Category: By Guests

Does An Unreliable Narrator Need To Be an Asshole?

LB’s NOTE: Charlie Jane Anders is a TVWriter.Com favorite. I’m really hoping she doesn’t sue me for sharing this. In other words, Sit back and enjoy yourself as a really, really, really fine writer gives away one of her biggest secrets about – guess what –  writing.

Charlie Jane says, “Please enjoy this photo I took of a local high school here in San Francisco with a pointy beard guy saying LITERATURE”

by Charlie Jane Anders

Narrators! You can’t rely on them these days. They always let you down, even the ones who have five stars on Yelp. One time, I hired a narrator to move a sofa and they claimed they brought it to my house, but it was actually five blocks away. Freaking narrators.

You’ve probably heard, or even used, the phrase “unreliable narrator.” But what is an unreliable narrator, and why do we keep them around even though they let us down constantly? read article

How TV Evolved Into Better Portraying Queer Folk

Via Dawn McElligott

On his YouTube channel, Matt Baume does deep dives on the development of TV shows regarding gay characters.  Here, Baume chronicles the uphill battle of early activists for fair portrayals of queer people on TV.

Dawn McElligott is an award-winning writer and filmmaker who lives on the East Coast. You can learn more about her HERE

Danger! Danger! Writing Myths Ahead

What? We’re publishing important info on a Friday? Who’d a’thunk?

by Joni B. Cole

I’ve been leading writing workshops for over 20 years and am still gobsmacked by how stubbornly writers cling to certain myths that suck up a lot of emotional energy, and reinforce practices that undermine the creative process. If you buy into any of the myths below, let them go, and see how quickly you’ll write more, write better, and even be happier (because what writer isn’t happier when writing more and writing better).

1. The myth of the “real writer”

“I’m not a real writer.” read article

‘I just go into my head and enjoy it’: the people who can’t stop daydreaming

Here’s an excellent article on a syndrome that might as well simply be called “The Not So Secret Lives of Writers.” Read on and you’ll see what we mean.

by David Robson

Every day, Kyla* travels to a fictional universe with advanced space travel. It’s not real, of course – but an incredibly vivid daydream, centred on a protagonist with a detailed history. “It covers 79 years in the life of my main character,” she says. “I know how the whole thing plays out, and I can drop into it at whatever point I want to experience.”

Today, this habit is pure entertainment, which she limits to just an hour a day. “It’s like watching Netflix,” she says. “I just go into my head and enjoy it.” In the past, however, she had felt that her fantasies had become all-consuming. “There was a point where it was like an addiction.” read article

Streaming vs. Cable TV – And the winner is…?!

It’s official. Streaming video has officially won the media source battle. So speaketh Nielsen themself. (Whoa, the new grammar does get awkward, doesn’t it?)

Check it out.

read article