I can't get enough of trash TV

To me, trash TV isn't really... well... trash. Sure, it tends to show the worst of the worst. Cheating spouses and deadbeat dads. But I think there's more to it than that. What I really love about it is the drama. The complete and total overwhelming drama. That's what "trash" TV is really about.

And isn't that what a good story is about? Aren't we, as writers, supposed to open up these new worlds and bring drama and angst and a thousand different emotions to our readers? If you really think about it, before there was television, books and stories were trash TV. It probed the darkest reaches of our humanity and the emotions that we lived with. Today we watch them on television, then we read them on the pages of a book.

And while they're entertaining, I have to say that I love to watch episodes of trash TV because it's a new way of seeing the drama that real life can bring. Because I've only seen parts of life's drama. There are things that I will personally never understand, darkness that I will personally never walk into and see through with the candle of hope. But through the lens of trash TV, I can see what other people see.

I think writers should be open to learning about anything and everything that can help them to reach their readers on the deepest level. And I love learning how to be dramatic, to be uncommon, to be a writer beyond what I know.

That's why I can't get enough of trash TV.

Okay, and maybe it's because I love watching Steve Wilkos throw liars and monsters from his stage.