40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.
Whoa, would you look at that. An article heading with five exclamation points in one sentence. That must be against the rules of English writing.
Or maybe not…cuz the rulez we all know may not be what we think. In other words, it’s infographic time! (That exclamation is, of course, absolutely necessary. Right?)
Everything – within reason – that we’ve all wanted to know about how some of the top shows on TV are written today. Let’s put it together for showrunners Eric Newman, Jill Soloway, and Alec Berg, not to mention the kindly folk at The Guardian.
Every age creates its signature way of telling and consuming stories. The Jacobeans had the blood and lust of popular tragedy. The Victorians had the great social novel. The 1960s had new journalism. The chosen form of our own age is the downloaded serial drama. While the energy and ambition of screenwriters was for nearly a century invested in two-hour feature films, for the past 10 years, ever since The Wire and The Sopranos and The West Wing showed what might be possible, it has been in the 10-hour arcs, and annual seasons of streamed drama.
Found: The Christmas gift you wish your BFF had given you! Fortunately, even though we’re already marching through January, it isn’t too late.
John August, one of the most successful screenwriters ever (want proof? click HERE), still has a few deck of his Writer Emergency Pack left from the holidays, and you probably can talk him into selling you one, or maybe even two.
WTF are we talking about?
Characters!
They’re pretty darn important to story whether novel or script. I mean, let’s face it, we’re not telling stories about a tree that just stands there. Heck, even the Ents in Lord of the Rings were developed characters.
But there are a lot of problems with characters in stories and how they’re developed.
Yes, it’s true. There are books about writing that actually can help you not just write but make money from writing. LB’s Television Writing from the Inside Out is one. And here are five, count ’em, 5 more:
This post comes with the help of my own library, meaning I own every one of these books. Enjoy!