2007-11-14

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

2 comments:

April said...

I will check that out - I so love House. It's great. I love the writer for that because you so want to hate House, but you just can't! she does a great job!

I agree..something needs to be done. I think a lot of aspiring writers, before they do the research, think it's an easy way to make a lot of money. It's not. No, I dont' know from experience yet. And frankly, as much as I would love to be able to quit my day job and stay home and write for a living, all I really want is to see my published books on the shelf. I want to see my book binded together and published! Anyway...i'm going to go check out her blog.

Nancy Beck said...

And frankly, as much as I would love to be able to quit my day job and stay home and write for a living, all I really want is to see my published books on the shelf. I want to see my book binded together and published!

Exactly right. :-) I had a short story published quite a few years ago (my only writing credit, alas, so far), and let me tell you...it is a thrill beyond belief to see a byline with your name on it! I got a flat fee for the story (not much), but I didn't really care.

So, yeah, if I could stay home and write all day it would be wonderful. But there's that special thrill when you see your name on a story in a magazine or, especially, on the spine of a book.