Sunday Fun—Happy Father's Day and other stuff

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, espcially mine. Love you, Dad!

Yesterday I attended a workshop on character archetypes given by Susan Lyons. She based her workshop on The Complete Guide to Heroes & Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever and Sue Viders. If you’ve been following my posts on this blog, you’ll know this happens to be one of the few writing how-to books I use, and I highly recommend it!


This week the Harlelquin American Romance Athors are conducting an informal reader poll on our blog. If there are topics you'd like us to blog about—or not!—please drop by and let us know.

And while I have your attention, here’s a sneak peek at what’s happening this week on the Wet Noodle Posse Blog:

Monday—Terry McLaughlin tells us how to prepare a press kit
Tuesday—Jill Monroe talks about Author Talk
Wednesday—Mary Fechter discusses promotional loops
Thursday—Janet Mullany on how to cope with a "bad" cover
Friday - Q&A Day

Have a great week!

Lee

Men in Trees

The title of this week’s episode is “Surprise, Surprise.” And it was filled with them, although the only real surprise for me is that the show has been cancelled. I love character-driven stories. This one is all about the characters, and every episode has been packed with humor and emotion.

The show’s writers have been blogging about each episode at Blogs in Trees on the ABC website, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading about the direction they were taking with the show. There haven’t been any posts since the network announced they were cancelling the show, and I can’t say I blame the writers for not blogging. I’m sure they’ve already moved on to new projects.

But I hope Jenny Bicks, the show's creator, gives us one last farewell blog after the last episode airs on Wednesday. She’s done a brilliant job with Men in Trees, and she deserves lots of fanfare from the treehuggers who've fallen in love with show!

And be sure to watch the last episode on Wednesday, June 11!

Lee

The Big Bang Theory: Dumpling Paradox

I am thoroughly enjoying this show! The dialogue is so well written—smart and snappy and exactly right for each character.

When Wolowitz hooks up with Penny’s friend, the world according to Sheldon is momentarily bumped out of its orbit. How can they play Halo without Wolowitz?

PENNY: Hey, if you guys need a fourth, I’ll play.
LEONARD: Great idea.
SHELDON: Nooooo. The wheel was a great idea.

I also love the subtle things the writers are doing to create intimacy between Penny and Leonard. In the last episode, Penny went through Leonard’s closet, helping him pick out something to wear to the physics convention. This week she spent the night on his sofa.

But back to the dialogue, in which know-it-all Sheldon gets to pontificate, leaving lots of openings for nice-guy Leonard’s quiet zingers.

The restaurant scene was classic.


SHELDON: [lists their usual order when the four of them go to the restaurant] Do you see the problem?
LEONARD: I see a problem.
SHELDON: Our entire order is predicated on four dumplings and four entrees divided amongst four people.
LEONARD: So, we’ll just order three entrees.
SHELDON: Fine. What do you want to eliminate, and who gets the extra dumpling?

I’ve known my share of science geeks who can easily solve complex mathematical problems, yet grapple with simple things, like ordering Chinese food. And isn’t that what makes them so darned loveable?

Lee

PS: The penultimate episode of Men in Trees airs tonight. I'm still disappointed that this series has been cancelled.

Smart is the new sexy . . .

That’s the tagline for the TV sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. I didn’t watch the regular season but now that it’s into reruns, I’m adding it to my summer viewing schedule. Here’s the plot summary:

Leonard and Sheldon are brilliant physicists, the kind of "beautiful minds" that understand how he universe works. But none of that genius helps them interact with people, especially women. All this begins to change when a free-spirited beauty named Penny moves in next door. Sheldon, Leonard's roommate, is quite content spending his nights playing Klingon Boggle with their socially dysfunctional friends, fellow CalTech scientists Wolowitz and Koothrappali. However, Leonard sees in Penny a whole new universe of possibilities...including love.

From what I’ve seen so far, the writers have done a superb job with character development, especially Leonard and Sheldon, the two physicists. Instead of serving up the stereotypical science nerd with a pocket protector and taped-together glasses, they’ve given us two very different characters. Polar opposites, in fact.

One of the archetypes described in The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes is the “professor.” For a show about science nerds, you might expect the writers to fall back on this archetype.

I’m glad they avoided the temptation, even though the costume designers couldn’t seem to resist. LOL!

