by Troy DeVolld
Hi, all. Gee whiz, it’s been a while… I feel like a ghost on my own blog.
Thought I’d pop by with a grab bag of pro tips that aren’t long enough for their own features, but that have been hard-won lessons along the way. Enjoy.
Category: Resources
40 years worth of TV writing experience and info, yours for the taking.
Pioneer TV Writer Susan Silver Talks About ‘Hot Pants in Hollywood’
And if the headline above doesn’t make you keep reading, Susan and we at TVWriter™ are going to feel awfully…cold? Apologies, and now to the main event:
How To Thrive Despite Your Fears
by Jeryl Brunner
We all experience fear and self-doubt, no matter where we are in life. But Nelson Mandela said, “The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
Take the barrier-breaking television writer Susan Silver. She was one of the first female TV scribes to find herself in coveted male-only writers’ rooms. The Milwaukee native hit Hollywood and amassed impressive credits writing for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude, The Bob Newhart Show, The Partridge Family and other hits.
Unblocking John Ostrander!
Do you recognize this man? How about his name? Does it mean anything to you? Just wonderin’….
by John Ostrander
A sad fact of a writer’s life is writer’s block. That’s when you sit down and look at the blank page or the empty screen and go “I’ve got nothin’.” Some form of that can happen every time you start to write. The really bad version can go on for a long time, maybe for years. Not only do you not have an idea, you feel that you can’t write, that you could never write, that you will never write, and what the hell were you thinking when you thought you could write.
There are things you can do when the malady strikes, some less useful than others. Crying, swearing, cursing, screaming are all options but you eventually run out of energy and then you’re back at square one – the damned blank page or screen.
Allie Theiss: Daniel Thomsen’s Approach to TV Writing Success – Part 1
by Allie Theiss
Writer Daniel Thomsen has been at the top of TVWriter™’s radar for a long time and has worked on some of this minion’s favorite shows (TIME AFTER TIME, WESTWORLD, ONCE UPON A TIME, among many others). I’m delighted to have had the chance to talk to him about his enviable career.
When did you realize that you wanted to be a writer?
I grew up during the 1990s, in the rural rustbelt, before there was much attention given to writers in television. I was a passionate STAR TREK fan, but all that meant was I watched every new episode of TNG and DS9. It fed my storytelling imagination, but I didn’t pay attention to the names of the writers or anything like that. It just never occurred to me that I could write stories to make a living. That wasn’t my world.
Writer Cindy Caponera on Showtime’s ‘I’m Dying Up Here’
Inasmuch as LB himself is a huge (Whew, almost said “yuge” but managed to stop meself in time) fan of I’m Dying Up Here, it’s a thrill and a delight to have found this interview with Consulting Producer and writer for the show, Cindy Caponera.
by Patrick McDonald
One of the great new premium channel TV series, which piggybacked on the “Twin Peaks” return on the Showtime Network, is “I’m Dying Up Here.” Set in the 1970s, it tells the stories of fictional stand up comedians in Los Angeles, and one of the Consulting Producers and series writers is Cindy Caponera.