by Megan Hart
Hello, everyone! Thanks for having me here at what I see is affectionately called “the pond.” I hope you all don’t mind that I’m wearing arm floaties and a swim cap.
Limecello kindly asked me to be here today and told me I could either talk about whatever I wanted, or she’d shoot me some random suggestions. What was her first random suggestion, you ask?
I know you love Supernatural so… does the television you watch influence your writing, and if so how?
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Yes, I do love Supernatural. I love it like frogs love flies. I love it so much I have actually cried real tears thinking about the day it will no longer be on the air. I am not even kidding. . How do the television shows I watch influence my writing? Well, I really only watch a couple of TV shows…Supernatural and Nip/Tuck – I might get back into Lost this year but I’m not sure. I watch TV on DVD more often than “real” time…but sure, what I watch influences me. Mostly everything influences me. It gives me ideas for storylines, for one thing. For another…guh, Jensen and Jared are made of so much wonderful I can’t help but be inspired to write hot love scenes. Right? If I’m lyin’, I’m dyin’. . But let’s talk about inspiration. For me, it comes from so many places. I went to a local charity event yesterday, one I’ve gone to for years and yet for the first time I said, OMG! I TOTALLY NEED TO PUT THIS IN A BOOK! And now I will! |
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| Often when I go back through my manuscripts, I can remember exactly what I was doing, or what was going on in my life, by what the characters in the books are doing. A certain drink, the weather, a location – in STRANGER, for example, Grace and Sam go to a horror movie marathon (in the original manuscript Grace and JACK went to the movie marathon!) and that came about because I had gone to just such a thing with my sister. I could’ve sent Grace and Sam on a date to something else, but I used the horror movie marathon because it was something I’d done and was fresh in my head. . That’s not to say that everything in every book comes right out of my own experiences, because my goodness, who’d have time! I do enjoy making stuff up a lot, too. Or extrapolating from my own experiences to guess at a different outcome. |
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DEEPER, my upcoming release from Spice (July 2009) has a lot of my own experiences in it, though not exactly the way they happened to me. I took bits and pieces, wove them together, split them apart, made stuff up and generally wrote a FICTIONAL story with real-life inspiration behind it. Some of those emotions and scenes are real, they really happened, just not necessarily the way they do in the book. I mean, really, what’s the point of writing a book if you can’t make it all end the way you want it to, even if it didn’t happen that way in real life? I am the puppet-master! I control the horizontal AND the vertical, my doves…and I love it. I love spring boarding – taking something that happened either to me or that I’ve seen or heard about from someone else, and saying, “what if…?” . For me, it’s all about the “what if…?” |
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And that’s how inspiration works for me.
How about you? Do you like knowing when something has come from the author’s real life? Does it ruin the story for you? If you know anything about the author and you read something you know came from a real-life experience, does it make you feel like part of an inside joke or throw you out of the story?
And finally, Limecello sent this topic, too, which I have to answer:
I hardly ever think of Cheetos. I mostly just eat them furtively out of the package in the pantry, in the dark, as though eating them where nobody can see me might make them calorie and fat-free. Hmm, now when you all read about a character sneaking Cheetos in the pantry, you’ll know where that came from. |
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Again, thanks for having me here today!
I am a Megan Hart noob, having just read Dirty and been floored by it.
And now I love your stuff even more cause I know you love the Double J’s. Jeeeeee-seeeeennnn. *drool* Season 4 is kicking all kinds of ass! I’ll never be able to hear Eye Of The Tiger and not think of Jensen palying his leg along to it. *le sigh*
Sorry, I think I was supposed to be making some kind of serious point here but I got distracted by the pretty……..
I love knowing when an author snuck something from their real life in. It’s like you suggested – it makes me feel like I’m in on a joke.
Hey, Sayuri! Thanks for reading! Oh yes, J squared. Love them. I’m going to my first Supernatural convention in March and I will actually get to be in the same room with JARED. And MISHA. (But sadly for me, no Jensen, which is just as well because I would probably explode.) And Jason Manns will be there too! Can you hear my squee?
Hi, Livania! I like it too, sometimes, but I don’t like it when the author puts him/herself in the story as a character…!
Megan – thanks so much for doing the guest post -haha, and being a good sport about the cheetos question 😀
I love how you include some of your experiences in books – it makes them that much more real and relatable.
And I just checked – perfect excuse for you to go to the UK – apparently Jensen will be at the convention there 😉
Megan, I love your writing. I don’t care where your ideas come from (that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy finding out what inspires you, because I found your post very interesting), just keep them coming! You have a major fan here, but don’t worry, I’ll try to hold back any psycho tendencies that might pop up!
Jill
By the way, I think that Cheetos picture is of Limecello’s office in preparation for an all-night study bender.
