TV is people, too

Issue #48: Yep, Watching TV Counts as “Reading”—But Only if You Watch It That Way

Read a Lot Series part 4/4

Four weeks ago, I kicked off this series with a famous Stephen King quote, from his book On Writing:

I work with a lot of writers who don’t really think of themselves as “writers.” At first blush, this might sound like head trash—impostor syndrome; a confidence issue, “mindset work.”

But that’s only a tiny bit of the work I do. Most of my clients don’t think of themselves as “writers,” because they’re NOT writers, as in, they have a whole career doing something else:

A therapist.
A systems integrator.
A marketing strategist.
A photographer.
A coach.

But writing is weird because unlike other skillsets, it slithers into the work you really do, entwining itself into your daily duties whether you like it or not.

A horse trainer, at some point in their career, will have to write about themselves in a professional capacity. Maybe they’ll start a YouTube channel or a podcast about, y’know, horses.

A landscaper might create a series of how-to pieces to help people DIY their outdoor spaces. A tarot reader might build an on-demand resource library.

But a landscaper will never have to just… casually train a horse. A tarot reader won’t suddenly find themselves installing a koi pond.

And if they DID? They’d surely spend a little time making sure they knew what they were doing. You’d never treat any other skillset the way most people treat their writing—like a pesky little task to cross off a list.

People who don’t think of themselves as writers are not likely to spent their time doing things that writers do:

👉Reading books about how to be a better writer

👉Doing warm-ups and timed writing prompts to loosen up

👉Attending workshops, conferences, and meetups about writing

But I bet they DO spend a good deal of time streaming their favorite TV show!

Boom—there ya go.

There’s a lesson in The Craft (the suspense module) where we watch the iconic crop duster chase scene from Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest. In that same module, I also use examples from Lord of The Rings *and* Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (an extremely suspenseful show, btw!).

Folks who have never seen a Hitchcock film before can literally see the suspense unfold onscreen—the tension, the disorientation, the WTF is happening right now?

LoTR nerds immediately grasp the suspense that arises from conflicting motivations—Gollum’s desire to get the ring back vs. Frodo’s quest to destroy it vs. Sam’s mission to protect Frodo at all costs. (Love triangle???)

And the wildcard—suspense is a huge part of successful comedy writing, and if you’ve seen Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, then bonus—I also just made you smile. 😀

The screen opens up a wider variety of well-established archetypes and references to pull from. Not everyone has read Catcher in The Rye or Othello or Beloved or whatever.

Non-literary examples (film and television) also create a different container for teaching, understanding, and practicing writing craft—free from the mental gymnastics, loaded connotations, and heavy expectations that come with writing.

Plus, all those pieces start out as written content anyway.

And so, I submit that ANY content where writing is involved counts as “reading a lot,” including (and especially) film and TV.

You might be thinking, okay Sam, but what about Love is Blind?

Listen. I don’t make the rules, and neither does Stephen King—who, by the way, thinks ALL television rots your brain. (Okay, boomer.)

Is there a narrative arc? Are there characters? Do you get something out of this type of analysis? Then fuck it—it counts if you say it counts.

And I KNOW at least one of you is already making a case for Real Housewives.

I think it’s way too easy for people who teach other people about writing to dub themselves an arbiter of taste, a judge of what’s “good” and what’s “bad.”

But that’s BS. Just more of the snooty, nose-in-the-air exclusivity and gatekeeping that keeps people who LITERALLY WRITE EVERY DAY from thinking of themselves as “writers.”

And we don't do that shit around here.

Well, that wraps up the Read A Lot Series! To recap, here’s what we covered:

If you want the TL;DR of this whole thing (4 weeks later, haha), it’s this:

Read whatever you want.
Like whatever you like.
Watch whatever you want.
Stories are everywhere, if you look.
If you write, you’re a writer.
Reading is fun!

I'll be back in a couple days with two new opportunities to get my eyes on your writing:

1. ​1-1 Coaching is now in beta! I'm sending the official invite this week!
2. A spontaneous group workshopping opportunity I'm pulling together on the fly! Sliding scale, capped at 5 participants. Eventually I'd like to host one of these every month-ish.

Until next time,

P.S. Housekeeping question: I’m in the process of moving pieces like this over to my blog, here. Once I’ve done that, do you still want to receive the whole piece in your inbox, like this?

Or would you rather just get an excerpt that you can click over to if/when you want to and have time?

Or do you not know? Because I also don’t know. LOL

​Have you seen my updated website? I've been working my little fingertips off this quarter and I'm just about ready to make it public!!

Try it Yourself

Whatever show you’re currently bingeing, see if you can take in the next episode as a piece of writing.

What do you notice about story structure, pacing, suspense? Does the dialogue feel natural and real, or forced? Is there a character that grates on you? Why do you think that is?
​
This is probably going to work best with a scripted, fictional show vs. a reality show—but hey, prove me wrong.