Category: Opinion

LB: Should I Contact Agents Even Though I’m Starting Graduate School?

Building-Relationships-e1349448015688

Glad You Asked Dept. 3/14/14

This just in from M.R.,

Hello, I am a screenwriter who recently registered a TV pilot spec script with the WGA. I was wondering is prudent for me to pitch and to send is TV pilot script to screenwriters, agents, and managers, if I am attending graduate school in fall?
Does being a full-time grad or college student, limits networking, for example, to pitch, to correspond, and to meet with screenwriters, agents, and managers until he finished college?
Thank you for your time, and have a nice day, 
M.R.

Thanks for writing, M.R. I love it when people send in questions I actually have answers for. So here’s my take:

Dear M.R., read article

3 Big Myths About Writers

Good morning! We’ve found an exciting analysis of writing! That we can agree with! Wotta great way to start a TVWriter™ day!

A plusby Amanda

Megan McArdle wrote an interesting piece for The Atlantic about why writers are the worst procrastinators:

Over the years, I developed a theory about why writers are such procrastinators: We were too good in English class. This sounds crazy, but hear me out.

Most writers were the kids who easily, almost automatically, got A’s in English class. (There are exceptions, but they often also seem to be exceptions to the general writerly habit of putting off writing as long as possible.) At an early age, when grammar school teachers were struggling to inculcate the lesson that effort was the main key to success in school, these future scribblers gave the obvious lie to this assertion. Where others read haltingly, they were plowing two grades ahead in the reading workbooks. These are the kids who turned in a completed YA novel for their fifth-grade project. It isn’t that they never failed, but at a very early age, they didn’t have to fail much; their natural talents kept them at the head of the class. read article

LB: What’s the story on TV series production schedules?

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Glad You Asked Dept. 3/3/14

Today’s question is from Keiti P, who gets right to the practical nitty gritty of television production. Whatever happened to idealism? Kidding, kidding, never mind. Anyway:

Hi Larry,

I’ve always wanted to know more about the actual production of TV shows. How do they work out the shooting schedules? It seems crazy debilitating to me to shoot a whole season at once, but at the same time I can appreciate the desire to have everything in the can and ready to air. read article

Writing With a Day Job

Nathan Bransford gives the advice that way-too-many of us need to hear:

web-jobby Nathan Bransford

On last week’s episode of Girls, Hannah got a temporary day job in GQ’s advertorial department, where she had a taste of success (as well as free snacks).

Her fellow co-workers were fellow aspiring writers, and during a slightly fraught break room chat, they revealed that all of their writing successes came before they had a day job. Hannah quits, not wanting to wake up in ten years having failed to pursue her real writing, but later decides to try to have it both ways and vows to write three hours every night. read article

JOHN OSTRANDER: DUMB WAYS TO DIE, BETTER WAYS TO LIVE

Self-Destruct-Buttonby John Ostrander

I was shocked to learn of the death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, one of the bright lights of his acting generation. I then learned he died of a heroin overdose with a needle stuck in his arm, surrounded by 50 packets of heroin, and I’m afraid my first reaction was, “What a stupid way to die.” Ungenerous, I know, but that was my honest first reaction.

I had the same reaction to the death of Paul Walker, of the Fast and Furious franchise, in a fiery crash while drag-racing. Coroner’s report says that Walker was alive, at least briefly, after the car caught fire. What a stupid way to die. I feel sorry for his friends and family who loved him but I also wonder at who Walker and the guy driving him could have killed as well.

I was more bothered by Heath Ledger’s death, also by overdose although this was more prescription medication, than I was by Hoffman’s or Walker’s deaths. A common connection in all three cases is to wonder what else they might have done, what work might they have accomplished. They all left behind family, children, friends who grieve and wonder why the ones they loved died in this fashion. read article