Inspiration on the Small Screen

When I was a kid I didn’t really understand Westerns, but I watched plenty of them—John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Gary Cooper, Audie Murphy, Robert Mitchum—the list is endless.  And then there were the TV ones—Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Virginian.  I even categorize the original Dallas as a kind of Western; the ranch played an important role in the mythology of the show, and Ray & Donna, the cowboy and the lady, had the love story that most captured my attention. Little wonder, then, that as a grown-up I’d write a bunch of novels featuring cowboys and not think twice about it.

If you can name a soap opera that aired in the past thirty years, I probably watched it.  My favorites were The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of our Lives—and I hold a soft spot for Guiding Light and As the World Turns, which I watched alongside my beloved Mamaw Bell.  Anyway, those things, which I still watch, gave me a good background in story structure, romance, and continuing dramas.  And I’m also pretty sure they made me more empathetic and understanding of problems and circumstances I have (thankfully) never encountered.  Empathy, more than anything else, may be the writer’s greatest tool.  You have to walk in your characters’ shoes, endure their pain, and experience their joy.  Entertainment value can only carry you so far.  If you don’t “feel” anything for the characters in a book, TV show, or movie, what’s the point?