Guest Post: Molly Zenk

Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to a lovely writer, Molly Zenk, author of the contemporary Christian romance, Out of Character. She's here with a guest post to tell us how Out of Character came to be. And here she is!

Movie And Book Inspiration For Your Evolving Plot

Molly Zenk

I bet you can name at least one or two popular books that started their life as fan fiction.  The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones by Cassandra Clare started out as a Harry Potter fan fic.  Fifty Shades Of Grey was an alternative universe Twilight fan fic. Sometimes, transforming them just takes creative use of the find-and-replace button in your word processing program.  Other times the changes evolve the story in a whole new direction that you never thought possible. That’s what happened to me with Out Of Character.  

Out Of Character started out as a Pirates Of The Carribbean fan fic.  I wrote it back in 2007 when the movies were at the height of their popularity.  When I noticed the finished story clocked in at 36,000 words,  I knew with some tweaking I could turn it into a market ready manuscript. At first,  I tried the old find-and-replace names form of editing.  I was told it was too much like the main romantic plot of Pirates Of The Caribbean. No surprise there. I needed to add something that made it stand out. Adding the actors on a TV show spin still got it called a “back door historical.” What more could I do? I know--they were actors on a historical reality show. That would give it a great juxposition between modern and history. My main inspiration for a historical reality show are 1900s House and Frontier House on PBS. In both shows, modern families agree to live life like the pioneers and Edwardians for three months while cameras rolled.  I knew instantly that I wanted to put my own spin on the historical reality show genre. Now I definitely had something unique that broke away from its Pirate Of The Caribbean beginnings. 

Out Of Character continued to evolve through several more revisions and three rounds of edits till it was published in 2015 by Anaiah Press.  It’s come a long way from its fan fiction beginnings.

 

 

MOLLY ZENK was born in Minnesota, grew up in Florida, lived briefly in Tennessee before finally settling in Colorado. She graduated from Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL with degrees in Secondary Education, English, and Creative Writing. She is married to a Mathmatician/Software Engineer who complains about there not being enough "math" or info about him in her author bio. They live in Arvada, CO with their young daughters.

 

Website: mollyzenk.wix.com/home

Facebook: www.facebook.com/authormollyzenk

Twitter:  @UnsinkableMoZe