Thinking Things Thru

I admit it, I'm in the lifelong habit of watching soaps.  But gimme a break with the doppelganger stories!

When I was working on One Life I thought Days of Our Lives was superbly written.  I was in awe of Sherry Anderson and her staff.  Things have changed, of course.  People burn out, they leave, they whatever.  What soap writers don't do is go on to writing movies to my knowledge.  They can barely make it to nighttime.

Writing a soap opera.  This is really really hard to do.  I can't convey how difficult it is to put out an hour show (thanks, Paul, that was a bad idea) 5 days every week of the year for freaking ever.

Now on Days Sami is sleeping with Faux Rafe and doesn't notice?

When I used to go into story meetings the producer would say "Keep your main character smart".  How does this make Sami smart?

I'm perfectly happy to shout at the television set.  But is that good if you have the audience guffawing at you.  They will put their entertainment investment elsewhere eventually and for daytime television there has been a steady degradation in audience numbers for years.

Why?  They tell stupid stories.

Why do they do that?  There's not enough time to think anything through.  (Go back to the 5 days a week forever thought.)

Daytime will eventually die.  But digital books will be forever.  Again I find myself trying to give what's perhaps antiquated advice but it's a calling for me and you came here for me.  Unless it was for an image.

Everything has been said before but it can be refreshed, it can become new again if you think it thru.  If there are 15 plots, you're not going to be the 1 writer in 1000 years who comes up with something new.  What's new to the plot is you.  You can infuse it with your experience, your perceptions and your style.   You can make your characters smart and clever and lead  the reader to unexpected places.

At some point the excitement of digital books will wear off.  Yes, this is true.  Then we will be back to the audience expecting a cracking good story.

This is way, way fun!