Writing a memoir is such a private, personal experience that it's intimidating to think of adapting it for television.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I don't know where the idea originated that memoir writing is cathartic. For me, it's always felt like playing my own neurosurgeon, sans anesthesia. As a memoirist, you have to crack your head open and examine every uncomfortable thing in there.
I really like writing from real-life experiences. Audiences seem to prefer the stuff I couldn't have made up.
I've done episodic television and some other things that have been written by other people.
It makes it harder to write if I watch a lot of television, because television is not like a written story.
I thought, frankly, that it would be more pleasant to write a memoir than it was.
I have written a memoir here and there, and that takes its own form of selfishness and courage. However, generally speaking, I have no interest in writing about my own life or intruding in the privacy of those around me.
Series television is kind of intensive in terms of time. You fall hard for TV writing, but it's almost love-hate. You're under pressure all the time, but that pressure gets interesting things out of you that are, you know, mysterious.
I don't think you can really make television based on what you think audiences want. You can only make stories that you like, because you have to watch it so many times.
TV is the place that writers want to be.
With the marketing pressures driving the book world today, it's much easier to get the author of a memoir on a television show than a serious novelist.