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Happy Monday! Hope you all had a great weekend. :)
I was organizing my growing movie collection over the weekend and I came across some old favorites that could be the inspiration for today's chick lit. A lot of films are based on books but can books be based on films? I think films, particularly romantic comedies, have definitely inspired the chick lit genre. Some of my favorite movies from the late 80s and 90s are When Harry Met Sally, Now and Then, While You Were Sleeping, It Could Happen to You, Sleepless in Seattle, Never Been Kissed, and My Best Friend's Wedding. The general plots of these films continue to pop up in today's books and films. There's the woman who is trying to get an ex-boyfriend back before he marries someone else, the male/female friendship that never stays just a friendship, the four best friends who grew up together and still need each other years later, the ordinary woman who is down on her luck but meets a man who helps her turn her life around, the woman who must face her past to move forward and find love, the ever popular case of amnesia, and the two characters who are separated by distance but destined to be together somehow. These plots are seen again and again but I think it is really exciting to see a familiar plot done in a unique way with extraordinary dialogue and plenty of twists and turns. Sometimes it feels like these plots are tired and have been done too much. However, I think that is what is so exciting about this genre. There are new authors emerging all the time, updating familiar stories, which ultimately become new stories. It's kind of like the old game Telephone. If you tell someone a story, when they tell it again to someone else, it is always different.
What are your favorite romantic comedies from the 80s and 90s? Which traditional plots have you seen that were given modern makeovers? What do you think about films influencing books? Let us know!
I was organizing my growing movie collection over the weekend and I came across some old favorites that could be the inspiration for today's chick lit. A lot of films are based on books but can books be based on films? I think films, particularly romantic comedies, have definitely inspired the chick lit genre. Some of my favorite movies from the late 80s and 90s are When Harry Met Sally, Now and Then, While You Were Sleeping, It Could Happen to You, Sleepless in Seattle, Never Been Kissed, and My Best Friend's Wedding. The general plots of these films continue to pop up in today's books and films. There's the woman who is trying to get an ex-boyfriend back before he marries someone else, the male/female friendship that never stays just a friendship, the four best friends who grew up together and still need each other years later, the ordinary woman who is down on her luck but meets a man who helps her turn her life around, the woman who must face her past to move forward and find love, the ever popular case of amnesia, and the two characters who are separated by distance but destined to be together somehow. These plots are seen again and again but I think it is really exciting to see a familiar plot done in a unique way with extraordinary dialogue and plenty of twists and turns. Sometimes it feels like these plots are tired and have been done too much. However, I think that is what is so exciting about this genre. There are new authors emerging all the time, updating familiar stories, which ultimately become new stories. It's kind of like the old game Telephone. If you tell someone a story, when they tell it again to someone else, it is always different.
Nancy
--What are your favorite romantic comedies from the 80s and 90s? Which traditional plots have you seen that were given modern makeovers? What do you think about films influencing books? Let us know!