For my second experiment, I would like to write an open letter to the writers of the television show Shameless. In writing an open letter, I can express my gratitude and feelings to them, while also making those feelings available to the public. I would like to thank them for their decision to accurately have the characters accurately portray mental illness, and also ask them why they made that decision, especially seeing how other television shows and movies portray people with mental illness. With that pressure to sensationalize and create a shock factor, why is Shameless different? And even more importantly, did they face pressure to write about characters that fit that stereotype? If they did, how did they successfully not go down that route?

          At first, I was thinking about writing the letter to a particular cast member of the show. In the letter, I would thank them for their accurate portrayal of the character's mental illness, and ask them for their reflections on how their acting choices. I then realized that the actors weren’t the source of the content; it was the writers that actually made the decision to have a character be a certain way. Although the actors gave the characters life, the way the writers portrayed them, pen on paper, is even more significant to me. The fact that I, too, am a writer will add an interesting dimension to the letter; it could kind of be like from one writer to another. Though I won’t be getting any answers to my questions per se, I hope that by formulating them, it will help me to reflect on my own opinions and ideas that I mention in my origin piece. I'm also playing with the idea of publishing it in other places, maybe on Facebook or some other social networking platforms.