Month: July 2014

BALANCING WRITING AND LIFE

Good advice for writers and creatives of all kinds, courtesy of Rita Karnopp’s and Ginger Simpson’s fine blog:

by Rita Karnopp

When we hear the word ‘balance’ then add writing and life, an author could almost laugh.  It’s a bit of a facetious statement.now later

When I started writing my children were very young, five and three.  So I scheduled my writing time after they went to bed around nine and wrote until two or three in the morning.  But, that’s not to say I never wrote during the day – because I did.  My office space was in our front living room (because we never used it, we always used the huge family room to the back of the house facing the mountains) and my desk faced the hallway toward the bedrooms.  The kids, and their friends, came in and out of that front door – past me –  how many times a day? read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 7/20/14

Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are
by munchman

  • Ed Bernero (CRIMINAL MINDS) is the showrunner for NBC’s upcoming spy drama STATE OF AFFAIRS. (Which means that if you’re looking for a gig, time to call your ole buddy and let me know how available you are. Unless he isn’t your ole buddy, in which case, have your agent peeps call him instead.)
  • Mike Sikowitz (THE McCarthys) & Mike O’Malley (SHAMELESS) are writing the pilot for Bill Cosby’s new NBC series called HOW BILL COSBY SINGLE-HANDEDLY SAVED NETWORK TV…or not, who the hell knows?(One thing we do know: Cosby has the reputation for being the worst boss in TV, a tyrant who makes Roseanne look like a sweetheart, so lotsa like and long life from the munchman to Mike and Mike!)
  • Maya Ilsoe(no credits in the press release) has sold THE LEGACY, a Danish series about – well, it doesn’t really matter what this is about cuz it’s a soap opera) to Universal Cable which hopes to make it an “event series” as though changing the name will change the animal itself. ‘Scuse me while I yawn, my friends.)
  • Steve Esmail (COMET) has sold the drama MR.ROBOT, about a computer hacker who protects people without ever having to deal with them personally, to USA Network. (Yeppers, that’s gonna be a good one: An anti-social hipster sitting at a PC all day, going from house to coffee shop to parking lot…whoa, Yer Friendly Neighborhood Munchman simply cannot wait for this baby!)

TVWriter™ Misses STUDIO READER STAN

Studio Reader Stan Logo

Back in the first decade of this century, a comic strip and animated web series called STUDIO READER STAN appeared, wreaked mirthful havoc for a couple of years and then vanished. We’re here to say “We miss you, Studio Reader Stan!” and to give TVWriter™ visitors who never got a chance to see this cynical little gem a taste of what it was all about.

And so, with no further ado: read article

Cartoons: Writers, Don’t Let This Happen to You

628x471Thanks to Ballard Street

David Handelman: Plotting Nashville

by David Handelman

When you write on a TV show, you only get to actually “WRITE” very sporadically. Most of the job entails being locked in a room with fellow creative eccentrics (ten, on this show) and bashing out stories while trying not to gain too much weight being forcefed lunch and snacks.

So when after the first 8 episodes, the spinning wheel  landed on me, I was READY. What’s different about Nashville, and what I was excited to use as a springboard, was the music. Obviously, I had to first pick up “the batons” from the previous episode and move them down the field toward what we knew had to happen in the next episode — an end of 2013 cliffhanger.

I needed stories that made emotional, narrative, and musical sense. (I also had a private agenda of doing stories that would bring as many of the myriad characters together, because I’d seen other episodes compress under the pressure of delivering scenes for so many storylines — and besides, we were due for throwing awkward, secret, reunited and ex-couples Scarlett/Avery and Zoey/Gunnar into a room together.) read article