That's a bad decision, frankly. Fiction production is boring from beginning to end. What they should do is a playwrights reality show. At the end of each episode, we would see the scenes by the playwrights. People could literally watch the rehearsal process, the (re)writing process, and watch the finished product. Only difficulty is that the scenes would have to be 2 minutes long at the beginning.
On Jun 30, 2:42 pm, Jonathan <[email protected]> wrote: > Okay, this kind of thing may be one future of published fiction. If I > were asked to participate, I think I'd do it. > > Sent to you by Jonathan via Google Reader: Victoria Strauss -- Fourth > Fiction: (Yet) Another Literary Reality Show via Writer Beware Blogs! > by [email protected] (Victoria Strauss) on 6/30/09 > Regular readers of this blog will know that I have a small obsession > with so-called literary reality shows. (Amazed that such things could > even exist? See this recent post for a recap.) To date, seven of these > suckers have surfaced. Five never got past the planning and > announcement stages. The jury's still out on the sixth (I'm not holding > my breath), and the seventh is still embryonic (not holding my breath > there either). > > Now, however, there's a literary reality show that might actually go > all the way. > > Fourth Night, a blog maintained by writer Constantine Markides, will > launch FourthFiction, "the first blog-based literary reality show," on > July 4. Twelve writers will write original novels, which they'll post > in tri-monthly installments, according to literary guidelines provided > by Mr. Markides. Readers will vote to eliminate one contestant per > round. On December 4, the single survivor of all twelve rounds will be > announced. What does he or she win? Well, maybe nothing, apart from the > sense of achievement in having completed a novel in five months. But > maybe a small-press publishing contract. Mr. Markides says that he > approached several small presses at BEA to discuss the possibility of > funding limited publication of the winner's novel. (Writer Beware-ly > caveat: some small publishers are no prize, and a number of really bad > ones were at BEA. I hope Mr. Markides has thoroughly checked them out.) > > The writers are anonymous--and some, apparently, have never written > fiction before. They'll be Twittering at will during the month of July, > as a way of warming up and letting readers get to know their styles. > The contest proper will begin on August 4. > > In my opinion, this is really the only way a literary reality show is > possible. The writing process simply is not interesting to observe (nor > are writers--or if they are, it's generally not because of their > writing), nor is it easy to come up with telegenic challenges involving > authoring ("Writers, give us 5,000 words on love and death while > sitting at a sticky table in a noisy Starbucks with a latte that isn't > hot enough, using only one hand! You've got two hours--now go!"). > Attempting a televised literary reality show is a recipe for failure > (as Tony Cowell, Simon Cowell's brother seems to have discovered) or > ridiculousness (as demonstrated by announced plans for The Ultimate > Author, in which contestants were to vie hotly for supremacy in such > vital authorial areas as spelling and arranging a room attractively for > a book club gathering). By putting all the emphasis on the writing, and > cutting image and identity out of the picture entirely, Fourth Night > has come up with a literary reality show concept that actually seems > workable. > > You can participate, or just observe, by subscribing to free email > updates or Fourth Fiction's RSS feed. > Things you can do from here: > - Subscribe to Writer Beware Blogs! using Google Reader > - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your > favorite sites --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
