Shonda Rhimes can do no wrong. She's arguably one of the most powerful women in Hollywood right now, and her legions of fans will follow her to the ends of the earth. (And yes, for transparency's sake, we count ourselves among that group).
So it comes as no great surprise that she decided to write a book—as the creator of multiple hit shows and the holder of a veritable television empire, she's got a lot of wisdom to share. But her upcoming tome is a little bit different than your standard extended advice column. Year of Yes, which hits shelves both physical and digital on November 10, chronicles her year-long project in which she said "yes" to everything.
It will come as a shock to some that Rhimes is actually a natural-born introvert who would often turn down social gatherings or speaking engagements because of her fear and anxiety. After a wake-up call from a family member, she decided to start agreeing to everything she used to run away from: graduation speeches and talk show appearances and even personal situations like relationship conversations. Naturally an endeavor such as this just begs to be written about, and write she did.
Readers still have to wait over a month to learn all about Shonda's journey, but as women who strive to be a little more like her every day, we have a few hopes and wishes for the tome.
Her writing process. It's probably not an exaggeration to say that Shonda has one of the most inventive minds in entertainment. She has the ability to not only create characters that audiences really and truly care about, but to craft totally elaborate plot lines that somehow don't feel too outrageous to monitor week in and week out. The twists and turns in a single episode of Scandal alone are enough to exhaust a normal person's brain to the max. So seriously, Shonda, how do you do it? We want to know what inspires you and how you actually set out to map out a show.
Overcoming anxiety. Anyone who has watched (and re-watched and re-watched) videos of Rhimes' speaking engagements would have no idea that she has a crippling fear of standing up in front of people. Going from pre-interview panic attacks to killing it on Jimmy Kimmel Live doesn't happen overnight, and the rest of us sure could use some of her secrets the next time we have to give a big presentation.
What it's really like to hang out with Kerry Washington and Viola Davis. Sorry, Taylor Swift, but this is the ultimate girl squad. Putting multiple funny, beautiful and powerful women in a room together is bound to have some crazy results, and we want to live like a fly on the wall of one of their hang sessions. We're also going to need to know whether anyone makes use of the Olivia Pope Wine Glass in real life.
The building of her family. Yes, this is personal, and yes, Shonda Rhimes is a woman who likes to keep her private life private, but this book promises to be open and honest and all that good stuff. And the way in which she's gone about creating exactly the kind of home life she wants without letting anyone else's opinions of what a family should look like influence her is one of the most honorable things about her. For anyone out there who's wondering whether to get married or whether to adopt or whether to anything, really, a bit of insight from Shonda on her motivations would go a long way.
McDreamy. McDreamy, McDreamy, McDreamy. We're not buying the statements that Dr. Shepherd's death on Grey's Anatomy was just a natural step in the plotline—we want to know what really went down behind the scenes to convince Shonda to kill him off. And if she wants to address some of the other notable departures too, well, we won't argue with that.