Month: October 2014

Do You Really Want to Write?

Is success as a writer (in any medium) worth all you have to give up in order to get it? Here’s a thoughtful answer to just that concern:

by Rita Karnopp

So you’ve received a rejection letter – and you’re in the middle of writing yet another book. Suddenly you’re in the slumps and wonder if all this work and upset is worth it.  You stop writing – and now you just don’t feel like going back to your office and continue with your work in progress.

Hmmm . . . sound familiar?  It’s not an easy profession, is it?  We have our highs – and oh so many lows.  It’s not easy to receive a rejection letter on one of our books.  It’s deflating.  It’s frustrating.  It’s depressing.  Yet, after you cry, throw a tantrum, crumple the rejection letter and toss it in the trash – you take a deep breath – and ask yourself – “Should I keep writing – or quite?” read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/2/14

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

  • Scott Gold (UNDER THE DOME) is developing DEEP WEB, a drama series about a computer genius who, “with the help of his geeks gone wild posse, evolves into the overlord of the internet’s underworld,” for Spike. (Cuz BREAKING BAD. Nuff said?)
  • Tom Kapinos (CALIFORNICATION) is developing LUCIFER, yet another DC Comics-related series for Fox. (Flying in the face of the common wisdom that TV never does anything new, this time around we have a comic villain nobody’s ever heard of, a network that never does comics related material, and a dramedy creator, all working together on a series that, if it follows the not-very-popular comic book, will be about the devil deciding to abandon hell and open a piano bar in L.A. Hmm, that same old, same old starting to look a little better now?)
  • Scot Armstrong (THE HANGOVER II) is adapting the ancient film, PROBLEM CHILD, into a comedy series for NBC. (Uh-oh, now that yer munchikins reads that, I’m thinking LUCIFER won’t be so bad!
  • Kevin Sussman (BIG BANG THEORY) has sold a comedy pilot script called WIFE OF CRIME to CBS, about “a straitlaced guy from Staten Island who marries into an Italian family with ties to the mob.” (Hey, I’m laughing already. I mean, what else can I say? Capish?)
  • Jordan Roter (newbie!) is writing the pilot for CBS’s LETTERS TO MY DAUGHTER’S FUTURE THERAPIST, a comedy in which a mother’s voiceover explains her actions to her daughter’s future therapist, confident that said daughter will blame her for everything bad in her life. (Yes, the muncher lurves this one. Especially where I got to write “newbie.” Way to go Jordan Roter!)

That’s it for now. Write in and tell munchilito what you’ve sold today. TVWriter™ can’t wait to brag to all your friends. (And, more importantly, enemies. Hehehe….)

JOHN OSTRANDER: TV WEEK GEEK

Constantine-TV-showby John Ostrander

Once upon a time, when I was a boy, TV consisted of the three networks, one independent channel, and before long, one “education” channel. (“They actually had TV when you were a boy, Uncle John?” Yes. Quiet, you.) Every fall, each of the networks took a week to trot out their new and returning shows and they each took turns. And, if memory serves, that pretty much was it for the season.

If you were into superhero comics (and I was despite my mother), there were damn slim pickings. There was The Adventures of Superman, of course, and that was played pretty straight albeit it was considered a children’s show. Later on, there was the Batman series that was fun and interesting to me at start but got old real fast. Something along the superhero lines was Zorro. I loved that show. Guy Williams was my Zorro. Dressed all in black, masked, fighting injustice – yeah, I’d group him in with the superheroes.

But that was essentially it. read article

What’s It Like to be a TV Writer in the UK?

This profile from The Guardian does a good job of convincing some of us here at TVWriter™ that we ought to be in, oh, London, or Cardiff than the smouldering bowels of LA:

Jack Thorne
BAFTA winning writer Jack Thorne

Jack Thorne: the hardest-working writer in Britain?
by Mark Lawson

Despite having been up late last Monday night at a party marking the transmission of his latest TV drama, Jack Thorne was back next morning at the north London library where he writes seven days a week. He aims to work from 10am to 8pm, shifting to a coffee bar when the library closes early.

Thorne, 35, needs to put in those shifts because his scripts are in such demand, having achieved the rare double of winning two Bafta awards at the same ceremony (in 2012): best mini-series for Channel 4’s This is England ’88 (part of a longrunning recent-historical project with director Shane Meadows) and best drama series for BBC3’s supernatural show The Fades. read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/1/14

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

  • Jim Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan & Kirsten Sheridan (IN AMERICA) are adapting their Best Screenplay nominated feature film (that would be, you know, IN AMERICA) into an HBO series to be called – oh, you guessed – IN AMERICA. (Hey, it’s drama! It’s indie! It’s got art cred! And a tale of the struggle of a family of 21st century Irish immigrants to adapt, survive, maybe even thrive in the good ole USA is contemporary storytelling at its– Oh, wait, did munchero say “contemporary?” Gulp.)
  • Howard Gordon (24) just agreed to accept another ton of $$$ to stay at 20th Telly for a few more years. (Dude is so damn successful I keep waiting for him to buy an ABA team. But if he did, would there still be one left for me to shell out for when my ship comes in? Damn you, Howard Gordon, you’ve stolen my career and my basketball franchise and, and…oh, who the hell cares?)

That’s it for now. Write in and tell munchilito what you’ve sold today. TVWriter™ can’t wait to brag to all your friends. (And, more importantly, enemies. Hehehe….)