|
Where's the
writer's Pop Idol? |
||
| By Jason Young | ||
In spite of the fact that the winners of Popstars (Hearsay) had a short shelf life, the rejects of the series (Liberty X) ironically have gone on to carve a career out for themselves. Will Young, Gareth Gates, Darius and Hayley Evetts have become successful after graduating from Pop Idol, in the same way that David Sneddon, Sinead and Lamarr from Fame Academy have followed suit. Not to mention Javine and Girls Aloud from Popstars – The Rivals. There have been more successes than failures from these reality television programmes, but not once has there been a nationwide search for a new writer.
Ever since the success of the Harry Potter phenomenon, reading has become fashionable amongst young and old. More and more people are interested in reading books, and that demand should be supplied in a writers’ version of Fame Academy. Reading is a visual medium in the same way that listening to classical music is a visual experience. It creates pictures in your mind which enables you to follow the story through in your head. Let’s not forget that the very first feature film in Hollywood (The Squaw Man) was an adaptation of a novel. Most of Cecil B. DeMille’s films were adaptations of novels. Stagecoach was an adaptation of a short story. Rear Window was an adaptation of a short story. Most of what you see in the cinema is an adaptation of some form of literature which is a testimony to the visual medium that is writing.
Recently, the BBC showed a two-part dramatisation of poetry readings, and Channel 4 did the same with The Story of the Novel. Instead of Simon Cowell, Nicki Chapman, Dr. Fox and Pete Waterman, the panel of judges should be made up of a fiction editor, a literary agent, a published author (like Jilly Cooper) and a literary critic like Bonnie Greer or Professor Germaine Greer. The qualifying rounds should involve entrants reading out their work (maximum 2,500 words) where the judges will decide whether or not they will graduate to the knock-out stage. The graduates will be whittled down to the final ten either by audience participation or by the judges, and then the finalists will spend ten weeks in a retreat such as Ty Newydd or the Arvon Foundation where they will receive tuition by an author and a manuscript doctor (ie the Literary Consultancy) and then deliver their 2,500-word piece on a live show where the audience will decide who they want to stay. The person with the least votes is relegated from the community. This will give audiences insights into the publishing industry as well as putting faces to the movers and shakers in the business. But most importantly, it will showcase the talent of aspiring writers who have been marginalised by agents and publishers.
Return to Link Magazine