Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/133180
The following is a condensed excerpt from an essay titled "Why I Write" that critically acclaimed television writer and producer Carol Mendelsohn '69 posted during the Hollywood writer's strike in 2007. I was only three when my family's first black and white TV set was plugged into the living room wall. It was more cabinet than TV, but I loved it with a passion that has consumed my entire life. I quickly became a walking encyclopedia of TV facts and trivia. I watched everything, which in Chicago was only three network stations and the great WGN, Channel 9, which played Hollywood movies, all day and all night, when the Cubs weren't in season. In high school, one of my teachers took an informal poll. She asked our class, "How many hours of TV do you watch a week?" I watched 49 hours. From the moment I got up in the morning to the moment I went to sleep. TV was my best friend. In study hall, while others were studying, I was conjuring up episodes of The Big Valley and The Virginian in my head. I could hear the voices of my favorite characters. And when a line I made up didn't sound right, I'd rewrite it. Some things never change. I never told anyone about these "voices." I didn't wantto be labeled as a crazy. It wasn't until I got my first staff job that I confessed my eccentricity. And that's when I discovered that someone else heard voices, too. Writers hear voices. Which is why I never think of writing as writing. To me, it's more like dictation. Which raises a fundamental question: If I'm not doing the writing, who is? I believe that when certain Writer's Guild of America members pass on, they go to a Writers Room in the sky. And when you are stuck on a scene or a story isn't working, if you just "knock on the door of the universe" before you go to sleep and ask for help, those Writers in the Sky will pull an all-nighter and have a fix for you in the morning. A writer is born, but never dies. His or her work lives on. Even in the head of some kid from Chicago. So why do I write? I write because I hear the voices of those Writers in the Sky. Carol Mendelsohn '69 spoke to Latin's sixth graders about her work on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Latin School of Chicago 33