Reality TV: Written

Do you watch reality tv?

It's okay. You can admit it here and feel no shame.

I watch the Bachelor (or its counterpart). Most seasons, anyway. While there's always too much drama, too much superficial content, I get caught up in character study, and the layer of personalities. How humans are with one another. It's a people-watcher's (and writer's) dream, really.

I love the documentary-type stuff. A&E's Intervention is gripping, fascinating, raw, hopeful, redemptive. Love that one. American Idol can be good, too.

But there's one I haven't seen on tv, and I'd like to. Here's my idea...

Several aspiring writers are selected from dozens, all of whom "auditioned" by submitting a completed manuscript. After a respected and revered team of industry professionals have determined these competitors, based on raw talent, skill, potential, genre, the writers arrive to a secluded location (a beach house, a mountain cabin, a provincial chalet, etc.), ready to create.

Each week a prompt is given: a photo, video clip, paragraph, a string of words. The contestants are then sent off to brainstorm, to plot, write, edit, polish. To make something grand from the little they were given. A word quantity has to be met. Time is limited. It's a deadline thing, y' know?

When time is up, they return with their piece... and present it to the team of judges. One is a bestselling novelist. Another is a national columnist. The third? Well, of course, he or she would be an editor from a large publishing house... Anyway, they read. They confer. Rip things apart, lift things up. Make a decision as to whose writing is the best. And whose is unworthy. Each week, they send one writer home.

That means, at the end of the competition? There's one writer left. That writer wins. A book contract!

Gosh. Is your heart palpitatin' like mine? I would SO geek out over a show like this.

Call me, Book TV. *wink*

**

Thanks so much, everyone, for the prayers and well wishes. I did have a severe case of strep throat, and it was bad enough that had it gotten worse, I'd have had to visit the ER. But I know your prayers worked, the medicine still is, and I'm back on my feet again. Feeling good, and thanking you.

Last Night

My girls had been tucked in, misterwrites wasn't home yet, and my time was my own. I had a tough choice to make. I wanted to write, because I hadn't had the chance all day. But I also wanted to watch some of my favorite shows (read: the only ones I ever catch on a regular basis).

So I considered my options carefully. Writing needed to take precedence, because I'm determined to make a huge effort with it this month. But man, I really wanted to watch The Office (so ridiculously hilarious!) and ER (sucked me in this season). It's such a massive decision. Will my world slow to a crawl if I miss an episode? Will my mind implode if I don't write the next section of chapter two?

During my gut-turning deliberation, I remembered how my husband always asks why I watch "crap shows." (Just for the record, it's the hour-long dramas he refers to.) This question is usually preceded by my distress over a fictional storyline (or that Law & Order sound: dng dng). He doesn't understand the draw. And, for awhile, I didn't either. But then an episode of ER hit home. The plot was so wrenching, the characters so riveting, that as I blubbered for breath and blew my nose, it dawned on me. It's the emotional ride.

And what's a writer if not one who enjoys an emotional ride?

I like it when shows (movies, what have you) make me feel: Elation over a victorious moment, indignation over circumstance, a tickle down to my funny bone. Just like a good book. And allowing myself that ride opens up possibility, shows me potential. It all comes down to, as I've mentioned before, what goes into our reserve of thoughts and feelings, for our writing. So, in essence, I could treat watching ER as research. Or, I could forego the new episodes, draw on my previously-acquired reserve, and write.

What did I do? What anyone this day and age would do, of course.

I plopped in front of the tv with my laptop on, WIP open. It was the best of both worlds.