Tag: Mare of Easttown

Thinking About The Influence of ‘Mare of Eattown’ on The First Novel In The 4 Novel Series I’m Writing


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While it’s definitely not a one-to-one, the heroine of the first novel in my series leading up to my “Female James Bond” getting her “00,” if you will, is greatly influenced by Kate Winslet’s character in “Mare of Easttown.”

The two characters are dramatically different in some respects, but Mare is the vibe I’m looking for. Or, maybe if Mare was younger, a lot less bitter, brunette and a lot more fit. But the vibes of the two women are very similar.

Mare of Easttown greatly influences my goals and vision for the heroine of the first novel in the female James Bond “exgenesis ” series I’m working on.

I like how writing four novels at once allows me to see the macro arch of the series in my mind. It’s a lot easier to plant things here and there in the novel as needed to give it a cohesive unity.

At the moment, Alexa Chung (sorta) is what imagine the character looking like, for no other reason than she’s Amerasian in ethnic background. But I think Phoebe Waller-Bridge could probably play the character if somehow, I manage to not only get the novels published, don’t die of a heart attack like Stieg Larsson and they’re miraculously enough popular enough that Hollywood grows interested.

But I’m still in the very delusional stage of all of this. I have to allow myself to be delusional because that’s the only way any of this will get done. I will note, again, that it’s interesting that other people read the Millennium series and saw a totally different set of books than I did.

It’s pretty wild how different my take on Stieg Larsson’s stuff is relative to at least one book I’ve read. The first book, especially, is far more character driven than this one book I’ve been reading that wants to be a successor to Larsson.

I’ve given myself a few days for something of a reset on all of this. I really need to do some reading, especially about character building. Seeing Mare of Easttown was a swift kick in the creative ass — I saw it and realized I needed to up my game.

A Casual Story Critique: ‘Mare Of Easttown’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

First, let me say I loved Mare of Easttown. It definitely made me sit up and take notice. I realized I needed to up my game a great deal if I was competing against it in my genre and for the attention of the audience. But here is a general overview of what I thought about it.

Let me be note that I generally walk out out of movies — almost all the time — so for me to finish an entire TV series is a pretty big deal for me. Anyway, here we go.

There is so much to love about this story. In fact, my only quibble from a story telling point of view is how the show begins — Mare wakes up. This is poor storytelling — the protagonist waking up as the beginning scene. Better to have protagonist doing something at a point where their life changes in some way. This is not a hard, fast rule, but, in general, just to have them wake up is lazy, lazy, lazy.

But other than that, I was extremely impressed with the story on a structural level. It was well written and executed. I found the ending organic to the story and not contrived at all.

Though, the last two episodes did get a bit confusing for me. They should have been a bit more clear as to what, exactly the whole plot on the part of the people protecting the killer was. Maybe add a tick-tock of the exact events of that night. We came close to one at one point, but it was I don’t remember there being an accurate tick-tock with flashback included.

In general, however, Mare of Easttown really forced me to sit up and take notice. Like I said, I have to up may game. It startled me so much that I decided to have something of creative re-set for the rest of August. I’m just going to read and develop for a few weeks and then throw myself back into things at the start of September.

Hopefully, I will have four solid outlines by that point.

Going To Spend A Few Weeks On A Creative Reset Of The Four Novels I’m Developing & Writing


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Watching “Mare of Easttown” kind of rattled my creative cage a little bit and raised my personal expectations for myself. As such, I’m going to buckle down until the end of August and not only do some of the reading I should have done some time ago, I’m going to also really focus on the four outlines of the four novels I have planned.

But it’s the reading that I really need to focus on. Now that I realize it’s stuff like “Mare of Easttown” that I’m competing against I am determined to up my game. Another issue is I hope if I really, really establish the outlines before I start writing then they won’t keep collapsing on me and things will move a lot faster.

All of this is growing very embarrassing given how long I’ve been working on this project, but I don’t have anyone to tell me no and it’s my life, so, lulz.

