Category: Resources

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

Top UK Showrunner Anthony Horowitz: ‘This is the golden age of TV’

Anthony Horowitz’s name is as well-known as any TV writer’s name can be – in the UK where he has written and produced some of the best written and most popular police procedurals in the history of British TV. We’re talking about Foyle’s War, Collision, Midsomer Murders, and many more. The article below gives us a chance to go beyond the usual puffery and actually learn a bit about the mindset it takes to succeed as a major TV force in any country:

Anthony Horowitz
Anthony Horowitz

by Tim Masters

As its title suggests, New Blood endeavours to offer a fresh journey along the well-trodden path of TV crime drama.

But even an experienced writer like Anthony Horowitz admits it wasn’t easy making fraud a sexy subject for the small screen. read article

The Whole Crazy Process Of Creating A TV Show, From Pitch To Pilot

Charlie Jane Anders, our favorite sf-fantasy critic, has turned her discerning mind to illuminating the darkness that makes websites like TVWriter™ and contests like our People’s Pilot Competition possible. That’s right, kids, it’s time to home right in on This Amazingly Cool TV Show Creation Thing That We (Try So Hard To) Do! A big tip of the hat to CJA:

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by Charlie Jane Anders

During pilot season, tons of TV shows are ordered and then enthusiastically spruiked in trade magazines. And then, nine months later… most of them will not be on television. What is this mysterious crucible? Here’s our step-by-step guide to the process of pitching a brand new television show.

[Full disclosure: A TV show based on my story “Six Months, Three Days” is in development.] read article

John Ostrander on Writing: The Faces We and Our Characters Show

by John Ostrander

Ostrander-2Every once in a while, I’ll come across a picture of me from back in my twenties and thirties or even earlier. I look at myself and what I was wearing and how I wore my hair (I had more hair back then to wear).

I sometimes had a mustache, I sometimes had a beard, or even big sideburns and that was always a little bit odd. My beard especially came in sparse in some areas, tightly curled all over, and a touch red. Likewise, I sometimes let my hair grow long although it too was very curly so it never achieved any great length. It was longer on the sides than on the top of my head; I referred to as a bozfro.

I suspect a lot of people look at these older images of themselves and go, “What was I thinking?” And yet, it was a choice that I made. Part of it would have been influenced by the fads and fashions of the time but did I really think at the time that I was looking good? read article

How to be a Unique Screenwriter

Some people say that the key to screenwriting success is to stick to the template established by other successful writers. “Don’t make waves.” “Don’t be original.” Time now to hear from someone who said “Stuff it!” to all that and, well, so far so good:

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How I Broke the Rules and Survived
by Craig D. Griffiths

ving a unique and compelling voice as a writer is something we all desire to have. Yet we are told (in forums and by so called gurus) that “We must follow the rules” to be a screenwriter, we must do everything exactly the same as everyone else.

People have looked at great screenwriting and found commonalities. However, commonality is not causality. Because if these common things are all that is needed to create a great script, writers wouldn’t be needed. read article

John Ostrander: You/Not You

You-Not-Youby John Ostrander

One of the interesting facets of talking about writing is the contradictions you find in the craft. For example: All your characters are you. All your characters are not you.

All of your characters are you.

Every character you write must have some of you in it. All of them. Not just the ones you like to identify with. All of them. The large and the small, the good and the bad, male and female, no matter what age, race, or nationality. If you’re going to write honestly about the character, you must be in the mix. read article