Month: April 2016

Procrastination, Impulsivity, TV and Thou

Yes, it’s true. All the problems we have not getting our work done – postponing, and postponing, and postponing again – would be solved if the TV and film writers who do indeed finish what they start would stop oversimplifying everything, dammit!

But don’t believe just us….

Now-Later-2532203You Don’t Have a Procrastination Problem, You Have an Impulsivity Problem
by Eric Ravenscraft

Procrastination is like bad signal or crappy Wi-Fi. Everyone deals with it, but most of us don’t understand how it works. Here’s the key: It’s not that you have a problem saying yes to the thing you’re supposed to be doing right now. The problem is you can’t say no to everything else. read article

What Really Makes a TV Series “Work?”

by Diana Black

Why does one series succeed and another, with all the same hopes, dreams, and good intentions, fail?Miss-Phryne-Fisher

There are many reasons, of course, starting with the oft-quoted adage, “Nobody knows anything” when it comes to what’s going to grab audiences, and ending with “What a stinkeroo!” which probably is said much more often even though nobody seems to want to step up and claim authorship.

Today, just for the hell of it, let’s head ‘down under’ and explore the fates of two Aussie dramas – Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (Debra Cox and Fiona Eagger, 2012 -2015) and The Dr. Blake Mysteries (George Adams, 2013–). read article

Web Series: MONICA

In case y’all needed proof that web series can be terrific even without broadcast – or cable – budgets (and notes)!

Created by Doron Max Hagay and Lily Marotta
Written and Directed by Doron Max Hagay
Starring Lily Marotta
Featuring Erin Markey

For more monicatheminiseries.com
And facebook.com/monicatheminiseries

Getting Started as a TV Writer

Earl Pomerantz calls himself “a regular person” who “thinks about things and then writes about them.” But his work as a writer on Cheers, Becker, Major Dad, Amazing Stories, The Cosby Show et al show him to be the kind of special dude new writers can – and should – turn to as they enter the Biz:

Getting_Started
by Earl Pomerantz

I never wrote mean. I never wrote sexy. I never put characters in humiliating situations. And I never wrote dumb. And I still got a thirty-year career and a pretty nice house.

Visitors to my blog have repeatedly asked me to talk about my writing experiences on shows they enjoyed like Taxi, for which I wrote nine episodes. I hesitate to comply, because the half-hour comedy terrain has been so radically altered that I seriously question the relevance of my experiences with what’s happening in comedy today. read article

Peggy Bechko’s World: The Hero’s Worthy Goal

bighero
by Peggy Becko

Taking time out to put something simple and basic out there for the writers who join us here – readers too who enjoy getting a peek into the writer’s world and just what goes into a good read. What a writer wrestles with to come up with that eyeball-grabbing story that keeps a reader up half the night because the book just can’t be put down.

Subject?

It’s plainly written above. It’s very basic. Is the goal that’s been set for the hero of the story a worth y goal. And by that I mean,  there are lots of things a hero can strive to achieve. BUT choosing the right one, the one with the right outside motivation, can be tricky and can require a lot of thought on the part of the writer. Is it a big enough goal? Is it a goal that is worthy of the hero? read article