HBO has announced the eight writers chosen to participate in its 2019 HBOAccess Writing Fellowship, an eight-month program offering master classes and mentorship with an HBO executive as the writers develop a pilot script for HBO.
This year’s participants are:
Darnell Brown
Melody Cooper
Danielle Iman
Elaine Loh
Lucy Luna
Eddie Mujica
Jessica Shields
Ivan Tsang
This is the third year for the HBOAccess writing program, which is held in conjunction with the Writers Guild of America and runs every other year.
TVWriter™ congratulates all the fellows. We look forward to seeing you follow in the footsteps of previous fellows who have worked on HBO series run by David Simon, Joss Whedon, and others.
In 2015, several years before his death earlier this month, the Writers Guild of America West’s Career Longevity Committee staged a reading of Alvin Sargent’s unproduced screenplay Madly In Love as part of their WGAW Inclusion & Equity Department’s Seasoned Readings, a program that celebrates the work of older writers.
The Career Longevity is one of nine committees overseen by the WGAW’s Inclusion and Equity Department.
Prior to the event, the two-time Oscar winner (Ordinary People, Julia), who died on May 9, 2019, spoke about his career, some of the rules of screenwriting, and his creative process.
“John Carpenter is huge to me for many reasons, three of which are ‘They Live,’ ‘Christine,’ and the fact that he lived only one block away from me on Wonderland Avenue back when residing in Laurel Canyon was cool.” Larry Brody
Writer-Director John Carpenter has been a cult fave for 5 decades, and deservedly so. Even our Beloved Leader Larry Brody is a fan.
Occasionally, however, in Mr. Carpenter’s work can go very, very wrong. Ghosts of Mars is one of those occasions, and yet in its failure there is a kind of success because – so many lessons to learn!
Rethinking – yet again – that lively condition/situation/happenstance known near and far as Writer’s Block (or Writers’ Block, or Writers Block) because, hey, it beats trying to write, yeah?
by Will Dowd
Writer’s block is a serious disease. Whether it manifests as blank page syndrome or second novel disorder, the onset of symptoms is the same: an arthritic cramp in the creative faculty, a feverish spike of self-consciousness, and a peculiar amnesia that leaves the writer wondering how he or she ever managed to compose a single sentence.
Writer’s block does not discriminate—it’s as likely to strike a Nobel Laureate as a food blogger. And it seems to be contagious, judging by how readily it spreads in the humid hothouse of the MFA writing workshop.
For some the condition is fatal. In his early 30s, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was beset by a poetic paralysis that never lifted; Herman Melville was rendered effectively mute after Moby Dick; and Joseph Mitchell waged a brave but losing battle against the disease, showing up to his New Yorker office every day for 32 years without publishing a word.
Naturally, so-called “cures” abound. The internet is a repository of folk remedies ranging from the slightly embarrassing (write a stern letter to your writer’s block) to the absurd (write on a merry-go-round!) to the frankly self-destructive (take up smoking). You can purchase any number of books filled with writing prompts, such as “Tell a story from the pet’s point of view” or “Write a poem set in Finland.” You can try writing naked like Victor Hugo. You can follow Dan Brown’s lead and hang upside down in a pair of gravity boots. Of course, you can always see a shrink.Some writers simply deny they’re afflicted….
Lifehacker.Com brings us a fun little article that takes an entertaining and educational look at “3 Successful Writers Stephen King Can’t Stand.”
This is gonna be good:
by Melissa Thompson
Stephen King talking about someone else he can’t stand – the current POTUS
We all have our own list of favorite authors. Some we have decided to keep a secret because we’re afraid of the judgment we’ll face if we say their names out loud. While your friends are making fun of people who read romance novels or light summer reads, you want to raise your hand and say, “HEY! That’s me! I read those! At least I’m reading, you jerks!” And that’s just it—at least you are reading.
In a world where we see people too busy looking down at their phones to check out their latest social feed, you’re sitting outside on your lunch break enjoying a new book. But it’s not only “cultured” readers who look forward to roasting an author they deem as insipid or impuissant. There are other prominent writers out there who have no qualms discussing the literary failings of their peers.
All Hail the King!
Stephen King is one such author who holds nothing back. A New York Timesbestselling novelist, King made a name for himself with his novels Carrie, IT, and The Shining. Widely known for his work in the fantasy and horror genres, King has published 55 novels to date and won a vast number of awards for his work.
Despite winning literary awards and having a large number of works published, does that give King the right to degrade another author’s writing? Stephen King fans are inclined to agree; he’s earned the right.” Others that think King’s writing is overwrought will decidedly answer “No, he’s a talentless hack himself.”
There are three popular-selling authors whom King has had less than complimentary remarks for, including Dean Koontz, Stephenie Meyer and James Patterson. King himself has said, “talent is cheaper than table salt. What separated the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” So what is it about the three aforementioned authors that King finds to be abhorrent…?