Leonard is a “best friend” archetype—stable, supportive, tolerant, complacent, myopic and unassertive. Yes, that’s Leonard. To a tee.

Sheldon, believe it or not, is a “chief” archetype. Not how you usually see a science geek? Sheldon is goal oriented, decisive, responsible, stubborn, unsympathetic and dominating. What can I say? He's a know-it-all!

I haven’t yet seen enough of the show to figure out Penny, the gorgeous young woman across the hall, but I think she’s either a “waif” or a “spunky kid,” or possibly a layering of the two. What I do know is that Leonard has a serious crush on her. Too bad she already has a boyfriend.

It turns out that the writers of The Big Bang Theory have worked on some of my other favorite shows over the years (Gilmore Girls, Murphy Brown, Dharma and Greg, Caroline in the City, Mad About You, The Wonder Years, 3rd Rock from the Sun) so it’s no surprise that their latest efforts have caught my attention.

TBBT is on tonight, and I’ll be watching!

Lee

Grey’s Anatomy—“Physical Attraction, Chemical Reaction”

The episode also could have been titled, “What Were We Thinking?”

The ick factor that was George/Izzy, the one that’s been irritating so many of us, was finally played out last night.

Finally.

Of course the real problem with the whole scenario was that fans of the show knew the two didn’t belong together. Still, as resolutions go, last night was unfortunate, and when it ended I was left with the feeling that the show’s creators and writers thought George and Izzy discovering they had no chemistry created a humorous situation.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, people, but that was not comedy. It was just icky. There were no laughs. No smiles. When it was over, I felt relieved, but also confused about why we’d been subjected to it at all.

Also felt the Chief’s demands on McDreamy, and McDreamy’s reaction to them, came out of left field and were way too over the top for the Grey’s we know and love. Give me a break. That was so not funny.

I will say, though, that I’m loving the new friendship between McDreamy and McSteamy. The scene a couple of weeks ago, when the new cardio surgeon Dr. Hahn asked them if they were a couple . . .

LOL! Well played and very funny, because it was completely unexpected. And that, I think, is an element of good comedy. Throw something unexpected at the viewer, or reader, and take them by surprise. That's why George and Izzy's revelation wasn't funny. They might have been surprised, but we sure weren't.

The conflict between Meredith and Lexie is extremely well done, and every week we get a new layer. Also, Lexie and Alex together . . . I’m liking that. A lot. I’m hoping they (the writers) give them, and us, some time together before they shoe horn Izzy into that relationship.

All things considered, a fairly good episode, especially given that we’ve finally seen the end of Gizzy.

Men in Trees is on tonight! Yay!

Back tomorrow,
Lee

The Office’s Dwight Schrute—Hero or Villain?

I love this character! Or at least I love what the writers have done with him. Dwight has always had a villainous side, and it came to the forefront when he killed Angela’s cat at the beginning of this season. After Angela broke up with him, the writers have clearly had some fun playing with Dwight’s evil side.

If you visit Tami Cowden’s website, you’ll find links to brief descriptions of the hero and heroine archetypes outlined in The Complete Guide to Heroes & Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever and Sue Viders. You can also learn about villains—heroes/heroines gone bad.

As a hero, Dwight is a Professor. Here’s the blurb from Tami’s website: coolly analytical, he knows every answer. He’s logical, introverted, and inflexible, but genuine about his feelings. At work, he likes cold, hard facts, thank you very much, but he's also honest and faithful, and won’t let you down.

What do we get when the professor lets us see his dark side? An Evil Genius.

Again, from Tami’s website, a description of the Evil Genius: the malevolent mastermind, he loves to show off his superior intelligence. Intellectual inferiors are contemptible to him and that includes just about everyone. Elaborate puzzles and experiments are his trademark. Don’t let him pull your strings—the game is always rigged in his favor.

In last week’s episode, “Branch Wars,” Dwight kept saying he wants to do something to someone’s eyes, and Jim’s genuine concern helps us buy into Dwight’s craziness. He wants to use real bombs on the office in Utica because “it’ll be so bad ass” and “we will burn Utica to the ground.”

Oh, Dwight.

His unwavering devotion to the company and the boss and his contempt for anyone who tries to malign them have been blended to create a wonderfully complex comic character.

