Category: By Larry Brody

Larry Brody: Make Your Scenes Flow

Larry Brody’s TV Writing Tips & Tricks #2
by Larry Brody

Over my years running various TV series I’ve been amazed at how many professional writers don’t understand the basics of good storytelling. In a nutshell, the trick to working out your plot is to always remember that the scenes must flow from and to each other in a progression that takes into account three different elements. That is, it must be logical, surprising, and climactic.

What this means is that everything that happens must grow out of what happened before. On one level, given the personalities of the characters and the situation they are in, each plot point must be inevitable. And on another level, these inevitable twists and turns must be such that the reader or viewer could never have predicted them. read article

Larry Brody: Live! From Paradise! #124 “Rosie & Blinky & Wisdom & Truth”

THE USUAL NOTE FROM LB: From the summer of 2002 to  the spring of 2010, Gwen the Beautiful and I were the proud and often exhausted owners of a beautiful Ozarks property we called Cloud Creek Ranch.

In many ways, the ranch was paradise. But it was a paradise with a price that started going up before we even knew it existed. Here’s another Monday musing about our adventure and the lessons we learned.

Oh, and if y’all detect any irony, please believe me when I say it comes straight from the universe and not your kindly Uncle Larry B. read article

Larry Brody’s TV Writing Tips & Tricks #1

Outlining & Writer’s Block
by Larry Brody

One of the big differences between beginning writers and “old pros” is that beginning writers are always telling me how much they love sitting down at the keyboard and “winging” their scripts, while the pros invariably stress the importance of having a good outline before they start writing.

As an “elder statesman” myself, I’ve tried both methods, and outlining your story is the way to go. In television we spend as much time on the outline as we do on all drafts of the script combined. read article

Larry Brody: Live! From Paradise! #123 “Rosie Joins Us on the Mountain”

THE USUAL NOTE FROM LB: From the summer of 2002 to  the spring of 2010, Gwen the Beautiful and I were the proud and often exhausted owners of a beautiful Ozarks property we called Cloud Creek Ranch.

In many ways, the ranch was paradise. But it was a paradise with a price that started going up before we even knew it existed. Here’s another Monday musing about our adventure and the lessons we learned.

Oh, and if y’all detect any irony, please believe me when I say it comes straight from the universe and not your kindly Uncle Larry B. read article

Larry Brody: Live! From Paradise! #122 “To the Land!”

THE USUAL NOTE FROM LB: From the summer of 2002 to  the spring of 2010, Gwen the Beautiful and I were the proud and often exhausted owners of a beautiful Ozarks property we called Cloud Creek Ranch.

In many ways, the ranch was paradise. But it was a paradise with a price that started going up before we even knew it existed. Here’s another Monday musing about our adventure and the lessons we learned.

Oh, and if y’all detect any irony, please believe me when I say it comes straight from the universe and not your kindly Uncle Larry B. read article