Month: December 2014

How to Write Strong, Involving Scenes

Guess what? All the things that work in writing prose fiction work just as well – maybe even better – in teleplays and screenplays. So it behooves us all to know the following truths that should be self-evident but…you know…:

strongwoman

by Rita Karnopp

I think of my novel as the intricate weaving of a double hoop dream catcher (this is one I’ve made).  The web is unified and patterned until it approaches a bead or fetish and it has to find a way to conquer it and move onto the next obstacle (as scenes in your book).  It has a beginning, middle, and an end.  No two dream catchers are alike.

Let’s clarify beginning, since I always start a story in the middle of action.  Some might think the beginning of a dream catcher is the top, while others say the bottom, and again others believe it begins in the middle – unwinding like one’s life. Ultimately the writer gets to choose. read article

MTV’s HAPPYLAND Succeeds Where Everybody Else Falls Flat

…By giving us a genuine, scripted, professional TV show starring Latina actresses and run by Latina writers. In other words, “diversity” is here and it fucking works:

happylandby Ana Defillo

With shows like Sleepy Hollow, How to Get Away With Murder, and Black-ish, we’re finally seeing realistic diversity on our television screens, and MTV’s new scripted dramedy Happyland is a reflection of that, both in front of and behind the scenes. In front of the camera, Happylandboasts two Latina actresses as their leads, Camille Guaty and Bianco Santos. Their characters, Elena and Lucy respectively, are not burdened by the usual hyper-sexualized Latina tropes: Lucy is an ambitious and witty teenager counting the days until college and her mom, Elena, is a hopeless romantic that would rather live in the fantasy world of Happyland than the harsh reality of living paycheck to paycheck.

Behind the scenes, the show has a female show-runner and three Latina writers. “What intrigued me about the show is that our lead, Lucy Velez, is hispanic, and so is her mom… I thought it was really cool and very relatable. I’m half Cuban, as well, so we tried to bring into our episodes some of that authenticity,” says Erica Harrell, staff writer for Happyland. read article

Peer Production: WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS

Ooh, a web series about new writers writing their new writers. Talk about entertaining–

No, wait, WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS really is entertaining. Especially if you’re a writer looking for an excuse to not do any writing by watching other writers write instead.

We TVWriter™ minions can’t be the only writers who feel that way…can we? read article

TVWriter™ Top Posts for the Week Ending 12/5/14

A-Team thumbs up ignazio D

Here they are, the most viewed TVWriter™ posts during the past week:

Peggy Bechko: Those Weird and Wacky Writers read article

LB: TVWriter™ Advanced Workshopper Places 3rd In Terror Film Festival Competition

dungeonbegin terror

Time now for another True Life Testimonial. This time around, it’s from Dawn McElligott, a student in the TVWriter™ Advanced Online Workshop who’s been working on a short film and potential pilot called LADY OF THE LAKE in class.

And there’s no denying it: Reading this email made my day: read article