Tuesday, February 16, 2010

A romantic movie weekend

I saw not one, but TWO movies this weekend.

This one:



and this one:




Valentine's Day was just okay. Jennifer Garner is one of my favorite actresses, so she was my favorite part of the movie. Oh, and the teen story lines. They made me laugh. I really liked Dear John, despite the weird ending that many people have hated. I'm a huge fan of Amanda Seyfried. And I thought Channing Tatum did a great job too. I LOVED the music in Dear John and immediately went and bought the soundtrack, and have been listening to it pretty much non-stop. It's great music for my WIP.

Apparently another Nicholas Sparks book is coming to the big screen later this year - THE LAST SONG. I tried the audio version of this book and didn't get very far. The dialogue just seemed really stilted to me, and it was painful to listen to. The movie preview didn't look that good to me either - perhaps because Miley plays the main character. Can anyone look at her and see someone besides Hannah Montana? I can't.

Watching romantic movies inspires me with my writing. Listening to romantic music inspires me with my writing. And reading helpful blog posts, like this one by Martha Mihalick, remind me of the things to keep in mind when writing a book with romance in it. My biggest take away? "Love stories are best when they're subplots." I think I knew this, but it's good to be reminded of it. Although Nicholas Sparks might disagree.

6 comments:

  1. I haven't seen either of those yet, so it's nice to hear from someone who has. :-)

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  2. Aw, I'm sad Valentines Day was only okay. I was kinda hoping it might be another Love Actually. *sighs* But I'm glad to hear Dear John was good and I'm checking out the soundtrack now (you always have the best taste in music)

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  3. I've heard that about VDay too... But I still will see it because I, too, LOVE Jennifer Garner :)

    I also happen to LOVE Channing Tatum. But I'm too nervous to see the movie because while I can NOT get into his books, all the movies based on N.Sparks books make me cry! Even the ones I didn't like... Like Nights in Rodanthum (Or whatever the name was... I saw it on a plane ride)

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  4. I've heard such mixed reviews about Valentine's Day and I am just not interested in Dear John. I was going to see Valentine's Day, but maybe I'll wait until I can download it for free!

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  5. I've heard mixed reviews on both, but I still must see them for myself. I see Hannah Montana whenever I look at Miley, but what the heck ... I've seen every other Nic Sparks movie, so I'll have to give that one a shot, too.

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  6. Hi, I just bought Chasing Brooklyn and made my way to your site to see if it was the first in the series, which I still need answered, but then I saw this post and got distracted....because, I also want to see Valentines day, lots of good/fun actors. I'm an Ashton Kutcher fan, among others in the bunch. And, I did see Dear John, Amanda is great and I am a huge fan of Channing Tatum from even his earlier movies. I did not read the book (I know, eeek!) so I actually loved the ending (I think that is where the alternate ending is coming from). And the music is amazing, I just ordered the soundtrack too. Whew... So, back to my original question, do I need to read the other book before or after Chasing Brooklyn? Because this book just spoke to me from the bookshelf and I'm dying to read it! I got it as part of my birthday haul from the bookstore so I was quite excited! And, now I'm even more excited to see you have more books out and writing advice available on your website and blog! :)
    Thank you, Shauna

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