adaptation).

Admittedly, when I first watched the movie as a kid, I was surprised she fell in love with Friedrich. He had seemed too old and mature albeit lovely. But seeing it as someone who is now close to how old Gabriel Byrne was during the filming, I’m smitten with Friedrich. Not only is he beautiful inside and out, he is a champion for her work and talent. He is indeed marriage material, and I couldn’t be happier about Jo’s happy ever after.

Who Should Watch The Film

  • Fans of the genre (period drama/romance/family)
  • Fans of the cast
  • Women (and) writers

For Fun –  Best Little Women Reference

In the uber popular sitcom Friends (aff.link), episode 13 in season 3 (The One Where Monica and Richard Are Friends) features a fun Little Women plotline. Joey (Matt LeBlanc) loves reading Stephen King’s horror novel The Shining. But when he gets scared, he puts the book in the freezer. He’s surprised Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) hasn’t read it yet, so they exchange books. Hilarious scenes ensue as Joey gets emotionally invested in all the women’s lives…

Favorite Line

Ross: Joey’s asking if you’ve just ruined the first book he has ever loved that didn’t star Jack Nicholson.

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Have you read the book? Seen a movie adaptation (aff.link)? What about the Friends episode? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments.

 

Movies with Writer Protagonists: Book of Love starring Sam Claflin

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In this fun and sweet romcom from 2022, we don’t have one but two writer characters.

Let’s get the plot summary out of the way; then we will go over why Book of Love (aff.link) is a must-watch for romance writers.

Plot Summary for Book of Love  (with minor spoilers)

Henry Copper (Sam Claflin) is an English author scheduled to give interviews in Mexico due to the success of his book there. There, he’s welcomed by his translator Maria (Verónica Echegui), her young son, and her father.

Comedy and conflicts start when Henry realizes that while translating, Maria has essentially turned his story into erotica, creating the sort of fan base he’s in no way ready or willing to deal with.
But as his Mexican publisher puts it, it’s simple: either he accepts the cash and popularity or he goes back home, disappointing readers. Henry and Maria tolerate each other until they realize the other person is a lot more charming and impressive than they initially thought, and sparks start flying.

But just getting over their differences isn’t enough: They are forced to write a book together and Maria’s estranged husband will stop at nothing to stop this blossoming attraction. Can these two get a book-worthy happy ending?

Book of Love’s Writer Characters

And now, there will be more spoilers. You might want to watch the movie and come back.

At first, I was on Henry’s side. OK, I never really left Henry’s side. I just understood and empathized with Maria about certain aspects.

I am a writer after all. My stories are dear to my heart. Hell, who am I kidding? They are my babies. They’re personal and they take a lot of effort from coming up with the premise to seeing through final edits. And after that, you have to work even harder because now people have to hear about it.

I’d be shocked and pissed if I found out a translator just wrote almost a completely different book.
Frankly, I think Henry took it better than I’d have.

But, and this is an important but, Maria caused something very important: money and popularity (as in lots of sales and devoted – albeit slightly crazy fans).

Money and popularity matter because they bring power and options. Flexibility. The freedom to write things you love.

So like Henry, I’d eventually suck it up and play the game. And hey, the romance between two smart, sweet, and sexy creatives? More than welcome.

What can I say? I am a romantic I mean, hello, I’m a romcom author who writes happily-ever-after endings. I even wrote a guide on how to write the ultimate non-tragic romance.

Romance Tropes of Book of Love

Haters to lovers
Opposites attract
Close proximity

Co-Writing

This is a bit tricky. You need to share a similar vision for the future of the story. You need to like each other as people.

If you get on each other’s nerves, it’ll become a bit of a nightmare. Writing, like all professions and activities, has ups and downs. And it can get difficult, complicated, and frustrating. But at its core, it should be a labor of love. And you can’t co-create if you are miserable. (Or is it just me?)

Luckily, our characters from the film work things out. And I wouldn’t say no to working with a cute, romantic Brit. (Yes, you got me. I’ve been crushing on Sam Claflin since he appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. (aff.link))

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My Writer Characters

I love writer characters on the page and screen. I feel seen. And I definitely relate. Unless the character is a total jerk, that is. In addition to dedicating an entire category on this blog to fictional writers, I sometimes feature writer characters in my novels as well.

In my New York-set romcom Making A Difference (M.A.D.) (aff.link), novelist Colin initially self-publishes only to find success after Zoe, a talented publicist, stumbles upon his book. Sparks fly, but their blossoming romance is threatened big time when Zoe’s offered a job to work with her mentor, humanitarian Jay Clark. How can a guy compete with someone who’s actively making the world a better place?

Jay’s sister, Angie, is a free-spirited rock journalist. So you‘ve got two important (supporting) writer characters in Making A Difference (M.A.D).

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How do you feel about writing characters? What are your favorite books, movies, and series with writers?

Note: This post uses affiliate links. They don’t cost anything for you, but I do earn a little something when you buy something through them.

 

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