Why Writers Should Watch TV (+ giveaway)

Hi, all!
In case you didn't know,
I'll be in class learning how to FAST DRAFT with author Candace Havens today.
I've heard nothing but great things from this course, and I need any help I can get to shut out my internal editor. Will let you know what happens...

In the meantime, I am soooooooo happy to have author
Allie Pleiter with me today. Please lend her your eyeballs and read about why you should watch more TV.
Oh, and check out her new book HOMEFRONT HERO.

A little about Allie:

An avid knitter, coffee junkie, and devoted chocoholic, Allie Pleiter writes both fiction and non-fiction.  The enthusiastic but slightly untidy mother of two, Allie spends her days writing books, buying yarn, and finding new ways to avoid housework.  Allie hails from Connecticut, moved to the Midwest to attend Northwestern University, and currently lives outside Chicago, Illinois.  The “dare from a friend” to begin writing has produced two parenting books, fourteen novels, and various national speaking engagements on faith, women’s issues, and writing.  Visit her website at www.alliepleiter.com or her knitting blog at www.DestiKNITions.blogspot.com

Authors should watch television.

I’ll rephrase that: writers should watch good television.

Why?  Because good storytelling is good storytelling, no matter what the medium.  We love characters in books for the same reason we love characters in television--because they feel real, they have goals, they face conflicts.  I adore it when a television character surprises me because I’m too good at picking out the obvious plots.  My son refuses to watch TV with me now because all too often I’ve figured out the plot and can’t seem to help blurting out things before they happen.  To me they’re painfully obvious--because I’m a storyteller--but to others maybe not so much.

When I find some television with stand-out writing (current faves include CASTLE, SHERLOCK, DR. WHO, and MAD MEN), I make a point to watch closely. 

As such, I’ve been bingeing on episodes of SMASH lately.  While it feeds my theater-major past, it’s also got fabulous, multi-layered characters who genuinely surprise me.  Fussy, bad boy directors who end up having a decent streak.  Pearly-toothed ingenues who develop a diva side.  Claw-and-scramble producers who recognize when they’ve let the pressures of the business turn them from the human side of art.  SMASH manages to blend Broadway’s best and worst elements in a way that has you rooting for characters you hated last week and vice-versa.  THAT’s good writing.  It doesn’t matter that SMASH isn’t a book--no matter what the format, writers can learn from good writing.  Muse is a cross-over beast.

What about you?  What have you watched/heard/read recently that pricked up the ears of your muse?  Why?

Thanks, Allie!
I need to watch better television! LOL!

By the way, Allie has a new release this month from Harlequin's Love Inspired line!

Homefront Hero

Love Inspired Historical

May 2012

#978-0-373-82916-3

Back cover copy:

Dashing and valiantly wounded, Captain John Gallows could have stepped straight out of an army recruitment poster. Leanne Sample can't help being impressed—although the lovely Red Cross nurse tries to hide it. She knows better than to get attached to the daring captain who is only home to heal and help rally support for the war's final push. As soon as he's well enough, he'll rush back to Europe, back to war—and far away from South Carolina and Leanne. But when an epidemic strikes close to home, John comes to realize what it truly means to be a hero—Leanne's hero.

Allie is very generous to offer up a giveaway of her new Harlequin Love Inspired romance HOMEFRONT HERO to some lucky commenter. Contest runs from now until Thursday night 11:59PM (EST). I will announce the winner on my blog this Friday!

Good luck!