Category: By TVWriter.Com

7 Effective Proofreading Tips for TV Writers

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Not the kind of proof reading we’re talking about here!

by Joan Selby

If you are a TV writer, you probably don’t need to worry about getting the grammar perfectly right, because most often than not, you will be required to write dialogue spoken by people using jargon or street lingo, which needs to be more believable and close to the way we speak in real life. You think David Simon obsessed over grammar when he wrote Homicide: Life on the Streets or The Wire? Surely not.

But still, you will have your work cut out for you, because you need to get all the nuances, punctuation, spelling, and the style just right, especially if your TV show is dialogue-oriented, otherwise it’s just going to sound wrong. This also means that using grammar-checking apps is out of the question, because they still aren’t on the level where they are able to emulate actual human speech.

Hiring an editor is great, but expensive, which means the only viable option is for you to all the proofreading and editing yourself. For that reason, we suggest you try out the following 7 tips. read article

Writers, Front-Load Your Work and Get Read!

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by Diana Black

Actors know it, savvy TV and screenwriters doing the rounds of the marketing circuit know it and ‘newbies and aspirants’ better know it too. Lead with your most compelling material. The first time – any time – you send out material is not the time to leave your best until last.

Because unless they fall in love with your first, it will be your last.

Actors, you’ve got 10 seconds of your first reading. Writers,You have the top half of the first page and that’s being magnanimous. The ‘slow burn’ in either profession just doesn’t impress – unless you’re already successful and the producers and executives in charge know you and your style. Otherwise, you absolutely mustput under a bomb under their butts from the get-go or they’ll pass. read article

Want to Write the Bingeyest Genres?

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Our job as TV writers is to ruin relationships by getting everybody to watch, watch, watch, yeah? (Oh, the power!)

Of course you do.

But who in the world wants to add the drudgery of genre research to the already all-to-difficult task of actually, you know, writing our spec masterpieces? (Especially spec pilots.)

Fortunately for all of us, Netflix has already looked into the matter. and quite deeply and helpfully. They know which types of shows are watched the most quickly (Thrillers! Horror stories!) and which just kind of creep from the To Watch to the Watched…Whew… (Political dramas! Historical dramas!). read article

The Week at TVWriter™ – June 13, 2016

In case you’ve missed what’s happening at TVWriter™, the most popular blog posts during the week ending yesterday were:

Peggy Bechko’s World: So Finish It Already! 4 Tips for Finishing Your Story read article

Diana Vacc Sees X-Men Apocalypse

by Diana Vaccarelli

I’m a huge fan of the X-Men film series.  I was so excited that another one was coming out.  X-Men Apocalypse introduces the audience to the first ever mutant, coincidentally enough named, Apocalypse.  In this film the X-Men must reunite to defeat his plan to extinct human kind. What do we think, everybody? Will the X’s succeed?

hbt-203x300THE GOOD:

  • The special effects in this film are every bit as good as they need to be for X-Men Apocalypse to qualify as a summer blockbuster.
  • The Acting was good enough but only two cast members are stand-outs. James McAvoy performance as Charles Xaviar aka Professor X was raw and real as he is held captive by our villian and tries to save all of humanity. Oscar Isaac portrays our villain Apocalypse in a way I’ve never seen before. Watching Apocalypse, I absolutely hated him…but at the same time I found myself relating to the character more than any other character on the screen.

THE BAD; read article