Month: December 2015

Kelly Jo Brick: The Write Path With LaToya Morgan, Part 1

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A series of interviews with hard-working writers – by another hard-working writer!
by Kelly Jo Brick

Aspiring writers often wonder how the pros got where they are. The truth is, everyone’s story is different, but there are some common elements: dedication, persistence and hard work.

Writer LaToya Morgan’s childhood love for reading, writing and old movies took her on a path that led from film school at AFI to participating in the Warner Bros. Writers’ Workshop and working on the writing staffs of TV shows including TURN, SHAMELESS and COMPLICATIONS.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST KNOW YOU WANTED TO BE A WRITER? read article

Giving Up Is the Enemy of Creativity

And now a few words to give us comfort when our careers seem stuck at – gulp – the bottom:

dec15-01-481590665-1024x576by Brian J. Lucas and Loran Nordgren

What determines whether the ideas we generate are truly creative? Recent research of ours finds that one common factor often gets in the way: we tend to undervalue the benefits of persistence.

In a series of experiments we observed that people consistently underestimated the number of ideas they could generate while solving a creative challenge. In one, we brought 24 university students into the laboratory during the week leading up to Thanksgiving and asked them to spend ten minutes coming up with as many ideas of dishes to serve at Thanksgiving dinner as they could. Then we had them predict how many more ideas they could generate if they persisted on the task for an additional ten minutes. After that, they actually persisted for ten minutes. read article

Stretch Your Brain (and Relax It Too) with Peggy Bechko

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by Peggy Bechko

Your brain is really important, right? No brainer, so to speak. For writer’s that’s particularly true, just as it is for software developers or lawyers or any other ‘brain-oriented’ pursuit.

So, what’s the best way to coddle the brain, to give it what it needs to optimize work and creativity? And, let’s face it, we all get older, so how does that affect what we’re trying to accomplish? What’s going on as we age?

For starters, from what I’ve read and from personal experience the young brain is faster. But, and it’s a big BUT, it isn’t necessarily better. Despite the great pride may 20-somethings take in working 16 hour days and more, of pushing it to the limit, writing all night long, then crashing, sorry, that’s not the way to attain an optimal work and create flow. What’s that? Well, it’s an extended (key word extended) amount of time during which mind an body are in sync, engaged in high-thinking and wild imagining pursuits (yep, like writing that script or novel). You’re focused, your body is comfortable (no, you’re not sucking down caffeine), your attitude is positive and all this give rise to your imagination and creativity playing like the creative kid you used to/and still want to be. read article

Love, Relationships & the Female Writers of UNDATEABLE

Life is supposed to be a learning experience, yeah? And writers are supposed to learn as much as we can so we can pass our knowledge along to readers and viewers, right? Ever think about what TV writers are learning?

(from left) Undateable writers Allison Bosma, Laura Moran, and Amy Pocha.
(from left) Undateable writers Allison Bosma, Laura Moran, and Amy Pocha.

by Jessica Radloff

Although working on a show about dating and relationships doesn’t necessarily make writers experts, it certainly helps open their eyes to all sorts of scenarios and solutions. They are, after all, in a room with 10 other people talking about relationships every single day. So, we wanted to ask Undateable‘s three female writers, all of whom are in committed relationships, what they’ve learned from writing for the show.

Meet Allison Bosma, a married Wisconsin native, who actually had actors Brent Morin (Justin) and Rick Glassman (Burski) in her wedding! She originally moved to Los Angeles seven years ago to be an actress (and even auditioned for Undateable), before she discovered writing as a passion. Her writing partner on the show is her husband, Jon DeWalt. read article

What TV Shows Still Haven’t Learned About Writing Female Leads of Color

From our vantage point here at TVWriter™, it sometimes looks as though the more TV execs, producers, writers et al learn about their subjects and their viewers, the more they start needing to learn. Case in point:

by Princess Weekes

It started with Susie Carmichael.

Like most children of the ’90s, I was obsessed with Rugrats and dragged my mother to see both feature lengths films in theaters. Now, I wasn’t a huge fan of Susie; she was too perfect, and although I didn’t realize it at the time, too manufactured. I much preferred the volatile and antagonistic Angelica. However, I remember sitting in the theater wondering, “Why isn’t Susie in the movie?” read article