In this episode I also loved the subtle way the writers introduced conflict into Jim and Pam’s relationship in this episode. Jim is shut out of The Finer Things Club because he monopolizes the conversation by trying to be funny. His reluctance to confront Karen in Utica made it obvious that while he’s in love with Pam, he’s still attracted to Karen. But he did the right thing by ‘fessing up to Pam, who already knew anyway, and she took pity on him by letting him join TFTC. And we saw how well that went :) Pam’s last line of the episode was a silent, apologetic “sorry” to Toby.

I understand that lots of finer things clubs have sprung up on Facebook. I don’t do Facebook but if I did, I’d be tempted to check them out!

Back soon,
Lee

Why I Love BONES

By guest blogger Trish Milburn!

I admit it – I’m a fan of TV. But not just any TV programming. I like good programming that not only entertains me but also offers a little fodder for my writer’s brain. In particular, good characters and dialogue draw me in. One of my favorite shows is BONES. The show is wonderful at conveying sexual tension between the main two characters, Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and FBI Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz).

On the surface, you couldn’t find two characters more dissimilar. Dr. Brennan, who is based on real-life forensic anthropologist and author, is a no-nonsense expert when it comes to bones, sees everything through an anthropological lens and is totally clueless about pop culture. She’s single, unless you count being married to her job. Booth is also dedicated to his job, but he knows how to have fun too. He isn’t married but has a young son. Initially, these two butt heads as they work together on cases where human skeletal remains are found. But gradually, they find they do have the occasional thing in common or at least can see the other person’s point of view. It’s been so fun watching them go from reluctant partners to friends to sexually aware of each other but not admitting it to anyone, not even themselves. Being the romantic that I am, I’m anxious for the day when they finally kiss and get together. But I don’t want that to happen too soon because then the sexual tension that largely drives BONES will be gone, and the show will likely not last much beyond that. I want to enjoy the ride a while longer.

Another reason I love this show is that I get to see David Boreanaz’s funny side. I loved him as the vampire with a soul in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, but his humor only came out occasionally. On BONES, you see it every week. And it’s even funnier compared with Bones because she often doesn’t get the jokes. And she drives him to distraction sometimes, which only heightens the sexual tension between them and makes you wish he would just grab her and kiss her silly.

The secondary romance on BONES, between forensic artist Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin) and insert and mineral expert Dr. Jack Hodgins (T.J. Thyne), gives fans the satisfaction of seeing a couple get together — not that they don’t have their own bumps in the road along the way. Again, you wouldn’t have expected these two to get together, but they did and they’re adorable! Angela is beautiful and earthy, and Jack is sexy in that nerdy, smart guy way.

Totally outside of the romances or potential romances on the show, the cases they solve each week are interesting in and of themselves. They’re good thinking material for anyone who writes romantic suspense or mysteries.

