Category: Resources

40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.

TV Writing Goes to College

We admit it. The headlinel on this post may be a bit misleading. Television writing has, after all, been a major area of study for more than at least a couple of decades now (our own LB taught it at The College Formerly Named The College of Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the early 1990s), but this article coming from a web page dedicated to  college student work, is perhaps the most knowledgeable one – and certainly the hippest – to come from a student yet:

Florida State University, where at the time this article was written, its writer was spending a whole lotta time

3 Television Shows Every Aspiring Writer Should Watch
by Eliana Dubosar

For writers, inspiration can come from any and every facet of life, including their surroundings, the people they interact with on a daily basis and sources of entertainment.

Although there are many movies that follow the lives of individuals trying to make it in the journalistic or publishing world, many of them tend to paint a perfect picture, tying up conclusions in a bow. Something that I learned in an introduction to creative writing course is that this is not always the case, and sometimes it’s perfectly fine to leave some questions unanswered. read article

Ah, the Romance of Writing

“Wha-? For reals? Writing is romantic?” you’re saying, to which we have to reply, “Well, actually, most writers we here at TVWriter™ talk to say it’s more like this:

The False Romance of Writing
by Chuck Greenlee

TVWriter™’s Bible (well, along with every script by Rod Serling, but that’s for another article)

A great book was written way back in 1918, then expanded on in 1959 and in other editions. The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White is essentially the Swiss army knife of writing – small and bland, but wildly useful when you need it. The book aside, the foreword written by Roger Angell, White’s stepson, resounds with all writers: “Writing is hard, even for authors who do it all the time.”

There is a pretty big misconception about writing, and that is that it’s this romantic affair between the author and a blank piece of paper or an empty Word document. Media outlets make writing out to be some odd thing in which you go on a date with your words; in reality, it’s a long-term relationship in which you sit at opposite ends of the couch and argue over what to watch on TV. read article

Plan Your Screenplay! (Don’t Make It Up as You Go Along!)

Great article on what being professional is all about, from Script Reader Pro. (See, they even have “pro” in their fecking name!)

by Stephen Stanford

Crafting and planning a screenplay can be a daunting task. Of course, any undertaking in creative writing has an intimidation factor, but screenwriting has an inherent aspect that sets it apart: a lack of freedom. read article

4 Attitude Adjustments Guaranteed to Fill Shy Writers with Confidence

The writer of this article, Julie Isaac, is a friend of LB’s. (Hey Facebook Friends count as friends, right?) Awhile ago, in a meeting, he described reading Ms. Isaac’s work as “transformative.” We didn’t understand then.

Now, after reading this, we do:

Check out Julie’s blog. Tell her Larry Brody sentcha!

Kiss Shy Goodbye
by Julie Isaac

As authors, we want our books to be read. For that to happen, our audience needs to be able to find us. But don’t kid yourself, that’s our job, not theirs. We need to connect with potential readers, and to get them interested in what we have to say. For those of us who would rather write than promote, that can be tough. But it doesn’t have to be. read article

Peggy Bechko on Stuff You Should Never Ask A Writer

by Peggy Bechko

Today I’m going to approach things from the opposite direction of normal. As writers, whether novel or script or some other writing avenue, we’ve all heard a lot of weird questions. So, this is something you can pass on to your non-writing and some of your newbie-writer friends.

What questions should you not ask a Writer?

First – Is being a writer a real job? read article