YES, WATCHING TV IS IMPORTANT FOR WRITERS
A couple of years ago, I read Stephen King’s revered memoir On Writing. There was one line in it that made me take pause, however:
“TV — while working out or anywhere else — really is about the last thing an aspiring writer needs.” (pg 148)
Here’s what I’ll say to his credit: 21 years ago when this was written, TV was still mainly sitcoms with laugh tracks. We had only just entered “The Golden Age of Television” with The Sopranos premiering a year before. I will also second his advice to read often to become a better writer — and if you want to read more, I wrote an article for some tips. In fact, between the two mediums, reading is more useful in exposing a writer to the craft than television, and therefore, I think writers should invest more time in the former.
That said — I don’t think television stifles writing as much as we would think.
When I was writing a teleplay, I watched a Seinfeld episode and timed it between scene transitions and humor beats to fix my pacing. Whenever I watch Frasier or Arrested Development, I learn how these shows create over-the-top conflicts that are unique to these (un)likeable characters. After reading A Song of Ice and Fire, I rewatched Game of Thrones and noted what changed and remained the same between the two stories — and the purpose of these changes. For example, without being too spoiler-y, I thought that it was smart of the show to replace Edric Storm with Gendry on Dragonstone with Stannis Baratheon and Melisandre.
Shows teach me about plot, consistency, and efficiency in storytelling, character development, and story structure in a shorter time span. When seen as a different form of storytelling, it becomes quite useful.
Television can also sometimes inform me. For example, I recently watched a docu-series about Scientology that helps me understand patterns in cults, which I’m using for a project that I’m working on.
It’s also important for writers to be exposed to various mediums because the writer who is skilled in more mediums will publish more. If you wrote teleplays, are you going to learn best about the medium just through books? You need exposure.
But to expand on my point, writing a novel versus writing a teleplay can get the story out in a quicker amount of time. Please note, though, that I’m not saying that a story that should be a novel should be written as a teleplay instead. Honor the medium that your story would best be told in — the Game of Thrones show, ironically, would not translate well as a novel, because it presents its story in a way unique to television. On this note, the writer who is skilled in multiple mediums can better tell any story that comes into their head. If I was only a novelist, for example, I don’t think that every idea that came to me would best be told in novel form. However, if I was a novelist, teleplay writer, short story teller, and article writer, I would be able to tell more stories in the form that they would best work in.
Yes, writers should watch television. They should also watch movies, read articles, watch YouTube videos, and do whatever else they can to expose themselves to storytelling and information.
But above all else — they should also always write.
