I thought it would be fun to share what I enjoyed watching in January. Just the stuff I enjoyed. Not the stuff I DNF’d.
Live to Lead.
It was one of the first things I watched at the beginning of January. I found it incredibly inspiring. I watched it twice, actually. Gloria Steinem and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are heroes of mine so I enjoyed getting an insight into them.
Beast of Banglaore
One of a number of true crime docs out of India. Troubling cases. It’s always hard to say you ‘enjoyed’ a true crime doc. It feels like the wrong word.
Drain the Oceans
They finally uploaded the latest season to Disney+. It’s one of my spouse’s favourite shows, so we binge-watched it over a weekend.
Operation Mincemeat
This movie has been on my watchlist for ages. I don’t know why I never got around to watching it. Well, I do. I go through moods where I stick to non-scripted shows/documentaries, and I don’t watch scripted TV or movies. But I finally saw this in January. It was such a brilliant movie. I LOVE Colin Firth (and a lot of the other actors in it.)
Inside the Heist
A fascinating look at some audacious heists. Highly recommend it if you have Discovery+.
Enola Holmes 2
I’ve watched this about four times now. Enjoyed it as much as I did the first movie, maybe even more because it had more Henry Cavill.
Bernie Madoff
For ages, I’ve wanted to see an in-depth documentary on the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. This was such a well-done series. It was one of those series that is fascinating but also makes you incredibly angry at the man—and the system that allowed him to get it away with it for so long.
So that’s my shortlist. What have you been watching in the last month?
Some of my characters are created on the fly while I’m writing. Often, they’re ones that show up unexpectedly. Or, I’m so eager to start the novel that I don’t stop to consider who a character is until they’ve appeared into the story.
Dempsey from my Motts series was a character who surprised me. I never imagined he’d appear at all, never mind showing up in three of the novels. He played a far more central role than I anticipated.
Ivy and Tens are both characters who I knew would exist in their respective novels. I just didn’t take the time to develop them fully. I was in full panster mode while writing, so their personalities were created on the fly.
Ah, the joys of being a pantser.
Other characters required more careful thought and consideration.
Motts sprung from her name. I knew before I even plotted out the first book in my Motts Cold Case series that her name would be Pineapple Mottley. I spent weeks fully creating her marvellously quirky personality. She’s one of my all-time favourite characters.
Francis, from After the Scrum, was also developed from his name. I knew I wanted him to have a name that wasn’t gender-specific. The first meeting between Francis and Caddock had already been in my mind before I wrote the first line of the novel.
Of the two methods, I think I prefer the second. My characters who aren’t written on the fly are easier for me to write. But I still love all of them equally.
There were a million things I wanted to do with this novella. And the title was less of an issue than figuring out the plot. It started life as a ‘next door neighbors’ sort of romance that slowly shifted into the second chance romance it is today.
A few things never changed from the beginning. One of the MCs was always going to be a farmer who enjoyed cooking. I think it’s about the only thing that didn’t change.
The location changed.
The timeframe changed.
I was all over the place when I wanted to write this story. But then the idea of two people who’d had this awkward encounter then panicked, being forced to spend time together in isolation, took hold. It evolved a little while writing, but that core concept remained.
So, in the end, unlike many of my other stories, the title was relatively easy to decide on once I’d given the characters names.
I’d started with this idea of Farm to Table.
But Farm to Table isn’t a new concept, and I wanted something a little different.
Author Dahlia Donovan 
You must be logged in to post a comment.