I love writing craft. It's like looking at a prism. Sure, the rainbow is awesome, but the really fascinating thing is all the angles that can be used to change white light into multiple shades of color. Each angle reveals something different, something true. In writing, those angles are perspective and depending on who's telling the story, a lot can change. A dull, trite tale becomes gritty, fantastic, epic or tragic. It all hangs on the writer's ability to compel you to care.

Take favorite tv shows, for example. My husband and I have been fans of Chuck, Heroes and Lost for a while. All three shows have gone through some ups and downs. For those that aren't familiar, "Chuck" is a show about a regular guy, working at a regular job in his regular life, who regrets the turn that took him from "special" to "common", when all of a sudden, something extraordinary turns him into a human computer server. Now he's working undercover for the CIA/NSA and all he wants is to get that regular life back. "Heroes" is a show about regular people who discover they have special abilities and powers and the trials those powers put them through. It centers primarily on a family that can't quite decide if they're good guys, bad guys...or even a family. Finally, "Lost" is a show about a plane that crashes on an island where nothing is what it seems and everything has a purpose. Or does it?

Chuck is a funny spy show, at it's most basic description. Week in and week out, they have a new mission where the vastly unprepared Chuck faces a new challenge and an unlikely chance of survival. He's also in love with the CIA agent who is protecting him, though he's got zero chance of ever being with her. Should be formulaic, right? Where's the compulsion? Well, it's all in the writing. Chuck's humor and simple approach to spy work juxtaposed against the every day drama of his friends in the "Buy More" store where he works, his bumbling in life and death situations and his determination to win the girl against all odds bring you back week after week. Throw in the ever-shifting loyalties of the Military--to them he's an asset that must either be protected or destroyed before he can be used against them--and it's impossible not to root for the guy. And just when you think you've got Chuck down and can miss a week...that's when they change something and send the show spinning in a whole new direction.

Heroes, on the other hand, takes a much darker approach. What would happen if regular people suddenly had extraordinary abilities? What makes a character a "Good Guy" or a "Bad Guy"? Is it what you can do...or what you do with your abilities? Do some abilities make you what you are, no matter who you are on the inside? Deep philosophical questions often asked as regular people come out of their shells to "save the world". Much of Heroes is about fate, the greater good and just about all of it is about perspective. The show took a deep stumble around the time of the writer's strike and had a very short second season. Episodes began to make very little sense or were almost painfully...well, lame. There were long passages that didn't made you cringe, to be honest. New characters that were flat. Old characters doing inexplicable things to bring those new characters in. Good characters being killed off unnecessary ways while others were just dropped off the face of the planet (or time--one poor girl got dumped in a future that no longer exists!). I was this close to quitting and not looking back. Except... Despite being able to actually see the writing, feel the taut line and abruptness of the shortcuts taken to try to give the plot stability again, the characters were still compelling. The time traveler whose innocence is slowly becoming eroded by his trials for the greater good. The young man who's empathy for others was his greatest strength, but has also proven a personal weakness. The villain who has slowly been unraveled as a desperate father, doing what's needed to protect his family. Even the serial killer who has lost his struggle for his humanity. I just had to know what would happen next for these people. So while the plots have gone places sci-fi really didn't need to boldly go, I keep coming back to watch compelling characters evolve. And you know what, I've been rewarded with some real gems of episodes, watching the writer's put right what weak writing made bad. Reconstruction takes time, but because of their ability to lure me in with interesting people, I'm willing to give them a second chance.

Last but not least, Lost. There've been about a million articles done on this series. What is this island that these people have landed on? Why doesn't anything make sense? What is a polar bear doing there? And what, for the love of God, do those numbers mean? Well... I can't really give you those answers too quickly. The writers spent three years showing us that 100 days on a beach isn't really your dream vacation. They created questions and left you sailing in the wind. They gave you forty characters to learn about, filling you in on their backstories little by little by little. Oh, and then they killed people off willy nilly, just to see if you were paying attention. There's no heroes, not really. Everyone has a history they're not proud of. Dynamics change on a weekly basis. Shoot, romantic connections change and week by week, everything I thought I knew becomes something I can't believe. So why do I keep watching? Because every week, I'm surprised. I'm drawn in. I'm shown that nothing is black and white and that a good mystery takes time, takes mistakes and takes details. And as the show moves inexorably towards it's finale--next year is the last year, I believe--answers are found everywhere. As I greedily sort out the mysteries, I'm unearthing new, shinier questions and I'm flat out addicted to wanting to know.

There's huge lessons to be learned by watching tv, as a writer. It's a master class of creating compelling experiences, characters and perspectives. Whether every show is one we love or hate, the truth is, it's a rough world out there for a tv show. If they don't win you over and win you big, they end, whether the story is resolved or not. The hooks are sharp, the competition fierce and the drama big. Writers who pay attention to the lessons they're giving can find new ways to tell good stories and maybe compel a few folks to their side of the entertainment world, doncha think?

Reader or writer, what's your favorite show? What compels you to tune in, week after week?