BONES airs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Central on FOX. To learn more about the show and its characters, visit http://www.fox.com/bones/

~~~
I hope I’ve conveyed the same type of sexual tension in my manuscript, OUT OF SIGHT, which is a finalist in the American Title contest sponsored by Romantic Times BOOKreviews Magazine and Dorchester Publishing. Online voting for the first round of the competition ends tomorrow, Oct. 28, after which the two contestants with the least amount of votes will be eliminated. To view and vote on the best first line, visit http://www.romantictimes.com/news_amtitle3.php

Thanks to Lee for letting me show my love for one of my favorite TV shows today. I hope I’ve convinced a few non-viewers to give the show a try.

Men in Trees

In case anyone’s wondering where I’ve been, please check out my October 24th post on the Harlequin American Romance Authors’ blog.

I’ve been wanting to blog about Men in Trees, now that it’s finally back for a second season, but I also wanted to do it justice.

Of all the shows on TV right now, Men in Trees is probably the closest to a Harlequin American Romance, the line I write for. These books are about home and family and community, and people falling in love and overcoming their differences. Personally I love character-driven stories, and MiT is all about the characters. Even the setting, the fictional town of Elmo, Alaska, is as much a character in the story as it is a setting.

The show has an extensive cast of characters, each with his or her own story arc. Well, all except Jerome, the perennial stool-warmer in the local bar, but we love him anyway.

One of my favorite writing how-to books is The Complete Guide to Heroes & Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever and Sue Viders. This book was primarily written for romance novelists, but the archetypes themselves apply to all genres.

I’d hazard a guess that Jenny Bicks—creator of Men in Trees—hasn’t read this book, but because she’s a natural-born storyteller, creating strong archetypes comes as naturally to her as breathing. Take Jack and Marin. He’s a classic professor. His character strengths? He’s an expert at what he does, he’s analytical and he’s genuine to the point of being vulnerable. Of course, no one’s perfect, and Jack does have his flaws. He can be insular, a little inhibited, and not all that flexible. These are not my descriptions, BTW. They’re from the book.

Marin is a librarian archetype. This character “lives in her head.” She’s every bit as analytical as the professor, but in the case of Jack and Marin, they’re often analyzing different things, or approaching the same thing from a very different perspective. The librarian is efficient, she takes life seriously, and she’s dependable. There’s nothing she won’t do for friends. Also, she’s a can be a tad on the stubborn side, every bit as repressed as the professor, and if she’s going to do something, it has to be perfect.

What happens when we put the two together? Cowden et al say, “The professor and the librarian are both accustomed to others coming to them for information.” Hammer, meet nail. And “...neither takes kindly to being questioned, regardless of who is doing the questioning.”

Men in Trees is a textbook example of how to create characters, and how to make them work.

I think some writers have a difficult time distinguishing between archetypes and stereotypes, and again Jenny Bicks and her writers show us the difference.

Marin’s friend Jane is also a librarian. Each struggles to maintain order in her world, but are they cookie-cutter characters? Not at all. Cowden et at describe two types of librarians—the know-it-all and the bookworm—and anyone who watches MiT will have no trouble deciding which is which!

I can already hear some of you saying but . . . every character wants order in his or her world. Not quite. Look at Mai Washington, Buzz’s adorable mailorder bride. She’s a free spirit archetype who goes with the flow. Her world already has an order to it, and it’s out of her control. Does she fight it? No, but she’ll definitely come up with creative ways to work around it.

Men in Trees is on again tomorrow night. I’ve heard, but haven’t confirmed, that next Friday, November 2, the show is moving to a different time slot. Watch those listings, because I’m sure it’ll be a show we won’t want to miss!

Till tomorrow,
Lee

The Office

Several years ago I attended a full-day comedy scriptwriting workshop presented by Robert McKee, the author of Story. Early in the workshop he said the comedy writer looks for social conflict and foolishness, finds pretentiousness, and attacks it. We should be able to identify the social institution being attacked by the title of the film.

The Office is classic comedy. Every week the writers take some aspect of an office workplace and expose the foolishness. I remember McKee telling us that to write really great comedy, the writer has to be angry about something. After watching this week’s episode, Dunder Mifflin Infinity, I’d say the writers are annoyed by people who sit around texting on their Blackberrys when they really should be working, by the pointlessness of talking cars that tell you where to go, and possibly even by gift baskets filled with stuff no one really needs.

In his workshop, McKee also explained what makes great comic characters. First, they strive to restore order to their world. It becomes an obsession for them, and they are unable to stop and assess a situation. A character in a dramatic show can take a step back and look at what’s going on, but the comic character forges blindly ahead. Another important aspect of good comic characters is their lack of internal conflict. People who have a lot of internal conflict take themselves too seriously. Not something we want our comic characters to be burdened with.

