Category: Resources

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

We Are All Pawns in the Game of Life

Mark Evanier, one of the biggest writing talents in TV, comic books, and blogging is here to share his insights into reality TV and comics. If reading this doesn’t make you a more discriminating TV viewer, there’s a good chance nothing will:

by Mark Evanier

Our pal Steve Stoliar caught this. On this week’s new episode of Pawn Stars, a gent brings in a book from the mid-seventies to sell — a bound book in which 41 cartoonists signed autographs and most also did a sketch for someone named Katherine. I used to like this show when I first discovered it but it got so repetitive and formulaic and obviously rehearsed that I gave up on it. (I also didn’t like how in some episodes, the Pawn Starsfamily treated each other badly. I’m told there’s less of that on the program now.) read article

Douglas Adams & His Decidedly NON-Dystopian View of the Galaxy

Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Dirk Gently, and even Doctor Who) is one of our favorite writers around here at TVWriter™. Not just because of the brilliant wordsmithing but because of the thought, insight, and emotion behind it. We’re very glad we found this video interview and hope you will be too:

Uploaded to YouTube by Pete Machnik, whose big thinking channel is HERE

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The Story of ‘Cool’

Another blast by our favorite – and definitely most entertaining – etymologist, Arika Okrent. This time, she fills us in on the origin of the coolest word in the English language:

How cool was that?!

More about Arika, YouTube’s Patron Saint of Wordsmiths

What Does It Mean to Write a Comic Book? – Part 1

Mark Evanier is one of the most trusted names in TV and comics writing, with a list of credits longer than most people’s total, um, memories.

Dood doesn’t just know his stuff, he’s the best at most of it. Which means that whether or not you’re interested in writing for comic books, we believe wholeheartedly that you’ll be interesting in what he has to say about doing just that. And applying it to your field of choice. Therefore:

read article

Peggy Bechko: Yikes! They Want Me to Write a Logline!

by PeggyBechko

Have you taken time to sit down and consider a logline for your script? Of course you have – presuming you’re writing scripts. And I’d go so far here as to say it’s not a bad idea to consider loglines and how they’re created if you’re a novelist as well. It’s kind of your ‘elevator pitch’.

Everyone is forever in a hurry so I’m going to give some space to what NOT to do when thinking about creating a logline, aka the short pitch if you’re writing other things and want to get a short pithy hook out there to snag an editor or producer.

Producers and Editors are notorious for being in a hurry and expecting a pitch or a logline to grab them all on its own. I don’t blame them really. They’re buried under scripts and manuscripts and meetings and a lot more that we, as writers, don’t think about. Is it so unreasonable to not want to have to slog through even more paper than they already do? read article