CONFESSIONS OF A NON-AMERICAN-BORN WRITER

When I got a little older, my ideal American family went from the Bradys and the Partridges to the Ewings and the Carringtons and the Channings and the entire daytime line-ups of ABC, CBS and NBC. I was going to be a real American. I was going to live on a soap opera. And failing that, then I’d settle for the next best thing – writing a soap opera.

I did it, too. After stints at E! Entertainment and ABC Daytime, I landed at Procter & Gamble Productions and their two classic daytime dramas, “As the World Turns” and “Guiding Light.” I produced the shows’ official websites and authored their tie-in novels, “Oakdale Confidential,” “The Man From Oakdale,” “Jonathan’s Story,” and an online property called “Another World Today.” I was finally where I’d always wanted to be – writing about the tortured, soapy lives of real Americans.

Except I didn’t know a thing about it. Or them.

All of the P&G stories took place in small Midwestern towns in Illinois. I’d never even been to Chicago, much less anyplace as homogenous and wholesome and Christian and White as Springfield or Oakdale or Bay City.

I was writing about people I didn’t know doing things I’d never done for reasons I couldn’t quite understand.

Read my entire confession at: http://dashamerican.com/when-immigrants-write-about-regular-people/