Shiftless Writers Turn Idle Hands to Novels

Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET

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One unexpected side effect from the lingering writers strike: Idle scribes now have time to polish up those Great American Novels they've left sitting in the drawer during the pursuit of fame and power that churning out episodes of According to Jim brings. Sadly, it turns out that book-writin' doesn't pay as well as script-typin', and, even worse, it can be a much more difficult enterprise than tossing off witty aphorisms like, "It's not a tumor." Still, we hope the budding authors will persevere: With the sorry state literature currently finds itself in, can we really afford to miss out on contributions to fiction from such auteurs as Guy Who Cowrote Richie Rich and Dude Behind Arachnophobia? LAT