When TV is good

[seabird78]

Dear Glee,

Why do you have to be so effing powerful? And how is it possible that so many of your characters offer something for me to strongly relate to?

You destroy me week after week, and I think last night's episode was your most potent yet.

I want you to tell me how you do it, so that I might steal your technique and learn how to use it to create an unforgettable novel.

Don't you see? The effect you have on me is the exact same effect I want my work to have on other people! And I realize that I need to finish transferring my work from my head to the page in order for that to happen. But before I can do that, I feel like I need to get a better grip on the material. I need to know and understand Julie and Tim and Denny and Stevie and Kat and Casey and Beth and even Mark Madness as well as you know Finn and Quinn and Puck and Rachel and Mr. Schu and Sue Silvester and Kurt and all the other kids and adults that you manage to weave into your intricately plotted web.

I want all the elements of my story to come together as effortlessly as yours do. Or as effortlessly as you make it seem. But I'm not much of a big-picture girl, so this can be problematic. I'm looking at the trees and ignoring the forest, ya know? Or at least, I am when I can be bothered to even do that much.

Please, please, pretty please with sugar on top...tell me your secret! Is it simply not giving a shit, and just being willing to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks? Or is it that you have a whole team of people to sort things out, while I am just one hapless writer, overwhelmed by and terrified of the sheer volume of the task at hand?

I'm sure I won't get any answers from you, so I guess it's back to figuring it out myself. Figuring it out, and trusting that I can complete a readable draft, much like I recently completed an unrelated piece of writing that also had me shaking in my shoes.

Anyway, thanks for listening.

Jenny

Comments

[fuzzilla.livejournal.com]

"Glee" has gotten to me, too... The dad who kicked the girl out saying "when you were a kid I took you and your sister to the football (baseball?) game and you fell asleep in my arms and I hoped nothing exciting would happen so it wouldn't wake you" so you can see how heartbroken he is... The gay kid talking about the dresser drawers that smell like his dead mom's perfume and sitting near it for comfort... The little moments of depth...

[seabird78.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those were two of the moments I was thinking of when I wrote that entry. Those and the part where Quinn started crying and said she just wanted her Daddy to hold her and tell her everything was going to be okay.

Turned me into an absolute mess. But I didn't mind much because they somehow manage to maintain a beautiful, raw, authenticity while they're manipulating your emotions.