Month: October 2014

Creative Writing Classes: Are They Hits or Misses?

The best this particular TVWriter™ minion has ever had to say about a college level creative writing class is that it beat having to take another semester of Greek Lit. Other people, of course, may have other opinions. We enjoyed this one cuz it’s so damned erudite (especially for a daily – shudder – newspaper):

samuelbeckett
See how happy Samuel Beckett looks? That’s cuz he didn’t have to take all those darn classes….

by Jane Sullivan

There’s a scene in the Simon Pegg TV sitcom Spaced when a writer is kicked off the dole and has to get a job washing dishes. She complains to the manager: “But this isn’t me. I’m a writer.” The manager replies: “Oh, everyone who works here is a writer, dear.”

They used to make that joke about actors. Now it’s writers. Not that it’s new, exactly. Writers have always taken pride in listing menial and bizarre jobs on their book cover bios, and have taken comfort in the thought they were following in the footsteps of Hemingway and Beckett. A full-time writer is still quite a rare beast, and is usually a writer of books for children, or of books in a highly commercial genre. read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/30/14

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Latest News About Writers Who Are Doing Better Than We Are=&0=& (newbie winner of the 2012 Humanitas Prize New Voices Award) is writing the pilot for UNNATURAL SELECTION, a CW drama about Charles Darwin’s journey through the Amazon. (Explorers! “Controversial” theories! Jungles! C’mon, admit, this is the stuff daydreams are made of. And if the network can deliver what Adam writes…well, munchkin is in, in, and in.) The selfsame Adam Karp also is writing the script for a CBS pilot, MODERN GOTHIC, partnering with David Reed (SUPERNATURAL) on a series about a contemporary doctor (the character is named after Dracula‘s Van Helsing) investigates supernatural mysteries. (And, yeppers, I’m so onboard for that one as well cuz I keep thinking, “Wow, the protagonist in ye olde NIGHTSTALKER series…if he was cool. At least that’s how I’d write it…but what do I know?) =&1=& has turned his book, ZeroSeroZero, a thriller about international cocaine trafficking, into an English language series out of France and Italy. (Yer muncher will say this about that: At least it’s got the potential for action. “Watch the hero’s eyes glaze over. See the villain get all nuts over nothing.” I’m betting that this’ll be a big hit all over the world. But I don’t think I’ll watch it cuz…well, hell, kiddies, I can see that action in the apartment next door.) Carlton Cuse (BATES MOTEL) has a new overall deal at A&E. (Cuz he’s a writing rock star, he is. So if you’re the kinda person who knows how to stay in the good graces of a diva, I respectfully suggest you hitch our wagon to Carlton’s rising star. And remember: We’re all made of stardust. Neil Gaiman told me.)

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….)

LB: When the Funniest Woman in the World Speaks, I Listen

Miranda Hart with some minor players
Miranda Hart with some minor players

Oh, God, I love Miranda Hart. Writer, actress, human being…she’s perfect. Just damn perfect. Which means, yeah, if you don’t know her work you really need to:

It wasn’t easy coming up with a reason to write about Miranda, who’s huge in the UK but hardly even known here in the U.S., but last week she gave an interview on the UK’s Graham Norton show which encapsulates why everyone who knows her work – from my wife and myself to, oh, TVWriter™ Contributing Editor Cara Winter and, um, erm…let me get back to that – is so charmed. read article

Hollywood isn’t the “Dream Factory.” You are

Holy crap, it's Robert Gregory Browne!
Holy moley, it’s Robert Gregory Browne!

by Robert Gregory Browne

I had my big writing break almost ten years ago. I had just finished writing my first book, Kiss Her Goodbye, and because I had been a screenwriter in a former life, my Hollywood agent was able to hook me up with an agent in New York. So I had an advantage at the start that a lot of aspiring novelists only dream of.

Kiss Her Goodbye-sThe agent in NY loved the book, took it around to his favorite editors and within a few weeks I had a two-book deal at St. Martin’s Press.

Now, without trying to sound like the egomaniac I am, I like to think I’m a pretty damn good writer. And if that book hadn’t sold at that time, I’m pretty sure I would have kept writing, but it wouldn’t have been with the same fire. I would have been thinking, what the hell is wrong? Why didn’t they buy my book? That lack of validation by the industry I yearned to be part of would have crushed me. read article

Love & Money Dept – TV Writing Deals for 10/29/14

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

  • Neal Baer & Alexandra McNally (UNDER THE DOME) are developing a medical drama series for CBS about “the deeply personal and raw stories of…dedicated health care workers…at a clinic in Venice that serves as a crossroads for the haves and have-nots.” (Gotta say, tho, that yer dearly beloved munchman ain’t sure he trusts storytellers who use “Venice” when they mean “Venice Beach” as though, you know, nothing beyond their precious Los Angeles might even exists. Or maybe I should chalk that one up to some very shortsighted PR peeps?)
  • Jennifer Schuur (HANNIBAL) is writing the script for an ABC pilot called THE LONG GAME, based on a treatment by novelist Kate Atkinson about a “gutsy female forensic accountant who exposes fraud for a living.” (Yeah, that sounds exciting! I mean, nothing against accountants, but the last time I talked to mine I fell asleep just punching in his cell number.)
  • Lance Krall (IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA) is writing HOLLYWOOD & VINE, a comedy series based on material from the Vine video platform. (Cuz the web’s time has come, dear children. Hop aboard the bus and rocket to stardom! For reals.

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….)