As I mentioned when I blogged about Orphan Black, I believe great Tv shows can teach us about great writing–whether on-screen or off. I have a huge crush on Jane the Virgin right now, and a lot of it is because it’s a show that shows great confidence in its writing.
I discovered Jane the Virgin, the new CW show about a virgin who finds herself pregnant after an OBGYN mishap, this weekend. Already I love it so much that I’ve made it my reward for revising chapters in the muddy middle of my novel. (For those of you knee-deep in revising, you know this is no small thing.)
I love the show for its supremely likable lead (Gina Rodriguez as Jane), its quirky humor, its warm depiction of family, and its two swoon-worthy male leads. But, above all, I love the show because of its confidence–something I’d be wise to emulate in my own writing.
Jane the Virgin, based on a telenovela, isn’t your typical primetime show. It’s narrated by a smooth male voice, for instance, telling us Jane’s story. When new characters are introduced, their often hilarious titles pop up on the screen. Though telenovelas are different than soap operas, it also features what comes to mind when we think of soaps: an ensemble cast, dramatic secrets, complicated family and romantic relationships, stunning revelations–even murder.
In the wrong hands, these soap elements, narration, and clever captions could come off as strange or cheesy. But the writers behind Jane the Virgin know what they’re doing. They’re writing a telenovela, and they’ve kick it up to eleven. They celebrate its soap elements, they parody them. They fully commit to its shocking reveals, its romance, its humor. The writers aren’t just penning a script; they are writing it in neon pink.
This is confidence, and it’s something writers, myself included, sometimes struggle with. It’s hard to be bold in writing anything, because often being bold means you’ll alienate readers as much as you’ll gain them. But to not be bold in your writing means to write a thriller without fear, a literary fiction with mousy sentences, a romance without swoon.
So when I’m writing this week, I’m thinking of Jane the Virgin and trying to bring that boldness to my own words. Because if something deserves to be written, it deserves to be written in neon pink.