Everything About You is my second novella, part of Prism Book Group’s Love Is series, which started publication of fifteen theme-based stories based on First Corinthians 13 in February 2016. Although I’ve written over a dozen novels and a series of historical children’s books, creating shorter works is an interesting challenge. When readers comment about wanting more, I guess I’ve done it right.
For this story, I used a Pygmalion trope, with a movie media relations director attempting to transform a raw farmer into a movie star in five days. My idea came from knowing several major motion pictures have been shot in or partly in Wisconsin, including Public Enemies with Johnny Depp in 2009, a lot of the Blues Brothers scenes in the eighties, baseball movies like Mr. 3000 and A League of Their Own, Bridesmaids, as well as low budget and indie films.
I wrote and performed radio theater several years ago, and took a film writing workshop, too, in an effort to expand my writing technique. I organized my novella into five days on set, and while I didn’t get to shape it as much as I wanted to appear like a script, I was still able to section it into days with headers for the different scenes, so the book looks a little different. The story was fun for me to explore and write. Here’s the description.
She needs a movie set miracle, he needs cash...can a farmer morph into a movie star in five days?
If Shelly has her way, Danny will become America’s next heartthrob and she’ll get her own promotions company. He’s already gorgeous, a little naive, and needs to work on that accent. To Danny, Shelly is on the pompous side, but holds the key to his real dreams...if he can figure out all the rules, say the right things for the daily vlog session, keep his heart strings in place, dodge Shelly’s vicious former boyfriend and the movie star diva. Shelly’s about to lose a lot more than her heart if she can’t get a handle on her wounded pride and learn who to trust.
About Lisa
Lisa Lickel is a Wisconsin author who loves books and dragons, she writes inspiring fiction.
Besides writing inspiring fiction, she also writes short stories, feature articles, and radio theater, and loves to encourage new authors through mentoring, speaking, and leading workshops.
She is an avid book reviewer and blogger, and a freelance editor.
Find more at LisaLickel.com.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lisajlickel
Facebook: www.facebook.com/author/lisalickel
Thanks for guesting with us, Lisa! Your post certainly demonstrates how an author uses most everything in her life to tell her stories. Any tips on how your film writing class helped you write novellas?
ReplyDeleteI love the fresh and unique approach you used to organizing this story! Also your brand, writing 'inspiring stories.' Can't wait to read this!
ReplyDeleteBeen looking for a new read... think I found it in Everything about you! The concept of a series based on 1 Cor 13 is intriguing...
ReplyDelete'Scuse me while I jump over to Amazon...
DaniJo Avia
What a great concept, Lisa! Great to see you on the blog,
ReplyDeleteLynn
This is a cute story and gives a fun inside look at movie making.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Lisa!
Good book - I enjoyed it very much.
ReplyDeleteThank you, all, and I'm so sorry, I was out of town visiting my granddaughter and her parents over the weekend. Thanks for stopping in. How the film writing class helped--well, really writing scripts for theater and radio theater helped a lot, almost as much as journalism, in forcing me to get to the point of the story. When you're writing narrative to set up scenarios, you have to use a lot of description. Writing for theater is more visual, making the author create scenarios that are meant to be experienced more through sight; and radio theater entirely through hearing. It's surprising how much you can accomplish by 1. getting rid of fluff, and 2. writing with sensory imagery in mind right from the start.
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