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Summer is the season for truly bizarre reality TV programming. The networks test out their flimsiest ideas: a show about musical chairs? The weirdly addictive Bachelor Pad? With TV viewers becoming less and less interested in unscripted shows, and so many skill-based competition series focusing on singing, cooking, and fashion, maybe now would be the time for an exec to take a crazy risk by green-lighting a competition show about writing books.

The prospect of a writing show is sometimes talked about but rarely taken seriously, because writing a book is hard, solitary work, and it would seem nothing could be more boring than watching someone do it. Even shows about writing music and writing movies, which have way more visual and cross-promotional potential than a show about writing books, have fizzled. As someone who loves writers as much as the fiction they create, I’d add a show about up-and-coming authors to my DVR if it’s done in a fun way. Here’s a ridiculously detailed pitch — half joking, half serious — for a fiction-writing competition I’d totally watch. Proposed title: Great American Author. Though a network would probably change it to The Next Best-Seller. READ FULL STORY »