The Office’s boss Michael Scott is a textbook example. He doesn’t stop to examine any situation, he never thinks things through, and he’s always quick to come up with his own convenient explanation for what’s going on. In this week’s episode, Ryan yells at Michael after everyone teased him. “Enough! This is inappropriate and it stops right now.”

Does Michael realize he’d been out of line? Does he feel chastised? No. He says to the camera, “Yeah, Ryan snapped at me, but there was this twinkle in his eye that I picked up on, which said, ‘Dude, we’re friends. I’m doing this for appearances. I am the big boss now and I have to seem like an ogre but you know me and you trust me and we like each other and we’ll always be friends and I would never take you for granted in a million years and I miss you, man, and I love you.’ His words.”

When Michael discovers it’s not “business as usual,” he sets out to restore order to his world. Dunder Mifflin doesn’t need a website to attract customers. They need gift baskets.

Meanwhile, the office is abuzz with the news that Pam and Jim are dating. Toby is jealous and Phyllis worries that Pam will pass new customers to Jim. Angela rejects Dwight’s replacement cat, and then she rejects Dwight. Andy and Kevin try to act cool, and Creed tries to look younger. Ryan dumps Kelly, then asks Pam on a date, and Jim gets to smugly point out that Ryan can’t get every girl he wants.

Never a dull moment. Always a laugh. Outstanding writing. Such a great show. I look forward to it every week, and I'm never disappointed.

Back tomorrow.

Lee

Grey’s Anatomy

Seriously . . . is the old Grey’s back or what? Last night I finally got around to watching the season premiere from last week, and then I watched last night’s episode. Snappy dialogue, humor, emotion, and plenty of snark to go around. I fell in love with the characters all over again, and I think it’s safe to say I’ve signed on for the whole season.

I’m wondering if we’ll see some of Alex’s armor stripped away this season. And will Rebecca be back? Is he telling Meredith her sister is hot just to bug her? According to him to there’s no such thing as a happy family, and yet he’s so fiercely protective of the people he cares about. I’m ready to find out more about who Alex really is, and I look forward to seeing what the writers have in store for us.

Tough-as-nails Christina, assigning numbers to her interns so she doesn't have to remember their names. Bartering her wedding gifts for surgical favors. But I’m wondering when she’ll finally have a melt down. Or at least sit down and have a good cry.

McSteamy went to Seattle to get McDreamy back. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall during the read-through when those actors first read those lines. Way to go, writers. And won’t it be fun to see what happens when those two launch themselves into the dating scene? I’m feeling more than a little uneasy about Derek and Lexie, though. He wouldn’t. Would he?

I’m still totally lukewarm about George and Izzy. I’m trying not to be, but I am. At the end of last season I didn’t think the writers needed to put them together. This season I’m still not feeling it. There’s no chemistry between the two actors, and something about the two characters together doesn’t work for me. Maybe because they’re both like a couple of deer in the headlights.

Speaking of deer . . . I don’t even care that reviving the injured deer in the hospital parking lot was beyond unbelievable. It was classic Izzy. She's the polar opposite of Christina, and that was summed up so well when she was trying to convince Christina to give her the Mix Master. And Christina said no, you have nothing I want. Did I mention the snappy dialogue? The snark? Go, Christina!

I’m not missing Burke or Addison, so I guess it was time for them to go. Haven’t watched this week’s episode of Private Practice, either. Good thing this will be a long weekend. I have a lot of catching up to do!

See you tomorrow.

Lee

The Office

It’s back, and the new season begins with a bang. Poor Meredith.

Michael is rationalizing his return to the office with pure Michael Scott logic. Which makes a better boss—a dog or a fish? Always an interesting question, but since he’s run down one of his employees in the parking lot, he has much bigger issues to deal with. Like how to make it seem as though the accident wasn’t his fault or, even better, that it was actually a good thing, not just for Meredith, for the entire world. Ah, Michael.

Dwight, by contrast, feels no need to rationalize his behavior. From the moment he returned from Angela’s apartment and reported that the ailing and aging cat was dead, we knew he had a hand in it. Like Michael, he’s convinced he did the right thing. He just doesn’t need to justify it.

The similarities and differences between these two characters are brilliantly crafted, in my opinion, and skillfully interwoven into each episode. It’s because its done so well that the writers get away with being as outrageous as they are.

PB & J . . . so adorable together, just as we knew they would be. By the second half of the hour-long premiere I was already starting to want more from Pam and Jim, and I’m confident these writers will give it to us. Now that they’re truly a team, I’m looking forward to seeing them play some great practical jokes on Dwight. Can they top last season’s episode in which Jim convinces Dwight he’s been bitten by a vampire bat? Oh, I think so.

I’ll wrap by saying that I think the dialogue is as brilliant as every other aspect of the show. Even if you’re not into off-the-wall comedy, studying a script would be like a master class in dialogue. And I get the sense that the writers are constantly trying to outdo themselves by coming up with over-the-top lines for Steve Carell’s character, and then waiting to hear him deliver them. Imagine how much fun that must be.

“I’m not superstitious . . . but I’m a little stitious.”

Way to write, guys. Keep it coming.

Back tomorrow.

Lee