I THINK… 😉
HAH! You found me out, Gwen. I always knew you were clever 😉
Limecello, thanks for having me. Oh, man, I’d love to go to the UK. I’d really love to go to Vancouver to the big con there in August but I can’t quite manage to convince my husband to go with me. He likes Supernatural but not *that* much.
Jill — Thanks for reading! And um, yeah, thanks for holding back the psycho…LOL!
Welcome to the pond, Megan! Great post. I don’t think I’d mind reading a book that included something from an author’s life that I know about, mainly because I love the way authors think and create, weaving their story around whatever it is. An writer’s imagination sometimes really floors me it’s so awesome. It would be fun to see how an author friend would twist and turn that mutual known element to fit a story.
LOL, wish those Cheetos were fat free. I’ll have to try them in the pantry!
Love your books! Keep’em coming, please!
Hi Megan,
I just finished Stranger and absolutely LOVED it! Amazing book.
As for an author adding real life experiences to their work – so long as it fits with the plot and makes sense I don’t mind it a bit.
And when sneaking Cheetos be sure to wipe the evidence off your fingers. ; )
Brave Megan! So many authors claim to never use real events or live people–maybe just a trait or a quirk or whatever–in their writing. You are UP FRONT about real life giving something to your writing world. Those of us who are friends or families of writers know that things that happen around the writer wind up in the book–in spite of all claims to the contrary.
Hi Megan,
I just read “Dirty” and I absolutely loved it. I picked up the book knowing this wasn’t my usual kind of read, but I was blown away by how much I enjoyed it. I have no problem with an author including bits and pieces of their real life into their stories. I love Cheetos. I can’t eat them when I’m reading because then I would smear the pages with my orange fingers.
Hi, Sandy! Yes, eating them in the dark in the pantry makes all the difference.
Leslie, thanks so much for reading Stranger. I’m glad you liked it! Wiping fingers, check.
Joykenn — oh, absolutely. Do not make me mad. You’ll end up in a book for sure!
Jane, thanks for giving Dirty a try. I’m so glad you liked it! And hey, a well-loved book always bears the stains of chocolate or Cheetos. Or…something.
M
The healthier baked Cheetos are actually pretty good (to me), but Cheetos have never been my snack of choice.
great to have u here megan. love cheetos the spicy ones too. love the covers love yoru books
Hey Megan!
I’m so glad Grace went to the horror fest with Sam and not Jack. Don’t get me wrong–I loved Jack! But that date fit the story perfectly for Sam and Grace.
Speaking of Jack… any chance you’ll write his story? 😉
I love your work and am really looking forward to Deeper. I’m quite intrigued by the excerpt on your website and think the cover, as usual for your novels, is captivating.
Christine – I second and double second everything you said! I want Jack and Jared to get their own stories!
Oh yeah… we need Jared’s story, too!!!
Enjoyed reading the post. Particularly loved:
I mean, really, what’s the point of writing a book if you can’t make it all end the way you want it to, even if it didn’t happen that way in real life?
Knowing background to a book or how some scenes or details were chosen is fun to me.
And in regards to Cheetos…I am all about the Flamin’ Hot.
Hmmm. Jack’s got a story, if only I can think of it (he does show up in Switch, which comes out in January 2010, I think.) But he needs his own story.
But Jared…I’m not sure I can give Jared his own story! I mean, I named him in honor of Jared Padalecki. If I write a whole book about him, I’d have to like, watch hours of Supernatural just to like, get inspired again and stuff. I’m not sure I can stand it.
🙂
M
Hmm… Jack shows up in Switch? Is that Alex’s story? If it is…. I’m even more intrigued for that book. I could totally see them on the same pages of a book. But I’m not exactly sure how… which is where you spin your creative talent. In any case, I do hope you write a book for Jack. 🙂
As for Jared…. I know what a terrible hardship it would be for you to watch hours and hours and hours of Supernatural to just like… get inspired and all, but I think you’d survive. And it would be worth the trauma, don’t you think? 😉
I’m going to read Switch (of course) – but yes. Jack needs his own story. Which also means another book deal for Megan! Win-win! 😉
Hah -and watching hours and hours of Supernatural? How *ever* will you survive? I definitely agree with Christine 🙂
Christine — Switch is not Alex’s story. Switch comes out in….January 2010 I think. Jack appears in Switch (so does Grace) but only for half a second.
But Jack, I THINK, is also in Alex’s book, which I’m working on right now. And I’m not positive, but I think I might write Jack and Sarah’s book for my next Spice book. If people aren’t sick of him by then.
At any rate, I’m pretty sure Jack and Alex do NOT get together (though someone suggested that to me.) LOL!
And yeah, *sigh* Supernatural…and I know I definitely will have to suffer through breathing the same air as Jared Padalecki this March when I go to the Supernatural convention….
M