Time to continue the sage of Nick Miller’s writing career on “New Girl”. If you are wondering what I’m talking about, check out the previous blog New Girl (Eggs).
In this episode, Jess is feeling triumphant when one of the adult students in her fiction writing class finally comes up with some decent (albeit repetitive) imagery. At first Nick scoffs at this saying, real writers don’t need classes or need to read (which is why he has yet to write anything decent). He also calls the story “amateur hour” due to the simplistic font. This made me laugh and took me back to the simpler time. When I was twelve and trying my first hand at writing a novel, I stuck mainly to Time New Roman, but there were so many pretty fonts to be used in-between. Comic Sans, Papyrus, Baskerville, and Chiler all must have looked like they were trying to gang up on the reader and shout “Boo” with the way these random fonts appeared. Sigh.
Nick reads this student’s story and instantly feels concern when he realizes that the violent description of the main character stalking then killing a large-eyed deer is talking about Jess. She rights this off as him being dumb so Nick does the Nick-thing and comes to her class. He announces himself as “Julius Pepperwood, ex-cop, ex-marine, from Chicago”.
Before going on I should point out that this episode isn’t so much about the writing process as it is about finding inspiration for writing. As usual, spoilers ahead.
Property of Fox
After Nick makes a murder board of drawings the student has of a large eyed deer covered in blood, Jess gets upset that he’s going ruin the only relationship with a student she currently has. The pair go to the home of this student using less-than-stealthy techniques. They are instantly freaked out by the man’s mysterious locked shed and large duffel bag. Of course, this leads to hilarious misunderstandings, discovering that the student is actually working on a graphic novel and Jess had the look he needs for the victim character.
At the end, Nick actually starts writing a new novel based on their investigative teamwork - about Julius Pepperwood, zombie detective and his partner Jessica Night. This is going to be the basis of the rest of Nick’s work throughout the show and lead him to a successful writing career (hey, it’s a TV show and it could happen).
The common theme between both the writing student and Nick is the idea of taking inspiration from life, then learning when it’s TOO CLOSE TO LIFE. Nick even states that the character of Jessica Night is a “work in progress” suggesting he’ll make her less like his real-life friend as he goes (he doesn’t, but the point is the inspiration).
Some writers love taking directly from life. Some like taking directly from experience. And some like amalgams, drawing inspiration from various people and experiences to help create something original. Even in a zombie detective novel, real life experience or observation needs to be drawn upon to make a good story.
Of course, as Nick points out, Zombies don’t really need detectives since they are already dead. Work in progress.
