From Couch Potato to Author
When I was a kid, my parents discouraged me from watching television. It wasn’t like TV was forbidden — after all, my dad is the one who got me into Taxi and Seinfeld — but if my folks felt as if I was spending too much time in front of the tube (which was more often than not), they suggested I read a book. Still, whenever I was home alone, the TV would be on, giving me the chance to fuel my slightly unhealthy obsession with Beverly Hills, 90210, Days of Our Lives and Swans Crossing (the BEST teen soap ever, which sadly only lasted a season). Since most of you reading this blog are presumably TV addicts, you can probably relate!
Liz and Lucky were GH sweethearts
Fast forward about 10 years — which included me writing a thesis paper about 90210 in college — and my couch potato tendencies landed me a job writing about TV for a soap opera magazine. There I spent my days critiquing every aspect of soaps from Lucky and Liz’s sweet teen romance on General Hospital to Sami and Lucas’s schemes on Days as they plotted to break up Austin and Carrie.
Much as I enjoyed my job, I wished I could get characters to do what I wanted. I then realized that, duh, I could; I could write a novel and have complete control over my creations. Fired up by the idea of becoming master of my domain (but not in the Seinfeld way), I completed “Revenge of a Band Geek Gone Bad.” It chronicles the lives of vengeful musicians Melinda and Josh as they take down Mel’s nemesis, Kathy, “Band Geek” has love, hate, lust, blackmail, passion, and redemption; It was inspired by my many, many hours of watching and nitpicking soaps.
Spike and Buffy’s relationship was complicated….
When creating Mel’s love interest, Josh, I looked to soaps’ classic antiheroes, those men and women who do the wrong things for the right reasons. Characters like GH’s Sonny or Buffy’s vampire Spike (Mmmm… Spike) often crossed the line and committed questionable acts in the name of love or justice. But you found yourself rooting for them because they cared so fiercely for their friends and family members, and showed signs of becoming redeemed (at least for a little while). Granted, Josh’s misdeeds are tamer (unlike Spike, J never sucks the blood of his victims, at least not in the literal sense), but he still considers himself to be above the law.
The rest of my main characters also have good and bad traits. The narrator, Mel, is our heroine, but Josh brings out her inner bad girl. Kathy is the book’s villainess but has moments of vulnerability and even kindness. Soaps’ most interesting characters fall into this gray area; All My Children’s Erica, Guiding Light’s Reva and Young and Restless’s Victor all committed praiseworthy and cringeworthy acts, but it was their flawed natures which made them so watchable.
As for Mel and Josh’s romance, I looked to AMC/One Life to Live creator Agnes Nixon, who advised: “Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry, make ‘em wait.” At the magazine, we often lamented that soaps moved love stories along too quickly and I didn’t want to fall into that trap with my novel. Instead, I thought of my favorite soap teen couples, which included the aforementioned Lucky and Liz, as well as Days’ Shawn and Belle; the main reason I enjoyed following them was because every beat of their relationships was shown and it took forever for them to hook up.
That said, my teens take more than half the book to do anything romantic. There are plenty of teases and near-misses, but they slooowly go from being partners in crime to friends to something more. By the time they declare their feelings for one another (spoiler alert!), you’re cheering for Josh and Mel because you’ve been there for their entire relationship. You care about these kids getting together and you care about what happens to them as individuals.
Finally, as with soaps, I wanted my readers to keep “tuning in” with each chapter. I end almost every scene with a cliffhanger and drive the story forward throughout the entire novel. Since my book isn’t a serial, it does have an end, but I treated each section as an episode of a show.
Though I left the magazine several years ago, my interest in soaps has stuck with me even as I complete my second novel. I appreciate my parents pushing books, but I wouldn’t be where I am today without my love of television to guide me.
“Revenge of a Band Geek Gone Bad” is available at Amazon
“Band Geek” is also part of the music-themed novel anthology “Love Notes,” which includes Kira Adam’s “Pieces of Me,” Shane Morgan’s “The Right Song,” and Breigh Forstner’s “Straight From the Heart” “Love Notes” can also be purchased from Amazon.
Do any TV shows make you want to try your hand at writing? Please leave a comment.
