Jane The Virgin: How A TV Show Helped Me Start Writing Again.
Jane The Must-Watch
Ah, friends. Jane The Virgin has finally come to an end. If you snoozed on this show because you saw the word virgin in the title, let’s talk about why that made you so uncomfortable another time. While virginity is a social construct, that’s exactly how this show starts but it’s not at all how it ends.
After five glorious seasons, we said goodbye to Jane this week. Though for me, it was more of an ah-ha moment. I’ve been watching this show for three years but I just now realized how much Jane The Virgin helped me start writing again.
Jane The Pilot
I’m not going to spoil anything for you because so much happens in the pilot. I just remember looking up the script a few years later to study how Show Runner and Creator Jennie Snyder Urman strategically introduced characters while revealing so much at once. How did she do it? Why was I already so invested? How could I write something that would pay this feeling forward?
Urman’s pilot was one of the first scripts I ever read. I took a screenwriting workshop while Season Four of Jane The Virgin was on the air. I learned a lot of organizational skills that helped me plan my first novel. Not realizing then that both Jennie and Jane had been cheering me on the whole time, I plotted and started writing.
What I love most about Jane The Virgin, is how all the characters find their way to each other in the most untraditional ways. The biggest love story in this show is the family they gained throughout their journey. It’s not by any means perfect, far from. It’s the unconventional, unconditional love that brings it all together for me.
Jane The Final Season
When I first started watching this show live, I made it a game to live-tweet the actors, show creator, the writers, and even Rogelio de la Vega’s (very real) Twitter account. Throughout five seasons, I got pretty much everyone to like my tweets. It made me feel like I was really part of the Villanueva family.
I noticed something was different about me this final season. I wasn’t always watching it live. Instead, I was writing. In fact, I would wait to watch an episode when I felt like I needed some writing motivation. Every time it worked like magic — Jane would inspire me to start writing again.
I didn’t realize how much this show inspired my writing until the night of the series finale when I decided to work on my novel (just like Jane) instead of watching the show live. Three years ago, I didn’t have the self-discipline to be okay with that decision. To miss the final episode of one of my favorite shows and choose to experience major #FOMO? Who was I?
Jane The Writer
From the very beginning, I never saw Jane as a virgin. She was always Jane The Writer to me. Throughout the years, I would watch an episode and slowly start working on my first novel. I would introduce Jane The Virgin to my friends and family so I could binge-watch it all over again. Then, I would keep writing.
Jane The Virgin finally gave my family the visual of what my dream looked like. What the hard work looked like. What the moments of inspiration, editing, and never giving up looked like. The other day, my mother asked me if I had been writing. I like to think that was because of Jane.
I watched the series finale today. On the screen of my writing computer. After I wiped the last tear, with a smile on my face, I looked up to see not one but two book vision boards. You see, the wall of my creative room is filled with pictures of characters, index cards, and notes. My desk has printed drafts with pen marks written all over them. There’s a writing schedule on my calendar and I’m currently editing chapter two.
Jane is brave. She’s a writer. And me? I’m a brave writer too.