Anyway, I hope to get a lot of reading done, a lot of work one the four outlines done and maybe even dabble in a little bit of short story writing. Ideally, I would also teach myself Final Draft, but that is probably going to get punted down the road some more.

‘Mare Of Easttown’ Joins Stieg Larsson As A Major Influence On The Novels I’m Developing & Writing


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The book that inspired my now three-year obsession was Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire. I knew I had a lot to say about the Trump Era and after some fits and starts, I decided to try to think up an American Lisbeth Salander in that context.

That was a long time ago and the whole thing has changed dramatically. Now I have four compelling stories all set in the same universe that pretty much are the origin story for something akin to an American female James Bond. (Sorta.) It’s not a one-to-one, but rather than the vigilante like Salander, my character has, by the end of the series (which paves the way for a series of books about her new life) something bigger than her.

Mare of Easttown

Anyway.

Having watched Mare of Easttown, I realize that these four books really need an infusion of character. Things are going really well, but Mare of Easttown is forcing me to up my game. I have a small library of books to read as soon as possible.

But given what’s going on in most of these four books, I really, really need to mull made the show such a great story. The novels in my head definitely share some of the themes of Mare of Eattown and it’s just a matter of figuring out how to take them to the next level.

The key thing is to stop writing about writing and to actually start to write. But I’m something of a development obessive, so it just takes time to get to the point where I can start writing without living in fear that everything is going to collapse AGAIN.

For a very specific personal reason, I’m kind of locked in neutral for a few days and I’m using that time to throw myself into development. I’m hoping that maybe I even dig around the outline of the second book in a big way by the time I get back to writing on the first novel.

‘Mare Of Easttown’ Is A Swift Kick In The Creative Ass For Me


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I was really impressed with Mare Of Easttown. In fact, for a moment near the end, I almost had a Brian Wilson listens to Sargent Pepper’s come-to-Jesus-moment.

This quickly passed, however.

They say if you have time to write, you have to time to read (and watch.) After my I overcame my shock as to how similar — in a vague way — my four novel series was to the show, I started to plot. (Literally and figurative.)

Now that I’ve gotten my wits again, I realize my series is same same but different to Mare of Easttown. This is good because on a marketing level you could say, “If you liked Mare of Easttown, you’ll LOVE this…”

But, of course, it will be so long in the future before I get to that point that Mare Of Easttown could be in its second (or third!) season by that point.

But the show is great. I highly recommend it.

Now to top it.

Deconstructing The Intended Audience Of ‘Mare Of Easttown’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m making my way through Mare of Easttown and the last episode I saw, “Poor Sisyphus,” really kind of rocked my world. I was NOT expecting that ending. Given that there are half a dozen Era of Great TV shows I haven’t watched, should I ever get around to watching them I’m going to be a bit forlorn because I won’t have anyone to talk to them about them.

Anyway, I’ve seen enough of the show to be able to deconstruct who its audience is.

It seems as though there are maybe three core groups the producers are tyring to appeal to.

Middle Aged Women
It took me a little bit to figure it out, but all the adult women in Mare of Easttown are very relatable if kind of drab. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of male eye candy for middle aged women. And there are a lot of Every Mother’s Nightmare scenarios in the show, too.

Middle Aged Men
This is more difficult to pin down, but maybe the fact that there’s girl-on-girl action between attractive young women is a downlow pander to middle aged men? Maybe?

“Woke Twitter Users”
There’s an amusing overlap, in this specific situation, between middle aged men and “woke” Twitter who generate buzz. The subplot about the lesbian daughter is red meat for the buzz-generating Twitter users.

The Outline For The First Act Keeps Collapsing (But Getting Better)


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Well, after having looked at a few more episodes of Mare Of Easttown, I’m beginning to figure out how to fix my first act. That doesn’t, of course, prevent the outline I’m working on from collapsing again and again. But every time it collapses, it gets better.

I’m getting closer and closer to wrapping up the outline so I can get back to writing again. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a three step process to development — outline, scene summary and then writing. During the course of each of those steps, things have a tendency to collapse on me, sometimes in a rather spectacular fashion.

But I do have a huge amount of forward momentum, which helps.

