Do writers get invited onto TV shows?Through a publisher’s editor, Utsudo once received an invitation to the PTS show “One Word, a Thousand Gold,” which required authors who had published books. Considering she’d be tested on Chinese characters and vocabulary in front of a national audience, she judged herself not skilled enough and declined — and many other invited writers turned it down too.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

A sudden TV show invitation

　　A few days ago I went on a trip to Tainan, and on the train back, a message popped up — from a senior writer in the industry.

　　But I’m not very close to this senior. Apart from chatting a bit at the very beginning, our relationship is pretty much just liking each other’s posts on Facebook, so I was puzzled why he’d suddenly message me.

　　When I asked, it turned out he was passing on a message for an editor at one of the publishers I work with. That editor didn’t have a direct way to contact me, so they asked this senior writer to relay it.

　　“Would you like to be on a TV show?”

　　When that line popped up, I — completely exhausted after taking the wrong train that day — let out a “Huh?” on the train without thinking, and instantly felt the puzzled stares of the whole carriage XDDD

　　There was a link attached: a PTS program called “One Word, a Thousand Gold” was planning a revival, hosted by Tseng Kuo-cheng, and the only requirement was being an author who had published books. I don’t know if they’re still recruiting, but at the time the editor said PR couldn’t find anyone and was still fretting XDD

　　URL

　　I hesitated for a moment, so the writer simply gave me the editor’s LINE ID. I also asked whether he planned to take part; he said he was afraid of embarrassing himself if he failed, so he wasn’t going either. Well, I think most people have that same concern.

Being tested on Chinese characters in front of the whole nation?

　　I later looked up past episodes; it seems to test Mandarin vocabulary — like handwriting characters on the spot on stage, or using idioms? I’d never watched it, so I’m not really sure, but it seems like an edutainment kind of show.

　　But I think nowadays people mostly type, so going up to be tested on characters is quite a thrill — especially on stage… Writing characters correctly under that kind of pressure isn’t easy. It’s probably better suited to people from literary backgrounds. And since the requirement this time is “published authors,” my gut says they’ll definitely test extremely obscure characters to torment writers XD
　　Conclusion: I’m not skilled enough, so I’d better not embarrass myself in front of the whole nation.

　　So after getting home I added the editor on LINE, declined, and asked whether any brave souls were going. The editor said most had declined; one brave soul had asked for details, and two others were still considering.

　　I’m definitely going to sit in front of the TV that day — maybe I’ll see someone I know XD

Exposure opportunities versus the risk of embarrassment

　　If you get the chance to be on a TV show, sure, it’s great for exposure — but failing would be pretty embarrassing (covers face). Though usually people only pay attention to the last few battling it out, or even just the winner. Maybe it’s only me being hard on myself?

　　For me, this is too big a leap into a whole other field. I’m scared Q口Q

　　I already tremble half to death on stage. On a show, I’d probably bring my own camera-shake effect, and the camera would only ever capture a blurry me from start to finish XD

　　But thanks to this, I got to know that wacky editor — I’ll introduce them next time~

FAQ

Further reading (in Chinese)

• Previous: #37 (in Chinese)
• Next: #39 (in Chinese)
• Start from the beginning: #01 — Utsudo’s debut
• Column introduction
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.

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