I suppose it was inevitable.
We’ve had reality competition shows for singers, models, fashion designers, dancers, chefs, potters and even crafters, (the charming “Making It” co-hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman), so now we’re going to get a reality show featuring writers.
Maybe.
“America’s Next Great Author” the “groundbreaking reality TV show for writers” is only in the earliest planning stages, but the people behind the effort, including host/executive producer Kwame Alexander — author of the Newberry-winning middle-grade novel, “The Crossover” — suggests that we’re looking at a serious attempt at bringing writing to television.
The project is actively looking for aspiring writers who will pitch their books to a panel of publishing experts, and then apparently compete in other challenges (perhaps similar to Top Chef’s quickfires), while also endeavoring to complete a book starting from scratch in 30 days.
Personally, I am a mix of skeptical and fascinated by this proposal.
One source of my skepticism is the apparent lack of hard currency supporting the project, as the proposed prize for the single “winner” of the pilot episode is $2,500. I well know that writing novels is not particularly well-paid, but given the amount of time and effort the show seems to require for even a single episode, and the fact that only one contestant can expect that payment, I’m not sure what kinds of candidates the show can expect to attract.
Another source of skepticism, which is intertwined with my fascination, is wondering how on earth they are going to make the act of writing interesting to a TV viewing audience. Other reality competition shows have action inherently built into their structures. Singers sing, dancers dance, crafters glue pieces of felt together.
On “The Great British Baking Show,” even an utterly mundane task like carrying a decorative cake to the judging table becomes a breath-holding moment as the audience worries that those hours of hard work may topple to the floor.
But writing is an entirely internal process without external action other than words appearing on the page. The act of writing can be deeply engrossing. Watching someone else do it? Not so much.
As I’ve been working on this column, I’ve been trying to imagine what a TV show could dramatize. Is it me talking to myself in the shower as I was thinking about what I might want to write?
Would they want to capture me making kissy noises to the dog, asking “Who’s a good boy?”
What about a challenge to see which competitor can go the longest without checking Twitter?
I just lost.
If you’re curious about what it looks like for a writer to write, there’s already an example available from over 20 years ago currently archived on YouTube. In a pioneering project for its time, Robert Olen Butler, author of more books than I can count, the winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (“A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain”), and also my graduate school mentor, captured his entire process of writing a single short story over 30 hours of video.
It is a fascinating artifact of what writing is truly like, a long, slow process of mining one’s mind, often in subconscious ways, for the words that express whatever it is you’re trying to convey on the page. Bob Butler is uncommonly attuned to his own method, making it even more interesting, but no offense to my old professor, not interesting enough for a reality competition series.
I’m for anything that elevates the act of writing and station of writers, but for me, this is wait and see.
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read
1. “The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry” by Gabrielle Zevin
2. “The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt
3. “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens
4. “The Last Thing He Told Me” by Laura Dave
5. “Let’s Not Do That Again” by Grant Ginder
— Missy P., Albuquerque, New Mexico
As I mentioned in a previous column, Mrs. Biblioracle and I have recently moved houses, which required me to lay hands on every book I own and brought me back into contact with some I love, but had fallen out of the top of my consciousness. One of those is “Trust Exercise” by Susan Choi, which I think is a great fit for Missy.
1. “Anxious People” by Fredrik Backman
2. “Olive, Again” by Elizabeth Strout
3. “The Abstinence Teacher” by Tom Perrotta
4. “Flying Solo” by Linda Holmes
5. “The Lincoln Highway” by Amor Towles
— Carole T., Chicago
I think Carole will enjoy a witty, emotionally engaged novel of small town people trying to do right by each other, Katherine Heiny’s “Early Morning Riser.”
1. “The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life” by David Brooks
2. “When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi
3. “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America” by Beth Macy
4. “The Testaments” by Margaret Atwood
5. “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel
— Chiara M., Brooklyn, New York
I’m going to lean into that first book on the list and offer what I think is a superior answer to the question of how we’re meant to judge if we’re living lives of meaning, “A Decent Life” by Todd May.
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.