And I’ve figured out that if I aggressively distract myself by watching something like Mare of Easttown or reading a book about writing — or, even better, another thriller — it figure out the solution to my problems.

I’m Studying ‘Mare Of Easttown’ In An Attempt To Solve A First Act Problem


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are going well with the first novel in the four novel series I’m writing all at once, but for one thing — I’ve got a first act problem. But things have grown so overheated in my mind about the struggle to figure out how to get from the beginning to where I know I want to end the first act that I’m just going to cool it for a few hours.

One issue that I have to keep at the forefront of my mind is who the protagonist of this novel is. Because I know what happens over the course of the four novels, I know who is REALLY IMPORTANT to the macro arc of the series — but that person isn’t the protagonist of this novel.

So, I have to think about the character and motivations of the person who is the protagonist. That is helping a lot to figure out — now — what goes on in the first act of this particular novel. But the more time I distract myself with other things, the more I realize that I need to really prep the audience for the dramatic events that take place at the beginning of the second act. As such, I’m having to think outside the box some from things that I have taken for granted would be in the first act.

Anyway, I’m distracting myself right now watching Kate Winslet’s Mare of Easttown and studying it. It is very much a character driven story and that’s something I need to lean into with the novels I’m working on. The better I know the motivations of the characters I’m working with, the either it will be to fix some lingering issues that are currently an obstacle.

But I can feel my mind beginning to get some solutions figured out. I will note that the more serious I become with this series, the less obliged I feel to write about writing it. I’m tired of seeming to be all talk and not work. But sometimes I need to left off some steam, so I write about writing even though I am growing weary of it.

I Need To Study ‘Mare Of Easttown’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Even though the first episode of this limited series opens with a very lazy “heroine wakes up” trope, the first episode of “Mare of Easttown” is very inspirational because it’s very character driven. The two novels that I have added to this series have a different dynamic than the last two novels in the series and, as such, I have to lean into the characters.

But there’s a problem — I have a very narrow, passive method of content consumption. So I have to go outside my comfort zone and watch a series that makes me uncomfortable in how dark it is. Thankfully, I can buy the series episode by episode so I can push through it without becoming too upset.

And, yet, I really need to do this. Mare of Easttown is very character driven in the context of the plot and the series’ setting of tone is very engaging. And the two additional novels I’ve come up with would gain a lot from me studying both character and tone development.

Or, to put it another way — for the time being, I have huge holes in my outlines and the only way I can think of to fill those holes is to put scenes in that help with character development.

Also, the two additional novels are not as obviously in the thriller genre. The issues at the center of their plots are more slow burn frustrations than running around in any type of thriller manner.

Anyway, I have set this evening as when I’m going to start writing again. I’m back from my writer’s retreat and it’s time to get this show on the road.

I Need To Study ‘Mare Of Easttown’ & ‘Ladybird’ As I Move Forward With This Thriller Series I’m Working On


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about this new first book in the thriller series I’m working on is while it’s firmly set in the existing universe I’ve come up with, the dynamic of the story is dramatically different.

As such, there are two stories I need to study — Mare of Easttown and Ladybird. The former because the nature of the novel I’m working on fits it and the latter because of when it’s set — the early-to-mid 90s.

The only reason why I feel I can pull this new, expanded universe off is the fictional events of the series hone so close to my own autobiography that really all I have to do is put the work in — the road map to success is right in front of me. It would help, of course, if I had, say, a wife or a girlfriend to egg me on, but lulz.

I have watched some of the first episode of Mare of Easttown and really like it — though I worry that portions of Pennsylvania are apparently some sort of dystopian hellscape. The (new) first book in this series I’m working on is a lot or more character driven than the final two books — which is a good thing. And, it may be a bit shorter than the other books, which is another good thing.

All of this has solved an existential issue with what I’m working on — I’d been working on the original two books in the series that I was feeling a bit worn down. Now, I can do something fresh and interesting while staying in-universe and building a really solid backstory infrastructure for the other three books in the series.

Anyway, I really need to stop writing about writing and start to read, develop and write.