You may not.
Seriously, she is one of those "pseudo"stars. You know the ones. Actresses or actors that had 15 seconds of fame from a popular TV show or movie, but because they happen to have famous parents or they happen to be savvy business people, they stretch those 15 seconds into hours and hours of semi-fame. They may appear on a reality TV show that sweats off their pounds or dances their booty off. They may "write" a book about their experiences. Either way, their star power is a bit diminished and on the blink.
I watch them more out of curiosity rather than for their true star power.
But today Tori Spelling stepped over the line.
Her crime?
She wrote a children's book.
I know. I know. Writing a children's book is not a crime, per se. Tori's crime was her explanation about why she wrote the book.
She responded to Meredith Viera's question, (and this is not a direct quote but what I remember from the interview,) "Well, Meredith, I read to my kids every night. So, I felt that I knew children's books, what worked and what didn't, so I just wrote one."
Really?
So, in Tori logic, because I have read good books and bad books, I can now be a successful author and writer. Would that logic work for anyone? If I go to an art museum and I observe the art and appreciate the good and the bad, can I then go home and paint a masterpiece? If I watch Dancing With the Stars each week and I appreciate the good dancers as opposed to the bad dancers, can I then presume to become a dancing queen?
The answer, dear Tori, is no.
The answer is no, because writing (and painting and dancing and sculpting . . .) is an art.
Good writing is filled with passion and drive.
It is filled with the author's feelings and thoughts and desires.
It pulls the reader into and inside a new world.
It forces the reader to feel something . . .anything.
Good writing can not just be observed and then imitated.
So, Tori, your flippant words about how you nonchalantly just wrote a children's book, angered me.
It angered me, because I do have a passion for writing. It consumes me, truthfully. I write because I feel like I have to write. I have to express myself. I have to get it out.
I do not purport to be an authority on good writing, nor do I think that I am the best writer on the planet, but . . . I am practicing and working at my craft each and every day.
And with every word that I type, with every phrase that I create, I am living my passion.
I am becoming a writer.
I am becoming a writer . . . in spite of published authors like you, Tori.
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Can you hear me clapping for you?
ReplyDeleteI'll bet someone else wrote that book anyway. *eye roll*
Things like that just make me want to scream.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't realize that the Spelling Empire included publishing. I thought it was strictly tv.
I agree with a lot of what you wrote but I really do like Tori Spelling. I grew up with 90210 and watching made for tv movies so to me, she isn't a 15 minutes of fame-r.
ReplyDeleteBut her explanation for writing a children's book does make her sound like an entitled brat, although she is a hard working mom of two.
Would she be an author, clothing designer, etc. without her name? Probably not, but - children's book aside - she's a pretty talented momma.
GRR huge pet peeve. Famous actors and actresses getting book contracts, because they are qualified how? Would I like to collect their ghost writer's paycheck? Er. Um. Nah...too high a price to pay. Eternal shame in exchange for a buck.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way when Jamie Lee Curtis wrote a children's book. Annie, you a more than becoming a writer.
ReplyDeleteFuuny thing is, she played the spoiled brat in that show...not too different than real life, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteIf I were Master of the Universe, I would put all gossips in a fire ring on the Alot Island and let them live in the hell they create for everyone else... I would NOT, repeat, NOT, ban mayonnaise because a plain raw egg on your sandwich makes it very hard to hold...
ReplyDeleteFound you through SITS. So glad I did! This post hit home with me as it truly is my goal to one day author and publish a children's book. To date, my computer is full of partial drafts and incomplete thoughts, so it is frustrating to hear that Ms. Spelling "just wrote one." Humph. In the meantime, let's give her a dose of her own medicine by watching hours upon hours of 90210 reruns and then becoming Hollywood starlets. Who's with me?
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