Category: Resources

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

Peggy Bechko’s World of Writing Experts – Who Do You Trust?

whodoyoutrust

by Peggy Bechko

If you’re a writer, particularly a new writer, you’re probably looking for a little help, some hints on how to improve things, how to be your best in the venue you’ve chosen whether it’s novels, scripts, articles or whatever.

And, there are a lot of experts out there who say they want to help whether for pay or bloggers who put the info out there, and a lot of them DO want to help. Some just want the money you might pay for a class or for ‘coaching’, but they’re a whole ‘nother breed and we aren’t talking about them here.

So, assuming the ones who want to help are your peeps, which one of (or group) of well-meaning folks should you believe? read article

Dennis O’Neil: Superman – What Do We Really Know?

lois_lane_1964_by_-shawn-vanbriesen
Art by Shawn Van Briesen

by Dennis O’Neil

“Someone has just thrown Lois Lane from an airplane and she’s plummeting Earthward. But today is Humtyglumf Day, the most sacred day in the Kryptonian calendar – a day on which it is absolutely forbidden to rescue falling females. But if I do nothing, in about a nanosecond Lois will squish…”

Full disclosure: I don’t really know if Kryptonians celebrate Humptyglumf Day. On the other hand, I don’t really know if they don’t. Superman seems to have a lot of information about his shattered home world – he seems to knows a lot more about Krypton than I know about, oh…McCausland Avenue where, I have it on reliable authority, I spend the first four years or so of my life. But nothing about politics or religion.

The profit motive partly explains this. I’m thinking of one of my favorite novelists, now deceased. His name was John D. MacDonald and his best known character was/is Travis McGee. McDonald and McGee were, for me, buy-immediately-upon-sighting as I checked out the fresh paperbacks. I don’t know how many McGee novels I read before I realized how little I really knew about our hero. McDonald gave us what seemed to be a heap of personal data about his creation – his friends, his houseboat, his car, his workouts, his opinions of certain cities, his party-timing, all this and more well covered. Yessir, after reading two or five of the books you knew ol’ Trav. But did you? Tell me about his parents, his siblings (isn’t a brother mentioned somewhere?), his home town, the schools he attended, his political preferences, where, if anywhere, he worships…You might be tight with Trav, but you couldn’t fill out his census questionnaire. read article

Peggy Bechko’s World: Changing Directions of a Writer’s Life

by Peggy Bechko

mary-poppins-weather-vaneNamely – mine!

Some writers pretty much stick with what they began with whether it’s novel writing or scriptwriting or journalism for an entire career. That’s great for them, or, if you’re a writer and that’s the way you go, for you.

For me, things keep on a’changin’. It’s not that I move away from one type of writing to another and leave the ‘old’ behind, it’s more like I add to what I’m doing. That can get a bit crazy, but it’s the way I Iike it. Spices things up for me, keeps the fresh and the new ideas rolling. read article

LB: At Last! A Question I Can Answer!

Glad You Asked Department 8/17/16
by Larry Brody

question_ditkoRegular visitors to TVWriter™ may remember that once upon a time I promised to answer TV and film writing and production questions on a regular basis and that I tried but, well, erm…

My promise kinda fizzled out in the Summer of 2013.

That’s three years ago, I know. Three years of hanging my head and going, “Oy…oy…Oy…! read article

Peggy Bechko’s World: “What do I need to Write?”

kneadingbread
Definitely not the kind of “need” Peggy’s talking about here, but we couldn’t resist!

by Peggy Bechko

What do I need to Write???

Hmm, an interesting question. One that needs a bit of context. Is that question on the literal, referring to the tools we need like pen and pencil or computer or is it more subjective as in atmosphere, surroundings or story elements?

For me, as a writer, the first impulse would be to say I need a good character to pop into my mind, someone who I can wrap a story around. So that would boil down to ideas. Ideas and characters that excite me and make ti so I can hardly wait to sit down at my desk and begin the process. read article