Support the Writers' Strike!

I usually live in a day-to-day haze, but even I've heard about the writers' strike going on in Hollywood.

The gist I originally got was that "writers are asking for too much" and "your favorite shows are going into reruns" and "your favorite shows might be canceled." Well, that might be the case, but so what? Writers are way down on the food chain, especially in Hollywood. They're expected to come up with brilliant scripts for very little pay.

I'm reminded of something I read in one of the many movie studio books I have lying around my house. I read about Fay Wray (yeah, she of King Kong fame) saying that she literally worked around the clock during The Depression, working on one movie during the day, taking a short break, then reporting for another movie at night. She said she was glad of the work at the time, but she was utterly spent, and I'll bet she wasn't well compensated.

Then the actors unionized, and producers could no longer do that sort of stuff.

This is along those lines. As an aspiring writer, I want the writers in Hollywood to get their due, whatever that is, be it more up-front money, more in the way of pensions, whatever. I know for a fact that most published fiction writers cannot write 10-12 hours per day; they have day jobs, just like the rest of us. (Stephen King and J. K. Rowling and other super successful writers are the exceptions.)

I really admire people like Tightrope Walker, who's a writer on House, my favorite TV show.

To get more insight into this, go to her post and read it through, as she's more up on this than I am. (It's a long post, BTW, but a worthwhile and enlightening read.)

I wish them all the luck in the world, and I truly hope this goes in the writers favor. (BTW, the support avatar on the upper right side of my blog I copied from here.)

~Nancy Beck