Ah, Netfrix.  I mean, Netflix.  Asian accent.  When Conan, not the barbarian, O’Brien,  was ousted by Jay Leno’s return to the Tonight Show, he had a clause in his contract that he couldn’t go back on television for six months.  So he rebelled and went on tour and made a movie about it called Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop.

There were two interesting things that I learned from that movie.  As he was finishing up the development of his tour, he had run into a phase of doubt.  Severe doubt.  This is a guy who has an incredible track record of writing good, funny stuff.  He’s written for shows like the Simpsons and Saturday Night Live.  His run on the Late Night with Conan O’Brien from 1993-2009, The Tonight Show from 2009-2010 is nothing to sneeze at either.  So a guy like him, who has a huge fan base, shouldn’t have doubts, right?

And according to Wikipedia, he settled for about 45 million dollars to leave. Doubts?

Yeah.  Doubts.

I was very surprised.

Who among us hasn’t had doubts in any part of our lives?  I know when I sit to write, doubt is something I don’t think about.  Neither is writing a best seller.  Writing the best story that I can is my focus, putting forward my most bestest effort ever.  Afterwards, doubt trickles into my consciousness.  Sometimes heart pounding doubt, in which I go back and revisit what I wrote with a magnifying glass.  But that only makes the words bigger.

But it’s a small comfort that a guy like Conan has doubts.  Yes, he’s human, and it’s human nature to doubt.  But Nicholas Sparks is human.  At least I think so.  From some of his interviews I’ve read, he compares himself to Hemingway.  Now, I ain’t gonna judge, your honor.  You can do whatever you want, but I’ve never liked people who had that mightier than thou attitude.  Get over yourself, dude.

You can’t say that about Conan.  He self deprecates himself on his new show, nightly.  He’s loyal to his crew.  Twelve million of that settlement went to them.  And he has an air of quiet confidence, which allows him to be self deprecating because, for the most part, he knows it ain’t true.

The second thing I learned was  Conan never reads reviews.  Someone off camera had asked if he read reviews of his stage show.  His personal assistant states they’re a waste of time.  I hear that a lot.  From broadway greats such as Lea Salonga, to great romance writer Nora Roberts, and famed Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe don’t read reviews of their work.  Hell.  Johnny Depp doesn’t even watch dailies, which I think are the takes filmed on that day.  And I agree.  I don’t read comments made on my site, nor do I read comments about my writing on other sites, unless they’re  my friends’.

You hear that?  Yes, I’m talking to you select people.  Welcome back and see Blacklisted.

Standing in a room of a hundred people, there can be a hundred varying opinions of me.  I can’t control what they think.  I can’t change what they think.  So why worry about what they think?  Everyone has an opinion, just as they do assholes.

In my last post I wrote about catching up with a friend I hadn’t really talked to for over a decade. And we talked for the whole day. Surprisingly, most of that time was talking about our passion, writing. We were trading query letters and synopsis, and he asked me about the main character of my book.

Everyone in my book hates my hero.

Why?

He’s sending tens of thousands of sons and daughters, fathers and mothers to a war that seems pointless.

Sound familiar?

However, there is a legitimate reason for this war, this war in my book.  But everyone doesn’t see it, and they exact their negative opinions.

Isolating the main character is important to create empathy for my hero.  One of hundreds of techniques used to create an emotional bond between reader and hero. The reader has a superior view of the whole story.  The reader knows the truth behind the necessity of this particular war.  So they’ll root for him.

One of my favorite shows that has ended was Jon and Kate Plus Eight.  I tell my friends that I’m an avid watcher of the show.  And I don’t watch that much TV, let alone reality TV.  But I found the kids endearing, the parent’s relationship real, cause it was, and was pulled into their family dynamic.

If you’re a fan of the show, then you know the drama that has gone on between the parents and TLC.  TLC being the network that put on the show.

The thing that saddens me are the opinions, tabloids, and hate that had been shown to all parties.  I know one thing that’s true.  Opinions are like assholes.  Everyone has them.  And they smell like ass.

No one on the outside knows really what’s going on between Jon and Kate, Jon and TLC, Kate and TLC, TLC and TLC.  The amount of crap that portrays itself as truth is so negative that I wonder why we are so engaged with it.  Is it because misery loves company?  Maybe.  Is it because we hate it when people gain a certain amount of fame and fortune?  Maybe.

Why can’t we just let them be, let them handle their issues, and live our lives?  I mean, do people not have enough of their own problems that they have to take on others, too?