Robin
Leach, once the host of the entertaining television show, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, died at the end of August. With his passing, I was inspired to imagine a
show dedicated to authors: Lifestyles of
the Poor and Wannabe Famous.
Most
writers know that penning books is not a lucrative deal for the vast majority
who peddle their creative talents. But
they also know that some, however low the percentage, do break through and make
a pretty good living from their passions.
Maybe a television show dedicated to highlighting the lifestyle of writers, from the
undiscovered raw talents to the best-selling, wealthy authors, would help usher
in a new era for the writing class.
Writers
– and the public – need to understand and fully appreciate what our creatives
go through to pursue their dreams. What
fuels the writings of an author? How
does the author co-exist in the world he imagines onto paper and the one he
must navigate in reality? How do authors survive the lean years without killing
their hopes completely? How do writers view fame and fellow writers? How do writers define acceptance? How do
writers think – and feel and react to the life they are thrust into? How do writers really live- their lifestyles,
habits, relationships, health and mental state?
This could be powerful TV!
This could be powerful TV!
Robin
Leach had a passionate personality, so enthusiastically
thrusting himself into uber wealthy people’s homes and lives. He let us experience whatever his
peering camera explored, leading us with a distinctive voice and curious but charming way of probing.
For people to appreciate today’s author, what voice or personality would be appropriate?
For people to appreciate today’s author, what voice or personality would be appropriate?
Writers
are not necessarily a homogenous group.
Indeed, writers span the ages, races, religions, and socio-economical
classes. A southern senior may be a
totally different person and writer than a northeastern millennial or a black
Californian gay man. Writers are as
varied as the nation itself, perhaps filled with more diversity than any other
occupation.
But
to be a writer, regardless of genre, ties a group of people together. They are attached not just by the words they
use or the screens they touch to click out a masterpiece, but by a spirit. The soul of the writer, at times, can seem
like it’s shared by all writers. It is
the essence of the writer’s being that a TV show should seek to capture.
Would
such a show get good ratings? Would
advertisers find a calling here? Would
the writing community tune in to a show that too closely mirrors the lives of
its members? Should the show be more aspirational than reflective? Shall it take us to where we hope to go as
writers – or inspire others to become writers?
Leach’s
show appealed to the dreaming viewer who wanted to live what he or she saw on
the TV screen. Viewers may have felt
jealousy and envy, but they also felt pleased to have access – however distant
and voyeuristic – to actually look at the lives they can only dream about.
Could a TV show for writers help writers dream to be better – or will it merely affirm to writers that their story is the same as others who seek to pen their riches?
Could a TV show for writers help writers dream to be better – or will it merely affirm to writers that their story is the same as others who seek to pen their riches?
What
if a TV show searching for truth and reality about writers has a negative
impact, showing the public that writing is not as easy as it looks, that the
writer’s lifestyle is far from glamorous?
What if it turns people off from writing?
Writing
chooses writers. Those who pick up the
pen or pound the keyboard as if searching for the write code that allows them
to enter into the kingdom of fame and fortune, write because it’s their
destiny. They may not even have a
choice. Circumstances, thoughts, and certain events conspired to place them
right where they are on the writing spectrum.
There’s free will but writers know who they are long before they know
much of anything else. They find a
natural ease in moving words around to accurately fit a moment, as if they were
working in an airport tower and guiding hundreds of planes to land or take-off
safely and in a synchronized manner. So many
moving parts – but the writer knows where they all belong.
Robin
Leach may have been the right man at the right place. If not him, someone would have created a TV
show about rich and beautiful people. Everyone
is curious to see how the elites live.
They want to hang on and dream in the backyards filled with mansions,
private jets, huge yachts, and hot spouses.
Will people be eager to see the disturbed inner thinkings and
impoverished surroundings of a struggling writer?
“Tune
in next week for another insightful episode of Lifestyles of the Poor and Wannabe Famous, where we go on location
to one man’s basement where he lives as an unwed 32-year-old with his parents. Watch as he pens what could be the next Great
American novel – or the very next impetus for dozens of publisher rejections.”
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