Category: Opinion

Robert Herold Sees THE FALL

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You’ll Fall for The Fall (I Did!)
By Robert Herold

I admit it, I’m in love with the BBC series The Fall; it does give me pause, however, to realize that so much of the show concerns dysfunctional love. The show succeeds on numerous levels: The writing is particularly smart, the acting first-rate, and the setting, Belfast, Northern Ireland, lends another textural layer to this gritty drama. The show concerns serial killer Paul Spector, played by Jamie Dornan (who also stars in Fifty Shades of Gray), and the efforts to stop him by the Belfast police, headed by Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson (a role written for Gillian Anderson). The show is currently available in the U.S. on Netflix. Incidentally, it’s odd that both this, Happy Valley, and other BBC shows are being billed in America as “Netflix original series.”

The show’s creator, writer of all the episodes, and director of season two, Allan Cubitt, does a number of interesting things with this series. To begin with, he reveals the perpetrator within the first few minutes of the first episode; nevertheless, the show manages to be very suspenseful. The tension comes, in part, from not only making the victims seem like real people, but also making the perpetrator seem real. The former serves to increase the poignancy of the tragedy faced by the victims and their families (something often lacking in crime dramas and whodunnits). The latter shows the incredible banality of evil and the thin line between it and normalcy. How far are we from such dysfunction? Where will he/we go next?

Another facet of this show is that Cubitt does an amazing job exploring the psychopathology of Spector (a great name!), and often does the same for many of the other characters as well. He regularly mirrors behaviors between Spector and Gibson, e.g., alternating shots of the two of them exercising, the fact that they both keep journals, the compartmentalizing of their lives, and the willingness of both to use people to further their aims. read article

Peggy Bechko: Abilities and Skills that Drive Characters

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by Peggy Bechko

As writers we create stories and with those stores are people, places and things. Simple, right?

We get wrapped up in the story, where it’s going, it’s moral (if there is one), how you’re going to wrap it up, where it’s going to be set, but do we really give enough attention to the characters abilities?

In order to make our created people (our characters) as interesting as it’s within our abilities to do so there are lots of times when giving him or her some special ability, skill or talent that makes him or her a real stand-out. That could well be anything from being a vampire (I think the skills and abilities are apparent though it would be cool, if you, as the writer came up with a whole new take and list of skills and abilities) to a person with amazing IT abilities (remember 1995’s The Net with Sandra Bullock), to someone like the hero in TV’s new Forever (do I need to say he can’t die?) to a book like Ender’s Game in which a child has incredible war tactic abilities. read article

Peggy Bechko: 5 Tips for Aspiring Writers

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by Peggy Bechko

Aspiring Writer? Well for starters I’d stop ‘aspiring’. If you’re writing you’re a writer. I’ve said it before so pay attention, I’m going to offer a few tips to those writers out there who are about to break into publishing and who are determined to keep on writing.

And speaking of determined to keep on, here’s the first tip.

Get used to rejection. Probably a lot of it. Not the best ‘holiday’ news, but there you are. Or, think about self publishing. BUT, and it’s a big but, if you go the self-publishing route, make sure that book is damn near perfect before you toss it out there via one of the publishing platforms like Amazon, Smashwords or some other. It’s always important, but even more important on the first go. If people read your book and find it loaded with typos and disjointed sentences, believe me they aren’t going to go for book number two. And even if it’s a great first book, it’s probably not going to do too well – unless you have a lot of promotional savvy and a good helping of luck. read article

How to Create Characters

Today is “Writing Tip Day” at TVWriter™ for no particular reason other than why not have a Writing Tip Day? And we’re starting off with characterization tips from one of our favorite writer/director/blogger types who has no idea in the world that we exist, the Highly Esteemed Ken Levine (of CHEERS and FRASIER and stuff like that). Don’t forget to read Ken’s blog!

by Ken Levine

jerry_mahoney_controls_02I love when Friday Questions become entire posts.  Here’s one.

Max Davis wonders: read article

Peggy Bechko: Tune In And Turn Off

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by Peggy Bechko

Hey, you, writer person out there. Do you have a routine? You know, stuff you do as a matter of course? Stuff you do every day to get your writing done, polished and out there?

Don’t give me that look, and don’t give me the ‘free spirit’ route. You need a routine. One for your writing that encompasses not only the actual writing, but exercise, research, learning, maybe meditation; whatever gets you going and keeps you going. A scattered approach has rarely gotten anyone anywhere. Really. And I take the ‘rarely’ back. It doesn’t work. Period.

Develop a routine and stick to it. No cheating (well hardly any cheating – we all cheat once in a while). If you value what you do and what your goals are, establish a routine. I’m not going to tell you again. read article