In which I put on the hat of televison producer, and steal from Sarah Dessen.

I have (no joke) been online all day, and done absolutely NOTHING worthwhile that matters in the real world. (Before you start, let me just say that a LOT of nail polish was involved. Yeah. THAT kind of worthlessnessism) I would LIKE to think that this is just one of those creative experience things, but who am I kidding? I’m NOT writing. Aaaaand as Mur Lafferty says, I should be. Ha. ANYWAY. I was stalking reading Sarah Dessen’s blog, and saw this post. If you don’t know who Sarah Dessen is, (what is WRONG WITH YOU?) she is an AMAZING author, living in Chapel Hill (NC. Keep up) and a self professed TV fan. I’m not quite up to her caliber (both in the ways of writing and televisionfandomania) (wow, I’m really into making up words tonight) (and parentheses SPAMMING) (no more caps lock for you) but I’d like to be some day. In the above linked-for-your-ease (hehe) blog update, she wrote:

Just watch: next, they'll make a show about aspiring authors. They'll call it By The Book: The Next Great Novelist, and gather together twenty people or whatever in a gorgeous loft with pretty laptops and too much coffee and let them just go at it while they try to write drafts and tackle various writing exercises. Witness the drama of writer's block as it happens! Watch pretty people turn ugly when responding to editorial letters! FEEL the drama as they rush to finish chapters and read them aloud to a judges' panel made up of Pat Conroy, Jennifer Weiner, and, say, a critic from either the New Yorker or the NYT.

I just read that TODAY, but have been plotting a writer’s reality show all week. I was thinking it would be ten writers, and each challenge takes up a week at a time… Obviously, a ten week challenge.

The first week, their challenge is simple: write (at least) 50,000 words of a NEW manuscript in seven days. That’s just over 7,000 words a day, which is actually kind of do-able. Of course, I can get 600ish words in half an hour, so maybe that’s just me.

The next challenge, is to edit that MS, and send out query letters to agents. Two-show immunity for anyone who signs.

That next few weeks, they have to write at least 30,000 words of a specific genre, which is where the guest judges (and author-visitor-mentors) come in! Okay, so during that time, part of the voting process (you know there HAS to be a voting process) is that the first chapter (or what is best believed to represent the novel) of each MS will be posted online, and WE THE VIEWERS get to vote on our favorite.

The winner will receive a one-book deal with a major publishing house. Their big break.  So what do YOU think? I know I want to watch it!

Thanks Sarah, for the “prompt” and I’m going to go procrastinate now. BYE!