I love picking myself out of a crowd.
For a free event that boasted an open bar along with a modest taco and chips buffet, I was surprised at the small crowd that gathered to hear a live interview with show runner, writer and all around interesting person, Elgin James, co-creator of Mayans MC and The Outlaws. I’d never seen either of his shows, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying his interview.
You just never know a successful person’s origin story. For anyone who even suggested that he had to go through life with an abusive father, street gang and prison to be the man he is today, James said a very confident, “Fuck that!”
Yet, with his background, the last thing he wanted to do was write about it. One reoccurring theme in his life, as he stated in his interview, was no matter how messy life became, there were always women who cleaned it up. That’s the main reason, if he has the freedom to do so, he writes about women. He finds women to be far more dynamic characters than men, which flies in the face of what audiences usually see depicted in film and TV.
After two or three seasons, the emphasis of the show changed and lost about half their audience, which was comprised of mostly men. As the season continued, more women started watching, eventually surpassing the number of men in the original audience.
My main takeaway from his interview is not only to write about what you know, but fight for that narrative to be told. It’s definitely worth the effort to elevate these stories because if we don’t, who will?